Main findings
| Study | Focus of analysis | Issues examined | Main findings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahsan and Musteen (2021) | Outcome | Dimensions of digital crowdfunding platforms; International opportunity development | Crowdfunding platforms have a positive impact on international opportunity development |
| Alarcón-del-Amo et al. (2018) | Phenomenon | Attitudes, intention to use, and use of social media platforms | Three clusters of exporting firms were identified according to their use of social media: potential users, initial users, and expert users |
| Anwar et al. (2022) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Digital knowledge sharing capability; Digital business capability; Use of a digital platform for the internationalization process | Digital capabilities indirectly promote SME internationalization via business model innovativeness |
| Aronica et al. (2021) | Phenomenon | Adoption of social media to enter foreign markets | Small firms from lagging regions are less likely to use social media to enter foreign markets, even when they have adopted social media |
| Caputo et al. (2022) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Investment in information and communication technologies; No. of languages available for the website; No. of languages available for social pages | The three variables show a positive relationship with return on sales in foreign markets |
| Cassetta et al. (2020) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Website usage and online selling activities; Use of the Internet to share information with suppliers; Use of social media; Use of cloud computing; Employees with ICT competencies; Digital training | Adopting digital technologies positively impacts internationalization only when accompanied by investments in digital skills and process and organizational innovations |
| Cassia and Magno (2022a) | Antecedents and Outcomes | IT, international marketing, and export operations capabilities on cross-border e-commerce performance | IT capabilities have a positive impact on cross-border e-commerce performance |
| Cassia and Magno (2022b) | Outcomes | Use of e-commerce platforms to acquire foreign market knowledge and export performance | E-commerce platforms allow firms to gain foreign market knowledge, positively impacting export performance |
| Crespo et al. (2023) | Antecedents | Digital orientation | International orientation is a determinant of digitalization and early internationalization strategies; digital orientation fosters a digitalization strategy |
| Da Fonseca et al. (2023) | Phenomenon | Early phases of digital internationalization using social media platforms. Role of the diaspora | Even firms that adopt social media platforms are constrained by their local networks. They need to enhance their digital capabilities to expand beyond the national diaspora |
| Deng and Wang (2016) | Phenomenon and Outcomes | Early-mover advantages at cross-border B2B portals | Firms enjoy earlier mover advantages at B2B portals but are higher at the initial post-entry stages and diminish later. These effects are amplified for low-price and multi-product firms |
| Dillon et al. (2020) | Outcomes | Digital internationalization experience | Entrepreneurs who use digital technologies in internationalization may achieve a digital internationalization experience. Digital internationalization experience, in turn, may support international entrepreneurial exploitation |
| Eid et al. (2020) | Phenomenon and Outcomes | Use of social media | The use of social media impacts export performance via the quality of international business contacts, including understanding customer preferences, competitive intelligence, and brand awareness |
| Elia et al. (2021) | Antecedents | Digital capabilities | Companies that utilize digital technologies have a higher propensity to enhance digital exports, regardless of size. The propensity to adopt digital internationalization is increased by having an e-commerce manager |
| Fan et al. (2023) | Outcomes | E-commerce platform empowerment and strategic flexibility | E-commerce platforms empower companies by supporting their export operations and positively impacting strategic flexibility, impacting export performance |
| Fraccastoro et al. (2021a) | Antecedents | Non-location-bound social media firm-specific advantages; Location-social media firm-specific advantages | Entrepreneurial firms may combine their social-media capabilities with their foreign partners’ capabilities to develop new social-media capabilities, promoting international growth |
| Fraccastoro et al. (2021b) | Phenomenon | Use of social media, digital and traditional communication tools | Social media tends to be used during the prospecting phase in B2B, other digital communication tools in the persuasion phase, and traditional tools later in the relationship management phase |
| Gabrielsson et al. (2022) | Antecedents | Global mind-set; Commitment | Inexperienced digital entrepreneurs may use three mechanisms to commit in an accelerated internationalization process: affective commitment to their digital community, effectual commitment, or continuance commitment |
| Glavas et al. (2019) | Phenomenon and outcome | Internet-enabled experiences: technical, operational, functional, and immersive | Digital platforms allow firms to acquire explicit and tacit knowledge. Digital experiences support/facilitate internationalization. Technological integration within the firm reinforces digital internationalization |
