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The purpose of this research is to explore how location – regional vs metropolitan – impacts a small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME)'s access to firm resources and capabilities, and in turn its export performance.

This study involved collecting qualitative data from an expert panel of government trade advisors, as well as managers of SME exporters in Australian regional and metropolitan areas. The data were used to explore three propositions relating to the impact of location.

The data provides support for the propositions that location impacts SME exporters’ access to networks and export related infrastructure/services, and in turn export performance. Firms in metropolitan areas have an advantage over those in regional areas. However, contrary to expectations, the relatively lower level of competition in regional areas did not appear to have a negative impact on the export performance of firms located in these areas.

The study confirms the importance of exploring the impact of location on export performance. However, the exploratory nature of the study means that results cannot necessarily be generalised beyond the setting in which the data were collected. Future research should examine the impact of location for exporters in a broader sample of countries.

The disadvantages for SME exporters located in regional areas that come from a lack of networks and export related infrastructure/services need to be recognized and addressed by the managers of SME exporters and their advisors. The study also highlights the importance of the location decision for these firms.

This study is one of the first to explicitly focus on the impact of location on the export performance of SMEs. While exploratory in nature, it highlights the need for further research to better understand this potentially critical moderating variable and both its practical and theoretical implications.

The purpose of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides an inclusive categorical framework of internationalisation patterns for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and secondly, it presents unique evidence from a developing country and corroborates the proposed framework.

A cross-sectional convergent mixed-method design was applied to this research. A phenomenological design was used to develop the typology framework, and subsequently, practical evidence was collected through a cross-sectional survey using a self-reporting questionnaire. A two-step hierarchical clustering analysis was performed to test the framework’s robustness, and a set of characteristics was compared between the patterns via a one-way analysis of variance, F-test.

The robustness of the constructed categorical framework of 32 internationalisation patterns is substantiated, suggesting that this framework produces veracious discrimination between all patterns of internationalisation. Evidence revealed that the majority of firms showed regional and incremental internationalising behaviour. No true born globals were observed; however, several other early or fast patterns such as “born-international”, “global new venture” and “born-again regional” emerged.

This paper presents a categorical framework and provides evidence of the behaviour of internationalising SMEs from a Middle Eastern developing economy. The categorical framework constructed in this paper uses predefined thresholds, and it is of value because it is inclusive, rigid and incisive. This paper also provides essential insights into the sub-patterns of internationalisation, specifically the born-again and regional phenomenon of internationalisation.

Multinational companies have manufacturing operations in various countries; however, there is scarce evidence on how they assess performance of the network-based operations of their factories, called international manufacturing networks (IMN). The purpose of this paper is to propose a process model for the performance assessment of IMNs.

The IMN performance assessment process model was developed from the extant literature and was empirically verified in its congruency and usefulness via a multiple case research. For that, in each case the general process model was derived into a specific application that fit the type of IMN on focus. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the case companies’ reports, profiling forms and interviews, followed by within-case and cross-case analyses.

Evidence suggest that the process model, along with its derivations, is a valuable tool to describe and explain how IMN performance assessment unfolds in real organizational environments. Additionally, three propositions emerged: IMN performance assessment has distinct characteristics depending on the type of IMN adopted, which in turn depends on the company’s internationalization strategy; IMN performance assessment has more strategic value and importance for companies that are globally coordinated and adopt “rooted” manufacturing strategies; and companies design their IMN performance assessment on a trial-and-error basis.

As all case-based research, this paper has generalizability limitations. Thus, next steps may include a large-scale survey and an action research that will develop and implement a full-fledged IMN performance assessment.

The process model and descriptive insights provide a diagnostic tool and subsidies that may encourage managers to review and improve their current IMN performance assessment.

The process model contributes to addressing a 20-year gap concerning how to approach IMN performance assessment in a holistic and systematic manner.

Small exporters often confront a reluctance of financial institutions to extend short‐term credit lines needed to meet the manufacturing and related marketing costs associated with an overseas order. This problem has been particularly acute in the United States in the last decade as many regional banks sought to avoid such “international” risk as accepting foreign receivables as collateral for such a working capital loan. This paper examines the evolution and success of a newly‐enhanced Working Capital Guarantee Program instituted by the Export‐Import Bank of the United States (Eximbank) that encourages local financial institutions to extend lines that selectively enable smaller firms to meet export orders.

This paper aims to investigate the export strategy of international business by explicitly comparing exporting firms with the non‐exporting ones, given that they supposedly differ due to the presence of organizational export barriers.

