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This paper aims to critically review and integrate the literature available on Uppsala (incremental) and Born Global (rapid) internationalization models and propose an integrative model that applies to both the initial and subsequent stages in internationalization.

This study draws on a systematic review and analysis of the relevant literature, using 87 articles from 28 journals which deal with the Uppsala and/or Born Global conceptualizations.

To date, the two views of internationalization have been presented as competing and fundamentally different explanations, as past research focuses mostly on the original 1977 Uppsala model without accounting for its five subsequent extensions (1990-2013) and not considering in sufficient depth the critical role of the knowledge construct in both models.

The study focuses on English-only publications dealing expressly with the Born Global and Uppsala models; while some studies which address the focal theme tangentially may have been missed, the systematic approach to identifying the key studies of interest and the focus on a carefully delineated research domain provides confidence that the main studies relevant to the theme have been captured.

The study highlights the important role of knowledge in the internationalization of firms, and it addresses the current divide between the “incremental” and “rapid” conceptualizations which have impeded the development of theory, by positing six research propositions and an integrative model that accounts for both the incremental and rapid approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to understand knowledge grafting through localized professionals in the internationalization of the firm. Knowledge grafting refers to firms increasing their knowledge stock by acquiring new staff, and while the concept is not new in studies on firms’ internationalization, there is little understanding of the characteristics of the individuals carrying the knowledge, the types of knowledge grafted and how it contributes to a market entry process.

The authors conducted an explorative study with a multiple-case research design and purposely selected five localized Swedish managers working for Russian subsidiaries of Swedish firms. Face-to-face interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed based on three types of knowledge: general foreign market knowledge, social network knowledge and professional knowledge. The authors also considered both private and professional ties.

The findings show that characteristics of the localized professional and the firm can influence the type of knowledge grafted and how it is used. The findings also highlight the key role of the individual as knowledge carrier and show an alternative way to obtain knowledge in firm internationalization.

This study comes with limitations. Only Swedish firms entering Russia with wholly owned subsidiaries have been considered. Further studies comparing knowledge grafting with firms in different entry mode, varying stage of market entry, as well as other countries of origin can further enrich our understanding. Future studies can also focus on localized professionals to shed light on the knowledge transfer between them and other individuals within the firms and the potential impact of their departure on knowledge grafting.

Internationalizing firms should pay attention to the opportunity of grafting knowledge by appointing localized professionals already living in the market. Governmental agencies in the host county can be a valuable source for identifying foreign nationals of the same origin as the firm.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on the individual level of knowledge grafting and to examine how localized professionals acquire knowledge to support firms in internationalization.

Few researchers and even fewer practitioners would deny that serendipitous events play a central role in the growth process of firms. However, most international marketing models ignore the role of serendipity in the opportunity discovery process. The authors provide a nuanced view on international opportunities by developing the role of serendipitous opportunities in the foreign market entry process. The authors develop a model integrating the notions of serendipity, entrepreneurial logic, experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy. From the study’s model, the authors condense three sets of hypotheses on the relationships among experiential knowledge and entry strategy, network knowledge redundancy, entry strategy and serendipity.

The authors confront the study’s hypotheses with data collected on-site at 168 Swedish firms covering 234 opportunities, and to test the hypotheses, the authors ran ordinary least squares (OLS) regression tests in three steps.

The results of the study’s analysis reveal that experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy both lead to a logic based on rigid planning and systematic search, which in turn reduces the likelihood that serendipitous opportunities will be realized in the foreign market entry process.

This is the first study that develops a measure of opportunities that are the outcome of serendipitous events. In addition, the authors integrate network and learning theories and internationalization theory by establishing antecedents to, and outcomes of, the entry strategy.

The authors seek to advance the understanding of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization at the regional level and examine the role of home market institutions in this process.

The authors analyze hypotheses with data from SMEs in five country markets and from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. A cluster analysis establishes the regional diversification patterns (based on regional diversification scope, speed and rhythm) and a multinomial regression tests the effect of home market institutions on their adoption.

The results offer a refined picture of SME regional diversification by revealing three patterns: intra-regionally focused firms, late inter-region diversifiers and early inter-region diversifiers. They also suggest that the adoption of these patterns is determined by SMEs' home market institutions.

The authors develop a nuanced understanding of SME internationalization by building upon and expanding the regionalization rationale in the internationalization patterns literature. Additionally, the authors address the acknowledged, yet rarely investigated, country-level determinants of internationalization patterns.

Contrary to the mainstream born global (BG) perspective, some previous studies report the incremental expansion of BGs. In addition, the reasons behind BGs initiating specific steps, if any, and BGs’ entry market choices are still unknown or rather contrasting. This study views that such contrasting findings may be attributed to the contexts in which BGs operate. Within the context of consumer goods BGs, the purpose of this paper is to examine the entry market choices and post-entry growth patterns, and investigate the underlying reasons.

This study adopted in-depth historiographic case research from seven Korean BGs in the consumer goods sector that demonstrated success in internationalization. Multiple sources were used to gather data from each case. A total of 14 interviews, approximately two one-on-one interviews per firm, were the major means of data collection.

The findings revealed that first entry market choices among BGs functioned largely as attempts at emergent opportunities. However, after the first wave of entry into countries with available selling opportunities, entry market choice became a simultaneous pursuit of strategic markets and emergent selling opportunities. BGs focusing on image-oriented consumer goods appeared more strategic when entering the world’s leading markets to gain brand reputation. The analyses of internationalization processes revealed three patterns, which collectively implied that each move to the next stage came from a strategic decision to solve the problems related to survival and strategic visions for growth.

