Conclusion

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are major players in today’s economies, both at the national and global levels. This collective book offered a cross-country perspective of how SMEs develop and perform on international markets. The authors have identified key drivers and success factors of their development in both mature and emerging economies. The conducted analyses reveal, for example, that global mindset, entrepreneurial marketing, inter-firm collaboration and innovation capabilities represent key drivers explaining SME internationalisation. The presented investigations illustrate the diversity of internationalisation paths followed by SMEs from different countries. They show that SMEs remain deeply marked by their national contexts when they expand abroad. Thus, their approach to enter foreign markets presents important differences in terms of entry modes, allocation of resources and strategies – even if they share the same need for control. The conducted case studies and surveys indicate that SMEs attempt to participate in the ‘global game’, despite their limited size and resources. Their agility and their entrepreneurial mindsets appear to be important competitive advantages, since they can more easily adapt to new situations and changing market conditions. To face global competition, SMEs need to carefully choose their entry mode strategies, but they also have to dedicate specific attention to managerial issues which determine, to a large extent, their international performance. The support and advice provided by public institutions and consulting companies as well as the development of inter-firm collaborations appear to be useful when SMEs decide to develop in new markets. Our analysis also shows that it is necessary to adapt the organisational culture and to strengthen its international dimension, since human resource management issues also impact the success of SMEs in foreign markets, especially if they establish subsidiaries abroad.