Small businesses’ internationalization: International readiness in the context of Asian countries

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether international readiness, including innovation, competition, technology-orientation and opportunity perception, impacts on internationalization of small businesses differently in Asian countries compared to the complete Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) sample.

This study uses data from the Adult Population Survey – GEM carried out in 69 countries yielding a cross-country total of 198,339 entrepreneurs. A binomial logit regression model is used to examine the data.

The results show that there are differences for Asian countries compared to the whole sample regarding innovation-related drivers. In Asian countries, for small businesses, internationalization is less sensitive to product innovation and to opportunities’ perception than for the rest of the countries.

This study has practical relevance as it provides numerous clues regarding the question of how small business (or new ventures) might enhance chances to become successful exporters.

This study addresses an area that is believed to be less studied. The study compares the proposed relationships between two data sub-samples that represent the Asian countries and the complete GEM sample. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main contributions and limitations and suggests future research avenues.