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This paper probes the factors which influence (i) the degree of internationalization and (ii) the subsequent economic performance, achieved by SMEs in India. These two objectives have been examined in the context of firm level push/pull factors, barriers/challenges, firm resources, and strategy.

This study is based on empirical data gathered through a semi-structured questionnaire from 84 exporting SMEs in the (most internationalized) engineering industry of Bangalore in India during January 2012 to February 2013. The two key research questions have been analyzed using stepwise multiple regression models. The degree of internationalization is defined as the percentage of foreign sales in total sales turn over, as of 2010/2011, and economic performance is represented by (i) the value of sales turnover as of 2010/2011, and (ii) growth of sales turnover from inception till 2010/2011, alternatively. Firm level variables (age of firms, firm size, nature of firm organization), entrepreneurial characteristics (age of the founder and education), time taken to enter the export market for the first time, mode of entry, degree of initial internationalization, years of experience in the international market, whether operated in the international market continuously or not, number of markets currently exported, and number of learnings made are used as the possible explanatory factors for the first objective. In addition, current degree of internationalization is used as the possible explanatory factor for the current level of economic performance whereas initial degree of internationalization for the growth of sales turnover.

It is firm age, size and experience, and education of the CEO which influenced the degree of internationalization of SMEs. In addition, continuous operation in the international market after an early entry, leading to more learnings positively influenced the degree of internationalization. Further, those who adopted the MNC route as the mode of entry achieved a higher degree. However, what is more significant is the degree of initial internationalization achieved by the SMEs which had strongly influenced its current degree of internationalization. All these bring out that (i) firm level resources & competence and (ii) firm level strategy, together significantly contributed to the degree of internationalization achieved by the SMEs in an emerging economy like India. However, the degree of internationalization had a negative influence on the current sales turnover achieved. Whereas those SMEs, older in age, organized as private limited companies and led by more qualified CEOs, which catered to more number of countries could achieve a higher sales turnover. But degree of internationalization did not have any influence on firm growth. Only younger and smaller firms grew faster than older and larger firms, irrespective of the degree of internationalization.

The above results bring out that to achieve a larger firm size, entering the international market need not be the only route, in the current era of globalization. It is possible to achieve a higher economic performance even with a domestic market focus, especially when the domestic market is registering a higher growth compared to the international market.

The degree of internationalization and its impact on the economic performance of SMEs have been hardly probed adequately based on empirical data in the context of emerging economies. This study fills this void. It reveals that in the era of globalization where domestic firms might have to face competition though not as much as those which operate in the international market, a larger firm size can be achieved with larger focus on the domestic market and with limited focus on the international market.

Previous empirical results on the relationship between internationalization and firm performance have been mixed. Both monotonic and curvilinear relationships have been reported. Most recent studies have focused on different types of curvilinear relationships, such as inverted Ushaped, standard U‐shaped, and multiple waves. This paper utilizes a more current sample of firms than prior studies have used and decomposes traditional financial performance measures, applying two different measures of degree of internationalization, country scope and foreign sales as a percent of total sales (FSTS), to measure the effects on financial performance of different degrees of internationalization. Several financial performance measures, including traditional indexes (ROE and ROA) and a decomposition of traditional ones (Profit Margin, Total Asset Turnover), are examined.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable and valid understanding of entrepreneurship and examine the relationships between small and medium‐sized Chinese manufacturing enterprises, the intensity of their entrepreneurial orientation and the degree of their internationalization. In addition, it examines whether entrepreneurial orientation would affect enterprises' internationalization strategies and their success.

The seven‐step procedure for scale development is used and survey data have been utilized to conduct statistical analysis.

The paper finds that entrepreneurial orientation is positively related to the degree of internationalization, particularly amongst the small and medium‐sized Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The international experiences of enterprises have significant importance and positively affect the degree of their internationalization. In addition, the degree of their success depends greatly on their attitudes towards risk taking, their ability to diversify internationally and successfully compete with those already established in the market.

