Performance relative to aspiration and SMEs' internationalization speed: the moderating effects of policy knowledge and institutional distance
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to explore the relationship between performance relative to aspiration and SMEs' internationalization speed, and moderating effects of top management's policy knowledge and institutional distance between the above relation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study tests the authors’ hypotheses using data on Chinese manufacturing SMEs over a 5-year period from 2013 to 2017. The authors leverage archival panel data on publicly listed companies on the SME Board, GEM and New OTC Market in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. The authors then collected data from the WIND and ZEPHYR databases.
Findings
The results confirm a U-shaped relation between performance relative to aspiration and SMEs' internationalization speed, and show that this relation is steepening by top management's policy knowledge in home country but flattening by institutional distance as environmental dynamics.
Originality/value
The study findings contribute to the international business field by exploring how a firm's risk situation in internationalization can change, thereby influencing SMEs' international expansion.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: The data collection of this paper is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant # 71772164 and 72032008).
Citation
Zhang, Y. and Cheng, C. (2023), "Performance relative to aspiration and SMEs' internationalization speed: the moderating effects of policy knowledge and institutional distance", International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-07-2022-1090
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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