International opportunities are the catalysts of SME internationalization. Our knowledge regarding the role of international opportunities in internationalization is undisputable, yet our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of international opportunity development remains inadequate. In this paper, we seek to address this shortcoming in the literature by answering the following research questions: how do internal and external factors influence the international opportunity scouting of SMEs, and what are the effects of the international opportunity scouting strategy in the internationalization of the firm? From a case study of nine Swedish SMEs, the authors develop propositions on the interplay between the theoretical constructs: international experience, network structure, international opportunity scouting, and international opportunity novelty. We propose that the greater the international experience of the SME, the more systematically the SME will scout for international opportunities; the more closed the network the SME is embedded in, the more systematically the SME will scout for international opportunities; and the more systematically the SME scouts for international opportunities, the lower the novelty of the opportunities identified by the SME. These findings come with implications for theory as well as for SME managers
Few researchers and even fewer practitioners would deny that luck, chance or serendipitous events play a central role in the growth process of firms. However, most entrepreneurship models ignore the role of serendipity in the opportunity discovery process. Instead, it is assumed that international opportunities are discovered or created by entrepreneurs. In this paper we provide a more nuanced view on international opportunities by developing the role of serendipitous opportunities in the internationalization process. We develop a model integrating the notions of serendipity, entrepreneurial logic, experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy. From our model we condense three sets of hypotheses on the relationships among experiential knowledge and entrepreneurial logic, network knowledge redundancy and entrepreneurial logic, and entrepreneurial logic and serendipity. We confront our hypotheses with data collected on-site at 160 firms covering 226 opportunities. The result of our analysis reveals that experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy both lead to a more causation-based logic of the firm. Causation in turn reduces the likeliness that serendipitous opportunities will be realized in the internationalization process. These findings come with implications for both researchers and practitioners.
Speed of internationalization is a multidimensional concept with performance consequences, but little is known about the interrelatedness between different time-related concepts. The authors address this deficiency by developing three hypotheses, which are confronted with a dataset collected on-site at 203 SMEs. The analysis reveals that (i) the longer the time to internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, (ii) the earlier the point in time of start of internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, and (iii) there is an antagonistic interaction effect revealing that the negative effect on the speed of international expansion caused by a longer time to internationalization is moderated by the point in time of internationalization start. The study contributes to theory by examining the interrelatedness between temporal concepts in the internationalization literature and by showing how the underlying mechanisms influencing internationalization speed changes over time. For managers, insights into the importance of time and temporality for successful international expansion are provided.
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.
Purpose: Few researchers and even fewer practitioners would deny that serendipitous events play a central role in the growth process of firms. However, most international marketing models ignore the role of serendipity in the opportunity discovery process. The authors provide a nuanced view on international opportunities by developing the role of serendipitous opportunities in the foreign market entry process. The authors develop a model integrating the notions of serendipity, entrepreneurial logic, experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy. From the study’s model, the authors condense three sets of hypotheses on the relationships among experiential knowledge and entry strategy, network knowledge redundancy, entry strategy and serendipity. Design/methodology/approach: The authors confront the study’s hypotheses with data collected on-site at 168 Swedish firms covering 234 opportunities, and to test the hypotheses, the authors ran ordinary least squares (OLS) regression tests in three steps. Findings: The results of the study’s analysis reveal that experiential knowledge and network knowledge redundancy both lead to a logic based on rigid planning and systematic search, which in turn reduces the likelihood that serendipitous opportunities will be realized in the foreign market entry process. Originality/value: This is the first study that develops a measure of opportunities that are the outcome of serendipitous events. In addition, the authors integrate network and learning theories and internationalization theory by establishing antecedents to, and outcomes of, the entry strategy.
Market entry performance is critical during internationalisation; prevailing views suggest that firms need to carefully plan their entry before putting the plan into action. This article focuses on three attributes affecting the possibility and usefulness of making a pre-planned market entry: unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment. We develop six hypotheses tested on a sample of 250 entries; our main finding is that improvisation plays a mediating role in relation to performance in unpredictable markets. The analysis reveals that the relationship between unpredictability and network commitment is not significant, while the effect of unpredictability on market entry performance is negative. These findings suggest implications for internationalisation and international entrepreneurship theory. For managers and entrepreneurs, we show that unpredictability weakens market entry performance, a negative effect that can be mitigated if the entrant firm improvises.