This study uses a database with more than 55,000 registered enterprises from all commercial sectors to demonstrate that two strategic groups really exist: exporters and non‐exporters.

The findings support the existence of both groups, which differ significantly regarding three kinds of organizational factors that act as mobility barriers constraining migration of non‐exporting enterprises to the exporting group: size (total sales and number of employees), antiquity and export involvement.

The author's results explain why non‐exporters are less likely to evolve into regular exporting firms. This is an issue of paramount importance in international marketing, since the way these barriers are perceived by non‐exporters often determines their future engagement and performance in international business activities.

Firstly, the paper adds a new viewpoint in as far as both options – to export or not to export – are considered as alternative strategies, and, consequently, as alternative strategic groups. Secondly, this study adds further slant by calling upon the resources of a large database of enterprises that belongs to a particular country: Spain.

Australian wineries have shown a dynamism lacking in some other regional industries by successfully tapping into international markets. This paper provides an overview of Australian wineries engaged in exporting in terms of their age. size, domestic market penetration, level of export planning, attitudes towards factors enhancing or inhibiting exporting and reasons for advancing through the various stages of exporting. The overview also outlines a range of characteristics of the managers of exporting wineries. Comparisons are made with wineries that decide not to export. The overview uses a four stage model of internationalisation to analyse data from a survey of 292 Australian wineries as well as a number of case studies.

This study attempts to identify the key structural and institutional factors that influence the decision to export using a database of 8,047 firms in manufacturing, services and agricultural activity and in 81 countries. A Probit model of the export decision is estimated for the full sample of firms and for sub‐samples of firms in various country groupings. The study's results indicate that size, age, previous export experience, ownership status, the provision of subsidies and market competition are the most important determinants of the export decision.

The aim of this study is to identify potentially significant differences in perception of export motives based on the variations in the firm‐specific advantages (FSAs) and the firm's export strategy. It proposes that Rugman's (1981) (FSA/country‐specific advantage (CSA)) framework provides a sound theoretical base for integrating findings from different studies.

A set of export motives are identified as key initiation stimuli and their significance is tested on an original data set of 356 British exporters. The factor analysis produced four conceptually meaningful groups of motives. Propositions were developed to test the discriminating effect of the firm‐specific resources and capabilities on export stimulation and the potential variations in critical export motivators when executing different export strategies.

Findings endorse the study's main propositions: internal proactive motives are the most significant export initiation factors; distinct firm‐specific resources and capabilities play a significant differentiating role in the firm's perception of specific export stimuli; and the spread and scope of the firm's export strategy was found to have significant impact on the firm's sensitivity to specific export stimuli.

The study's findings contribute to the body of knowledge of export initiation motives by: endorsing the FSA/CSA matrix as an integrative approach in studying export stimuli; producing novel empirical evidence of the differentiating effect of particular FSAs on export stimulation; and investigating the potential variations in critical export motives according to the number and distance of export markets entered and the number of export market entry modes adopted. The nature and characteristics of the sample present limitations.

The study provides a guideline that may help sporadic and non‐exporters to develop a strategy to migrate their activities from a passive response to unsolicited orders and customer followership to an active pursuit of international opportunities.

Small and medium-sized exporters (SMEs) are driven to develop a network entry strategy to tap into a new foreign market. The purpose of this paper is to draw on the network perspective to evaluate how a network gatekeeper facilitates a foreign SME exporter’s entry into local business networks in China.

The single case study method was adopted. The Ule New Zealand Mall, an online shopping platform that sells New Zealand products in China, was selected in this case study. The authors applied the critical incident technique to evaluate the position of New Zealand Post (as a home country-based network gatekeeper), the roles within the position, and the key outcome of the network gatekeeping.

The study discovers two key roles of network gatekeepers: bridging the gap in trust between outsider networks and insider networks; and reducing the costs of experiential learning for SME exporters. Finally, this study concludes that the “brokered insidership” position acquired by SME exporters is the key outcome of network gatekeeping in foreign market entry.

This study advances the understanding of theories of structural holes, business network and gatekeeping. The authors articulate the critical position assumed by a network gatekeeper in bridging two otherwise disconnected business networks, and their key roles in networking. The study also proposes a new network concept – “brokered insidership”.

This paper reports the results of a regional survey of exporting assistance and guidelines. It analyzes four major issues essential to the exporting process. Implications for managers are provided as well.