Critical Success Factors of SME Internationalization From Developed to Developing Economies

Background

SMEs closer than ever before to global markets (Dabić et al., 2020). However, the choice of developing economies as internationalization targets is expected to pose more risks to companies. Overall, Zhu et al. (2020) proposed a model in which different destinations markets would impose different strategies, panoramas, advantages, and difficulties. In their proposed model, emerging markets were characterized by lower prices and less competitive, with lower entry requirements and more propensity to free trade agreements, but also more probably an immature market. However, since this study sampled SMEs in emerging markets, some institutional and organizational factors may alter, such as institutional similarities to home country, or the reliability of existing business networks to operate in those countries. Lack of transparency and liability of foreignness may also be relevant challenges, and the portrayed image of the home country in business may turn in favor for SMEs located in a developed country. For this reason, it is important to identify the key success factors. The literature identifies two types of factors: firm wise and external factors.