| Guo et al. (2023) | Antecedents | Effects of knowledge integration on organizational resilience | Knowledge integration processes based on digital platforms are associated with the organizational resilience of SMEs’ global businesses |
| Hervé et al. (2020) | Antecedents and Outcomes | The degree of digitalization, entrepreneurial orientation (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking), and internationalization intensity (scale, scope, speed, and mode) | The degree of digitalization is positively associated with entrepreneurial orientation. Proactiveness is positively related to the scope of internationalization, and risk-taking to the speed of internationalization |
| Hossain et al. (2021) | Antecedents | E-marketplace entry decision | Technological, organizational, and environmental factors may influence the e-marketplace entry decision |
| Hui (2020) | Outcomes | Export entry costs | E-commerce platforms facilitate global trade by reducing export-related costs, benefitting small sellers |
| Hultman et al. (2023) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Social media tactics to engage with customers | The use of certain social media tactics impacts customer performance in export operations |
| Jean and Kim (2020) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Platform and web capabilities | Platform and web capabilities positively associate with export marketing capabilities that, in turn, impact export performance |
| Jean et al. (2020) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Drivers of digital platform risks, entrepreneurial orientation, and scope of internationalization | Foreign market factors and domestic institutional voids impact digital platform risk. Digital platform risk negatively impacts INVs’ internationalization scope, but this relationship is mitigated by entrepreneurial orientation |
| Jin and Hurd (2018) | Outcomes | Use of an e-commerce platform | Digital platforms reduce entry barriers, help to overcome lack of resources, and facilitate access to networks, but do not eliminate the need for local staff |
| Kim and Lee (2016) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Information and marketing capabilities, e-commerce use, asset specificity, and e-commerce net benefits | Information capabilities impact the level of e-commerce use in exporting and e-commerce performance |
| Kromidha and Robson (2021) | Phenomenon | Extent of firm’s digital presence (no. of followers in the social media; website traffic) | The number of social media followers of a firm is a better indicator of firm internationalization than website traffic |
| Lee and Falahat (2019) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Use of digital technologies, resources, and international capabilities, competitive advantage | The use of digital platforms only indirectly impacts competitive advantage in international markets |
| Lee et al. (2022) | Outcomes | Experience of using foreign and domestic social network services (SNS) and platforms | Foreign SNS and B2B digital platforms have a stronger positive impact on SMEs' international orientation than their use of similar domestic digital platforms. Domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty increases digital platform risk |
| Lee et al. (2023) | Antecedents | Digital platform risk; domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty | Domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty positively impacts digital platform risk |
| Lehdonvirta et al. (2019) | Outcomes | Service micro providers benefit from using global online platforms | Service micro providers use platforms as signaling mechanisms to inform international clients of their quality, thus allowing them to overcome negative country image |
| Mäki and Toivola (2021) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Adoption of e-commerce for internationalization; digital capabilities | The adoption of e-commerce provides many benefits to small firms. Information capabilities have a positive impact on internationalization |
| Neubert (2018) | Outcomes | Digitalization and speed of internationalization | Firms can benefit from adopting digital technologies, allowing them to use more efficient foreign market development processes and make better decisions |
| Pereira et al. (2022) | Antecedents | Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic | Firms reduced their use of electronic commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic to focus on the domestic market |
| Qi et al. (2020) | Phenomenon and Outcomes | International risk reduction of e-commerce platforms | Cross-border e-commerce reduces uncertainty and opportunism, increases trust, allows firms to reduce their investments abroad, and provides market knowledge |
| Reim et al. (2022) | Antecedents, Phenomenon and Outcomes | Lack of resources and capabilities for internationalization; business model | Identifying business model challenges related to value creation, delivery, and capture along the internationalization process |
| Rialp-Criado et al. (2020) | Phenomenon | Speed of use of social media | The speed of social media usage positively impacts the speed of firm internationalization, regardless of firm size |
