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This paper deals with the international expansion of manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the opening of retail outlets in foreign countries. The paper develops and discusses five research questions.

The paper discusses emerging data from the analysis of a database set up in recent years. In particular, it deals with 1,419 retail operations regarding 246 Italian fashion brands in 77 foreign markets during the period from 2005 and 2010.

The paper points out that retail operations are largely used by Italian fashion SMEs to internationalize. This form of entry in foreign markets is used to develop in both mature and emerging markets and it seems related to the brand potential of Italian fashion SMEs abroad.

The paper is limited to the case of Italian fashion brands and to the period 2005–2010.

The paper considers an unexplored area of the internationalization theory of SMEs, that of the development abroad through retail store openings. The paper offers insights on the extent to what this strategy is used by Italian fashion brands.

The authors of this chapter investigate internationalisation strategies of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in China. We highlight the specific challenges that Chinese SMEs encounter when selecting international country markets in terms of distance and entry speed. The authors adopt an ambidexterity perspective that differs from traditional explanations of internationalisation behaviour by highlighting the need to balance seemingly disparate options for international expansion. Three cases provide an illustration of how Chinese companies combine distant with proximate market entries and slow with accelerated entry speed. The authors highlight how these strategies can drive and enhance international aspirations of Chinese SMEs.

Pressure on business to direct their activities responsibly has been increased during the last years to extent their suitability performance in all economic, social and environmental dimensions. This has motivated businesses and researchers to identify ways to implement sustainable and resilient operations. In the era of economic globalisation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are recognised as an engine of sustainable economic development in both the developed and developing world. Their competitiveness drives the economy, both nationally and internationally. SMEs have faced challenges in developing, internationalisation and achieving competitive advantage. Purpose of current study is to identify and analyse the sustainability and resiliency (SR) barriers to SME internationalisation and prioritise the practices to overcome the negative influence of barriers. In this regard, first, barriers and innovative practices have been identified through the literature review. Second, the essential barriers will be selected through reduction steps by the intuitionistic fuzzy Delphi (IF-Delphi) method. After computing the weight of barriers through the IF-DEMATEL method, the practices were prioritised using four multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) methods in an IF environment. Finally, the scores were aggregated by correlation coefficient and standard deviation (CCSD) technique. Results present that ‘Lack of economical resources to global exports’ and ‘Complications in acclimatizing export product design’ are the top priority barriers and ‘Knowledge of global market opportunities’ and ‘Networking with business incubator institutions’ have been recognised as the essential SMEs internationalisation practices. This study contributes to creating a more focussed approach towards the growth of SMEs. The study results would be helpful for industry, policymakers and academia.

Drawing on an organizational learning perspective, this paper examines the effect of levels of foreign market involvement (intensity and geographic spread) on internationalization outcomes recognizing that the moderating influence of entry-mode learning potential is not well documented in the literature on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The sample includes 180 SMEs evenly selected from three industries: biotechnology, software and clothing (60 firms in each industry). The sampled firms employ less than 250 employees and are equally distributed between three developed economies and three emerging economies. All were engaged in foreign business.

The authors find that there is a direct relationship between levels of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes. Entry-mode learning potential moderates the relationship between intensity of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes but not the relationship between geographic spread and internationalization outcomes.

This study reveals several new insights that help explain the pathway through which foreign market involvement activities are translated into internationalization outcomes.

The authors conclude that the positive relationship between intensity of foreign market involvement and internationalization outcomes is strengthened when SMEs also use an entry mode with a higher learning potential than exporting only.

This study aims to systematically review papers on women’s entrepreneurship in the internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by examining the research profile (i.e. publication trends, publishers, domain and quality of journals, methodologies and units of analysis and regional classifications), internationalization entry modes and the theories underpinning, key variables using AMO framework (i.e. antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes) and suggestions for potential future studies.

This study used bibliometric analysis by selecting 62 relevant papers from 3,016 papers collected from the Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and EBSCO databases. Content analysis was conducted to identify key research issues and gaps, which were then mapped on an AMO framework to address potential future research.

This study found that the number of papers published during the period 1994–September 2022 fluctuated, indicating an increasing trend of women’s entrepreneurship research in the internationalization of SMEs being published in various reputable journals by well-known publishers. This study also found several alternatives of internationalization entry modes, although export is still the most widely used alternative. Various theories that underlie this research include internationalization theory, resource-based theory, feminist theory and international entrepreneurship. This study proposes a future research framework on women’s entrepreneurship in the internationalization of SMEs: AMO.

This study contributes to the intersection of gender-focused international business and entrepreneurship domains. This study proposes a conceptual model of women’s entrepreneurship in internationalization of SMEs by mapping the antecedents, mediators/moderators and outcomes and offers promising opportunities for future research directions.

This study aims to analyze how international entrepreneurial orientation mediates the relationship between influential dynamic capabilities and the internationalization success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Adopting a quantitative approach, the researchers designed a questionnaire based on an extensive literature review and used structural equation modeling to ascertain the mediating role of international entrepreneurial orientation in the relationship between influential dynamic capabilities and SMEs' internationalization success.

The findings of this study indicate that international entrepreneurship orientation mediates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and internationalization success, as the indirect impact value is greater than the direct effect value for the relationship. Because the existence of the mediator in the model has no significant impact on the model's direct effects, full mediation is the most appropriate mediation type.