A lot of studies have been conducted on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation. However, few people have ever studied the relation between the degree of entrepreneurial orientation and internationalization. Empirical studies on the correlations between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance are not abundant in China. Furthermore, very few researches on the correlations between entrepreneurial orientation and internationalization have been conducted. The research presented in this paper is intended to bridge this gap. Through empirical analyses of their relationships, this paper shows how entrepreneurial strategies can stimulate competitive advantages and drive forward the international developments of the Chinese enterprises, particularly the small and medium‐sized.

Drawing on the resource-based view, institutional logic and isomorphic pressure theories, this study constructed a theoretical model to explore the correlations between government subsidies and innovation performance. Particularly, this study aims to investigate the moderating effects of ownership types and degree of internationalization on these relationships.

To empirically test the relationships, the authors use panel data from high-tech manufacturing and automobile manufacturing industries in Chinese A stock listed companies for the period 2011–2015 and performed regression analysis.

Results indicate that government subsidies positively enhance enterprises’ innovation performance; there is a big gap between government subsidies’ incentive effect on innovation performance between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private-owned enterprises (POEs); with the improvement of internationalization, the promotion effect of government subsidies on enterprise innovation performance is strengthened; there is a three-way interaction between government subsidies, degree of internationalization and ownership types, such that in the presence of a low degree of internationalization, there is a big gap in the incentive effect of government subsidies on the innovation performance of SOEs and POEs; in the presence of a high degree of internationalization, the gap is significantly reduced.

This is an empirical study on the impact mechanism of ownership types and internationalization on the relationship between government subsidies and innovation performance in China. It provides valuable insights to show how internationalization can dramatically improve SOEs’ efficiency disadvantages in the allocation of government subsidies to innovation activities.

This paper aims to identify the extent to which hospitality management degree programmes are internationalised to develop graduates capable of working within the global hospitality industry.

A qualitative multiple case study approach was adopted for a UK study of undergraduate international hospitality management degrees. Interviews and document analysis were used as the data collection techniques.

The findings reveal the importance of the development of graduates' cross‐cultural competencies within international hospitality management programmes and the methods used to develop these. The study also reveals further opportunities to enhance the internationalisation of degree programmes.

The findings are based on a case study research strategy set within the context of the UK and as such, the generalisability of the findings may be limited. In addition, the study sample contained only undergraduate international hospitality management degree programmes.

This paper reveals a number of opportunities to enhance the internationalisation of hospitality management programmes and the challenges currently faced by academics and students.

The paper provides a framework comprising internationalisation at home (IaH) and internationalisation abroad (IA) dimensions for academics to assess the internationalisation of degree programmes and the extent to which cross‐cultural competencies are developed among graduates. The framework can also be used by graduate recruiters seeking candidates with the requisite cross‐cultural understanding, attitudes and skills to work within the international hospitality industry.

This study aims to assess the potential mediating effects of formal and informal networks in the relationship between government support and Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation.

This study was a cross-sectional design, where the structured questionnaire was used in gathering data from 301 indigenous Ghanaian firms. The path estimation was conducted by running structural equation modelling in AMOS v.23.

It was concluded that government support had a significant positive effect on Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation. Formal network was found to partially mediate the relationship between government support and indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation. Finally, it was concluded that informal networks had no mediating effect.

One limitation is that the effect of the government support and network strategy was only explored on indigenous exporters, meaning that exporters which did not fall within the definition of indigenous firms were excluded from the study. Future studies could conduct a comparative study on the same variables, using indigenous and non-indigenous firms.

It is recommended that Ghanaian exporters should participate in government training and workshop programmes focussing on building export business strategies and networking to improve export activities.

This study’s unique contribution is its investigation of how networking portfolio, including formal and informal ties, helps explain the nexus between government support and the internationalisation of local firms in the developing market, such as Ghanaians.

The purpose of this research is to account for the internationalization of restaurants. The conceptual framework of upper echelons theory is applied to identify the demographic determinants of internationalization among chief executive officers (CEOs).

