Ready, Steady, Who Do We Know? Internationalization Intent Among Emerging Market SMEs in Central Asia
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Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie - Krakow University of Economics
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Objective: The objective of our paper is to examine the determinants and moderators of managerial internationalization intent of not yet internationalized emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises (EMSMEs) from Kyrgyzstan, a country in Central Asia. Research Design & Methods: Analyzing a sample of 178 non-yet-internationalized SMEs in Kyrgyzstan collected through a survey questionnaire, which have indicated willingness to internationalize, we use an OLS regression model to analyze the impact of government support, international market outlook and various kinds of resources, as determinants of two types of internationalization intent: simple internationalization intent (i.e., establishing first contact) and sophisticated internationalization intent (i.e., corresponding to more intense resource commitments). We further test the moderating effect of business network ties and institutional network ties on those relationships. Findings: We find that government support and international market outlook play equally important roles in simple internationalization intent, while government support becomes crucial for more sophisticated internationalization intent. Business network ties are a significant moderator between international market outlook and simple internationalization intent, while institutional network ties moderate the role of government support, international market outlook and resources for simple internationalization intent. This is almost opposite for more sophisticated internationalization intent, where business network ties moderate all three relationships (i.e., government support, international market outlook, resources) and institutional network ties do not act as a moderator at all. Implications & Recommendations: Our results challenge the importance of resource in the pre-internationalization phase of EMSMEs. Our results also show that government support is crucial for a more “big jump” approach to internationalization, while institutional ties matter more in the simple, more sequential pre-internationalization path. To promote more sophisticated internationalization, managers need well developed business network ties, as well as strong government support. Contribution & Value Added: Aside from rare data on EMSMEs from a poorly understood Central Asian economy, we also provide novel insights into the determinants and moderating factors of pre-internationalization behaviour of EMSMEs and add to the growing body of research on the so-called microfoundations of SME internationalization behaviour.Description
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International Entrepreneurship Review, ISSN: 2658-1841 (Online), Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie - Krakow University of Economics, 11(1), 7-22. doi: 10.15678/ier.2025.1101.01
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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/