This study has some limitations. One of the major limitations of this study relates to the limited finances of the incumbent, as the questionnaires were delivered to the respondents via email, but the incumbent had to follow up with phone calls and reminders. Second, this study mainly relied upon primary data and analysis based on the use of qualitative techniques; in future, researchers can incorporate qualitative aspects using interviews and other qualitative analysis tools and techniques. Third, limitation relates to sample size, as the sample size of research was above 500 but was limited to just UAE. Future researchers can conduct a cross-sectional analysis to determine the mediating role of different factors for the promotion of internationalization.

This study highlights the fundamental factors affecting the internationalization of SMEs in the UAE context, which has rarely been discussed. This study broadens the scope of internationalization by discussing its impact on SMEs' financial and non-financial performance.

This study will contribute to the advancement of current information about the elements that impact the internationalization of SMEs and develop a new framework for analyzing SMEs' internationalization in the UAE.

This study contributes to the literature by developing and testing a framework based on a comprehensive literature review to include different factors and their constructs that impact the potential internationalization of SMEs in developing economies. This study identifies and addresses a research gap regarding the relationship between internationalization and company performance among UAE SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of international networking in the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization using evidence from exporting SMEs in Uganda.

This study adopted a cross-sectional research design. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 206 exporting SMEs that are members of the Uganda Export Promotions Board. Data was analysed using SPSS and SmartPLS.

The study established that international networking mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and SME internationalization. This suggests that international networking is a conduit through which entrepreneurial mindset relates to SME internationalization.

This study was conducted within the particular national context of Uganda. Replication of this research within other settings is needed to cross-validate the present findings. The study reveals that the entrepreneurial proclivity of managers and owners of exporting SMEs in Uganda can be enhanced through establishing networks in foreign markets to realize international expansion. SMEs should therefore initiate, build and strengthen partner relationships in foreign markets for successful international expansion.

The study reveals that the entrepreneurial proclivity of managers and owners of exporting SMEs in Uganda can be enhanced through establishing networks in foreign markets to realize international expansion. SMEs in Uganda should, therefore, strive to support entrepreneurial-oriented individuals to initiate and establish foreign market partnerships for successful international expansion.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the mediating role of international networking in the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset and SME internationalization from a developing country of Uganda.

The paper aims to examine new research on the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pacific Island Nation country Fiji.

A multiple case qualitative method was used which adopted a purposeful sampling methodology through semi-structured interviews to test propositions and present preliminary findings.

The authors find that, SME internationalization in Fiji is driven by management competence (MC) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and is hindered by the unfavourable institutional environment. The authors then develop a conceptual model and propositions to further explore these enablers and the inhibitors of Fiji SME internationalization. The authors’ findings have important implications for managers in improving their firms’ international performance.

This is a pioneering effort to evaluate the relationship between the factors of EO, MC and institutional distance and their impact on the international performance of SMEs. This paper contributes to the existing literature on international entrepreneurship through the examination of SMEs’ internationalization activities in Fiji.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the influence of the internet on the internationalisation process and international customer relationship interactions of UK manufacturing small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper is positioned at the interface of the literature on international entrepreneurship and the internet.

The paper discusses the findings from multiple case studies of ten UK manufacturing SMEs from a variety of UK sectors, producing high‐, medium‐ and low‐tech offerings. In‐depth interviews with directors or managers of the SMEs were conducted. Individual and cross‐case analysis was carried out using coding frameworks to reduce and analyse the data and capture patterns in the findings.

The findings reveal how the influence of the internet in the internationalisation process and international customer relationship interactions differed in the high‐, medium‐or low‐tech SME categories. The influence of the internet differed across three main dimensions: the way in which the SMEs invested in and used different internet applications for internationalisation and customer relationship support, the SMEs' perceptions of the internet as a tool to support communication with international customers; the SMEs' reliance on more personal and interactive forms of contact with international customers.

The results demonstrate that the level of technological advancement of an SME's offerings has an important bearing on how these firms adopt the internet in their internationalisation process and gain advantages in their international customer interactions. The managerial implications of the study are relevant for manufacturing SMEs, their customers and government agencies involved with SMEs.

This research is amongst the first empirical contributions to examine the themes of the internet, internationalisation and international customer interactions in UK manufacturing SMEs and to highlight the importance of the level of technological advancement of an SME's offerings in distinguishing the ways in which the internet is used by entrepreneurial small firms in their internationalisation process.

Internationalisation is considered as a key strategy for the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between dynamic capability, SMEs internationalisation and firm performance in the context of emerging economies and to evaluate the impact of financial, asset and market expansion on internationalisation of SMEs.

Using primary data from 212 SMEs from Bangladesh, structural equation modelling and mathematical (hierarchical reflective) model, the analysis enabled the measurement of the casual relationship on the impacts of internationalisation.

The results revealed that internationalisation of SMEs has significant impact on both financial and non-financial performance of SMEs in an emerging economy- Bangladesh. The paper found internationalisation impacts on two dimensions (financial and non-financial) with eight defined indicators – higher sales, higher profit, assets maximisation, market expansion, competitive advantage, better reputation, better customer service and added knowledge.

Despite several studies that examine the relationship between SME internationalisation and firm performance, limited research exists on emerging economies. This is contrary to the fact that SMEs are one of the main vehicles for growth in those economies such as Bangladesh. In this research, the authors use the theories of dynamic capabilities to conceptualise how internationalisation becomes a core SME capability for SMEs in an emerging economy.