| Rienda et al. (2021) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Social media presence, corporate website | Social media presence positively impacts international performance, but only for companies with a corporate website |
| Singh et al. (2023) | Antecedents | National e-commerce policy | A national e-commerce policy emphasizing export efficiency and lessening anticompetitive concerns can boost SME internationalization using digital platforms |
| Tobiassen and Pettersen (2023) | Outcomes | Social media networking; physical networking | Networking via social media allows firms to access resources and build relationships, but it does not eliminate the need for physical networking |
| Tolstoy et al. (2021) | Antecedents | Investments in resources, digital and marketing capabilities | Investment in certain resources and capabilities (marketing and digital) may impact e-commerce internationalization processes |
| Tolstoy et al. (2022) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Online marketing capabilities, marketing ambidexterity | Online marketing capabilities are important to achieve higher performance in international e-commerce, but marketing ambidexterity is necessary to get this positive effect |
| Tolstoy et al. (2023) | Outcomes | International marketing analytics; International networking activities | Cross-border e-commerce platforms allow effectual market creation positively impacting international performance. This effect is facilitated by achieving insidership in foreign markets (using international marketing analytics and international networking activities) |
| Troise et al. (2023) | Outcomes | Use of equity crowdfunding and reward crowdfunding | Equity crowdfunding and reward crowdfunding play a key role in helping companies overcome their resource constraints to internationalize |
| Vadana et al (2020) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Digitalization of value chain activities; company resources; bricolage capabilities; international experience | Digitalization of value chain activities allows a better use of company resources to face challenges and opportunities in foreign markets |
| Virglerová et al. (2022) | Antecedents and Outcomes | Use of social media | The use of social media had a significant association with business performance but not with company internationalization |
| Westerlund (2020) | Antecedents | Internal resources, use of information systems, partnering, and cyber resilience | There is a positive association between internal resources, the use of information systems, partnering, and the ability to deal with cyber risks |
| Williams et al. (2020) | Antecedents | Foreign knowledge acquisition, use of domestic or foreign social networking sites, international orientation | The use of domestic social networking sites has a positive effect on the international orientation of internet SMEs, while the use of foreign ones has a negative effect |
| Witek-Hadjul et al. (2022) | Antecedents and Phenomenon | Motives for cross-border e-commerce adoption | Fashion firms present both proactive and reactive motives in the adoption of e-commerce for their foreign expansion |
| Study | Focus of analysis | Issues examined | Main findings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outcome | Dimensions of digital crowdfunding platforms; International opportunity development | Crowdfunding platforms have a positive impact on international opportunity development | |
| Phenomenon | Attitudes, intention to use, and use of social media platforms | Three clusters of exporting firms were identified according to their use of social media: potential users, initial users, and expert users | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Digital knowledge sharing capability; Digital business capability; Use of a digital platform for the internationalization process | Digital capabilities indirectly promote SME internationalization via business model innovativeness | |
| Phenomenon | Adoption of social media to enter foreign markets | Small firms from lagging regions are less likely to use social media to enter foreign markets, even when they have adopted social media | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Investment in information and communication technologies; No. of languages available for the website; No. of languages available for social pages | The three variables show a positive relationship with return on sales in foreign markets | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Website usage and online selling activities; Use of the Internet to share information with suppliers; Use of social media; Use of cloud computing; Employees with ICT competencies; Digital training | Adopting digital technologies positively impacts internationalization only when accompanied by investments in digital skills and process and organizational innovations | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | IT, international marketing, and export operations capabilities on cross-border e-commerce performance | IT capabilities have a positive impact on cross-border e-commerce performance | |
| Outcomes | Use of e-commerce platforms to acquire foreign market knowledge and export performance | E-commerce platforms allow firms to gain foreign market knowledge, positively impacting export performance | |
