The Internationalization of SMEs: What Do Theories Say?

Abstract

SMEs are considered as the backbone of an economy and thus, internationalization of SMEs plays an
important role in this phenomenon. There are many internationalizations theories have been developed
and those theories are still expanding by the scholars. This paper aims to overview the theories and
perspectives of internationalization of SMEs. Further, this paper tries to reveal the concepts and the
interpretations of the internationalization concepts based on the theoretical literature review .The
keywords, sources of articles, and references among the selected articles of published papers were
reviewed. The findings reveals traditional theories of internationalization have focused on the stages as
well as internal and external resources of internationalization with domestic expansion have helped to
have advanced stage in the international market. According to the modern theories, there is some
misconnection of local business expansions with internationalization. Moreover, entrepreneurial
intensions would accelerate the internationalization process through innovation, and proactiveness