The innovativeness of an opportunity indicates its profit potential for firms. Extant research has shown that a systematic search for, and a well-developed experience ofinternational opportunity development, increases the likelihood that the firm will develop new opportunities. To this point however, the literature falls short in examining how experience and search behaviour influence the degree of opportunity innovativeness. This study analyses 192 international opportunities developed by Swedish SMEs over the last seven years. Our analysis reveal that the more developed the prior experience from opportunity development and the more systematically the SME search for new opportunities, the lower the innovativeness of the developed opportunity. Thus, our results show that prior experience andsystematic search behaviour may hamper the SME from developing innovative international opportunities.