Data from 30 restaurant firms for the period 1999-2013 were collected from a variety of sources, primarily Compustat and Execucomp, based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 5812, the annual 10-K and public information. A panel feasible generalized least squares model was used as the main instrument of analysis.

The findings indicate that the CEO gender and share ownership negatively affect the internationalization of restaurant companies, whereas size, the extent of franchising, the type of restaurant and stock options positively affect the degree of internationalization. Additionally, an inverted U-shaped relation exists between CEO tenure and the degree of internationalization.

The presented information may provide shareholders and boards of directors with valuable guidelines regarding the assignment of appropriate managers depending on the extent to which their companies are pursuing internationalization strategies.

Most studies in hospitality sectors have focused only on accounting-based measures to explain strategic decision-making, although proponents of upper echelons theory have argued that CEO attributes influence strategic decisions/changes. This study contributes to the literature on hospitality by identifying the effects of CEO characteristics on internationalization decisions.

The domestic institutional context has emerged as a key determinant of firms' environmental disclosure, but studies have hardly addressed the extent to which exposure to foreign institutional contexts plays a role in the occurrence and contents of non‐financial disclosure, which are crucial aspects for understanding multinationals' accountability. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between internationalization (both degree and spread) and environmental disclosure.

It is hypothesized that both home and host country institutional pressures affect the relationship between internationalization and environmental disclosure, and that these effects are more prominent in environmentally‐sensitive sectors. The proposed relationships are tested using data from the Fortune Global 250.

Results show a significantly negative relationship between the degree of internationalization and environmental disclosure, which is only partly mitigated by environmental governance and institutional quality in home and host countries. The relationship is only positive for firms in high‐sensitivity sectors from high‐standard countries. Findings are particularly strong for the degree of internationalization; and non‐significant for dispersion/spread.

This article moves beyond the predominant focus on country‐of‐origin effects by adding exposure to foreign institutional contexts, for which it develops a new indicator. It renews attention to non‐financial disclosure, a topic underexposed in the IB literature. Viewed from a broader IB perspective, this article provides an empirical illustration of the effect of home and host institutions on firm strategy, and of the use of different metrics to assess internationalization with divergent results for degree versus spread, as well as for sales versus assets, pointing to areas for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, empirically, the value relevance of the degree of internationalization in publicly traded restaurant firms in the USA.

Data for the study were obtained from the Compustat Industrial Annual. Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis, and Vuong's Z‐test were employed to analyze the data.

The paper has two principal findings: the degree of internationalization is positively and significantly related to market capitalization; and the relation is strong enough to cause an 18.3 percent increase in the explanatory power, in the presence of control variables.

The method of expansion might have some impact on market capitalization and this is not explicitly controlled for in the study due to data and cost constraints. Moreover, there are likely other variables affecting firms' market capitalization, but due to data constraints, they are also not included in the model.

The results indicate firms, which decide to diversify abroad, see their market capitalization changes positively with the degree of internationalization.

There are many studies that investigate the behavior of firms that diversify abroad; however, this is the first study to the authors' knowledge that examines the impact of the degree of internationalization on the stock market capitalization in the hospitality industry.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between the firms’ ownership and control structure and their export performance. The literature is traditionally focused on the relationship between firms’ performance and internationalization, with the relationship between ownership and control structure with internationalization being much less studied, particularly in the context of family firms.

The authors focus their study on the Portuguese wine firms due to their increasing importance in the Portuguese economy and in the promotion of the country’s exports and image abroad. They used a balanced panel data sample of 82 firms for the period from 2011 to 2015 and applied a random effects model and a Tobit specification.

The degree of family involvement shows a negative and significant relationship with internationalization, meaning that family firms that intend to internationalize should be open to receive external managers with international experience and increase their internal competencies to enhance internationalization.

This paper extends the literature since assesses, at the light of the agency theory, the presence of differences in the internationalization degree and export intensity between family firms that are managed and controlled by the owners and family firms that are managed by non-family members, with an application to a less studied sector and country.