| Antecedents | Digital orientation | International orientation is a determinant of digitalization and early internationalization strategies; digital orientation fosters a digitalization strategy | |
| Phenomenon | Early phases of digital internationalization using social media platforms. Role of the diaspora | Even firms that adopt social media platforms are constrained by their local networks. They need to enhance their digital capabilities to expand beyond the national diaspora | |
| Phenomenon and Outcomes | Early-mover advantages at cross-border B2B portals | Firms enjoy earlier mover advantages at B2B portals but are higher at the initial post-entry stages and diminish later. These effects are amplified for low-price and multi-product firms | |
| Outcomes | Digital internationalization experience | Entrepreneurs who use digital technologies in internationalization may achieve a digital internationalization experience. Digital internationalization experience, in turn, may support international entrepreneurial exploitation | |
| Phenomenon and Outcomes | Use of social media | The use of social media impacts export performance via the quality of international business contacts, including understanding customer preferences, competitive intelligence, and brand awareness | |
| Antecedents | Digital capabilities | Companies that utilize digital technologies have a higher propensity to enhance digital exports, regardless of size. The propensity to adopt digital internationalization is increased by having an e-commerce manager | |
| Outcomes | E-commerce platform empowerment and strategic flexibility | E-commerce platforms empower companies by supporting their export operations and positively impacting strategic flexibility, impacting export performance | |
| Antecedents | Non-location-bound social media firm-specific advantages; Location-social media firm-specific advantages | Entrepreneurial firms may combine their social-media capabilities with their foreign partners’ capabilities to develop new social-media capabilities, promoting international growth | |
| Phenomenon | Use of social media, digital and traditional communication tools | Social media tends to be used during the prospecting phase in B2B, other digital communication tools in the persuasion phase, and traditional tools later in the relationship management phase | |
| Antecedents | Global mind-set; Commitment | Inexperienced digital entrepreneurs may use three mechanisms to commit in an accelerated internationalization process: affective commitment to their digital community, effectual commitment, or continuance commitment | |
| Phenomenon and outcome | Internet-enabled experiences: technical, operational, functional, and immersive | Digital platforms allow firms to acquire explicit and tacit knowledge. Digital experiences support/facilitate internationalization. Technological integration within the firm reinforces digital internationalization | |
| Antecedents | Effects of knowledge integration on organizational resilience | Knowledge integration processes based on digital platforms are associated with the organizational resilience of SMEs’ global businesses | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | The degree of digitalization, entrepreneurial orientation (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking), and internationalization intensity (scale, scope, speed, and mode) | The degree of digitalization is positively associated with entrepreneurial orientation. Proactiveness is positively related to the scope of internationalization, and risk-taking to the speed of internationalization | |
| Antecedents | E-marketplace entry decision | Technological, organizational, and environmental factors may influence the e-marketplace entry decision | |
| Outcomes | Export entry costs | E-commerce platforms facilitate global trade by reducing export-related costs, benefitting small sellers | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Social media tactics to engage with customers | The use of certain social media tactics impacts customer performance in export operations | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Platform and web capabilities | Platform and web capabilities positively associate with export marketing capabilities that, in turn, impact export performance | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Drivers of digital platform risks, entrepreneurial orientation, and scope of internationalization | Foreign market factors and domestic institutional voids impact digital platform risk. Digital platform risk negatively impacts INVs’ internationalization scope, but this relationship is mitigated by entrepreneurial orientation | |
| Outcomes | Use of an e-commerce platform | Digital platforms reduce entry barriers, help to overcome lack of resources, and facilitate access to networks, but do not eliminate the need for local staff | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Information and marketing capabilities, e-commerce use, asset specificity, and e-commerce net benefits | Information capabilities impact the level of e-commerce use in exporting and e-commerce performance | |