One contribution of this paper is the provision of empirical evidence for entry market choices among consumer goods BGs. The findings suggest that BGs’ entry market choices may not be a simple matter of simultaneous expansion to the world’s lead market. Instead, they may comprise more strategic decision. While previous studies have suggested such evolutionary or path-dependent internationalization processes, this study is among the first to reveal specific growth patterns and the possible reasons behind them.

This paper has two overall goals. The first is to serve as a broad overview of the literature on the subject theme, with three main objectives in mind: to highlight the complexities of international market selection or segmentation as a field of study and as a strategic decision by international firms; to explore the various ways and perspectives from which this area has been studied; and to suggest areas for future research by drawing on the preceding discussion. The second goal of the paper is to act as an introduction to the IMR special issue on the title theme, by outlining the special issue's objectives and the contributions to it.

Drawing on the relevant literatures, the paper begins by outlining the factors that make the field complex in both theoretical and applied terms, moves to consider the research streams that comprise its main components, and concludes by drawing conclusions and implications for future research.

A large part of the complexity characterizing this field arises from the fact that it is closely intertwined with the broader area of internationalization and a number of other decisions related to it, such as the “go/no‐go” decision and the firm's choice of mode of entry. From the research perspective, theory development has been impeded by a high degree of fragmentation, which has resulted in various different streams studying the same general issues from widely different perspectives.

The paper identifies a large number of directions for potential future research, not the least of which is the need for integrative research that addresses the fragmentation identified in the study.

Although this is primarily a theoretical paper directed at researchers, practitioners can gain useful insights from it by examining the various factors that have a bearing on their internationalization decisions.

The objectives of the main part of the paper will have been met if it succeeds in stimulating interest in further research and discussion on the core issues. The second part summarizes the contributions to the special issue and draws attention to the main message that each aims to convey.

During the last two decades, studies on the theoretical models in the area of international business (IB), such as gradual internationalization and the born-global firms, have gained the attention of researchers. The purpose of this paper is to critically review the studies on the process of internationalization (Gradual Internationalization vs Born-Global/International new venture models) to identify the research gaps in this area and to prepare a future research agenda.

Systematic literature review method was employed for this review. The authors highlight the findings from prior studies, compare and contrast salient characteristics and features, based on the articles published in journals with an impact factor score of at least 1.0, and provide directions for research.

The authors find that there are several areas that were under-explored in prior research. There is a great potential for theoretical extension and theory development in this field as it covers the tenets of four subjects: IB, marketing, strategic management and entrepreneurship.

There is no comprehensive/integrated review exploring the methods/variables and constructs used in prior studies integrating gradual internationalization/born-global models based on all the articles published in well-regarded academic journals. This review seeks to provide deeper insights, which help us to contribute toward the development of this research field.

This paper aims to explore the internationalisation of service-sector small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from an emerging market, focussing on the entry modes, psychic distance, business network, internationalisation challenges and capabilities of business training and consultancy firms from Malaysia.

A multiple-case study approach is adopted, and 31 in-depth interviews were conducted with the top management and executives from eight business training and consultation (BT&C) firms in Malaysia. The Uppsala model is used for theoretical guidance to analyse the internationalisation of the firms.

The results suggest that psychic distance, business network and business capabilities influence the internationalisation of BT&C firms from Malaysia. However, the discussion of entry modes in the framework of service internationalisation does not accurately explain the internationalisation of the studied firms.

This study is a qualitative research based on the experiences of eight firms. The basis of this study is inadequate for scientific generalisation. Quantitative research should be conducted in the future to provide a statistical test and empirical results. This study is concerned with the emerging-market context. The study could be expanded to include more industries and other emerging markets in the future.

This study explored the application of internationalisation theories to the BT&C industry in an emerging market, with particular emphasis on firms’ entry modes, psychic distance, business networks, international challenges and capabilities. This study also highlighted some of the key internationalisation challenges facing emerging market small- and medium-sized enterprises (EMSMEs), underlining the importance of business networks and capabilities.

Nevertheless, this study shares useful and practical discoveries concerning the internationalisation process of BT&C firms from the emerging market, focussing on entry modes, psychic distance, business network, the challenges faced and the required capabilities.

The study provides new insights into service internationalisation in SMEs from an emerging market. The application of internationalisation theories to the BT&C industry in an emerging market is analysed.

The transition to market economy in Russia in the 1980s and 1990s is analysed in terms of fragmented and integrated relationships in business networks. A longitudinal case study of the relationships of a Russian company shows that integrated relationships are replacing fragmented ones, that is, relationships which only include either exchange connections or resource use dependence are phased out in favour of relationships which include both these dimensions. This development towards a network of integrated relationships is driven by the pressure of change generated by the incompleteness of fragmented relationships but slowed down by the complexity of multilateral use dependence.

This study aims to investigate the effects of adaptive selling, as a high-level individual-level marketing capability, institutional knowledge, international opportunity recognition and general innovation-orientation of managers on the international growth of Iranian small- and medium-sized enterprises. Also, drawing on strands of research into early internationalisation firms, this study attempts to determine the impact of precocity and speed of internationalisation as a moderator of the relationship of antecedents to international growth.

The research is based on answers of 748 managers from 186 firms to a self-reporting questionnaire. The partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling approach was used to assess the measurement and construct the model. Furthermore, the study used a PLS multigroup design with four groups of firms to compare the paths with regard to precocity and speed of internationalisation.

Significant associations for seven out of eight hypotheses were found. The international opportunity recognition was found to mediate the relationship between institutional knowledge and adaptive selling-innovativeness. Additionally, the results of the comparisons found important implications to early and fast internationalisation.

This study shows that international growth stems from individual innovation orientation. It sheds light on the importance of institutional knowledge, adaptive selling and opportunity recognition for early and pacey internationalisation. The findings contribute to the international entrepreneurship literature based on both the early and gradual internationalisation.