| Phenomenon | Extent of firm’s digital presence (no. of followers in the social media; website traffic) | The number of social media followers of a firm is a better indicator of firm internationalization than website traffic | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Use of digital technologies, resources, and international capabilities, competitive advantage | The use of digital platforms only indirectly impacts competitive advantage in international markets | |
| Outcomes | Experience of using foreign and domestic social network services (SNS) and platforms | Foreign SNS and B2B digital platforms have a stronger positive impact on SMEs' international orientation than their use of similar domestic digital platforms. Domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty increases digital platform risk | |
| Antecedents | Digital platform risk; domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty | Domestic and foreign market e-commerce policy uncertainty positively impacts digital platform risk | |
| Outcomes | Service micro providers benefit from using global online platforms | Service micro providers use platforms as signaling mechanisms to inform international clients of their quality, thus allowing them to overcome negative country image | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Adoption of e-commerce for internationalization; digital capabilities | The adoption of e-commerce provides many benefits to small firms. Information capabilities have a positive impact on internationalization | |
| Outcomes | Digitalization and speed of internationalization | Firms can benefit from adopting digital technologies, allowing them to use more efficient foreign market development processes and make better decisions | |
| Antecedents | Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic | Firms reduced their use of electronic commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic to focus on the domestic market | |
| Phenomenon and Outcomes | International risk reduction of e-commerce platforms | Cross-border e-commerce reduces uncertainty and opportunism, increases trust, allows firms to reduce their investments abroad, and provides market knowledge | |
| Antecedents, Phenomenon and Outcomes | Lack of resources and capabilities for internationalization; business model | Identifying business model challenges related to value creation, delivery, and capture along the internationalization process | |
| Phenomenon | Speed of use of social media | The speed of social media usage positively impacts the speed of firm internationalization, regardless of firm size | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Social media presence, corporate website | Social media presence positively impacts international performance, but only for companies with a corporate website | |
| Antecedents | National e-commerce policy | A national e-commerce policy emphasizing export efficiency and lessening anticompetitive concerns can boost SME internationalization using digital platforms | |
| Outcomes | Social media networking; physical networking | Networking via social media allows firms to access resources and build relationships, but it does not eliminate the need for physical networking | |
| Antecedents | Investments in resources, digital and marketing capabilities | Investment in certain resources and capabilities (marketing and digital) may impact e-commerce internationalization processes | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Online marketing capabilities, marketing ambidexterity | Online marketing capabilities are important to achieve higher performance in international e-commerce, but marketing ambidexterity is necessary to get this positive effect | |
| Outcomes | International marketing analytics; International networking activities | Cross-border e-commerce platforms allow effectual market creation positively impacting international performance. This effect is facilitated by achieving insidership in foreign markets (using international marketing analytics and international networking activities) | |
| Outcomes | Use of equity crowdfunding and reward crowdfunding | Equity crowdfunding and reward crowdfunding play a key role in helping companies overcome their resource constraints to internationalize | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Digitalization of value chain activities; company resources; bricolage capabilities; international experience | Digitalization of value chain activities allows a better use of company resources to face challenges and opportunities in foreign markets | |
| Antecedents and Outcomes | Use of social media | The use of social media had a significant association with business performance but not with company internationalization | |
| Antecedents | Internal resources, use of information systems, partnering, and cyber resilience | There is a positive association between internal resources, the use of information systems, partnering, and the ability to deal with cyber risks | |
| Antecedents | Foreign knowledge acquisition, use of domestic or foreign social networking sites, international orientation | The use of domestic social networking sites has a positive effect on the international orientation of internet SMEs, while the use of foreign ones has a negative effect | |
| Antecedents and Phenomenon | Motives for cross-border e-commerce adoption | Fashion firms present both proactive and reactive motives in the adoption of e-commerce for their foreign expansion |
Source(s): Created by authors
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