SMES' internationalization: firms and managerial factors

To examine the particular organizational and managerial determinants of the different aspects of a firm's export development process: intention, propensity, and intensity.

The study analysed firms' resources and capabilities, managerial characteristics, and managerial attitude and perceptions in a sample of 286 firms in the Spanish wine industry. Statistical analyses using SPSS were carried out to confirm or reject eight hypotheses.

Results confirmed that factors influencing export involvement are not the same along the process of export development.

The study is limited to one context, and it is static (cross‐sectional) in nature.

Implications not only for practitioners (especially, managers), but also for policy makers, are discussed.

First, the research has been conducted in Spain, a country for which export development process has not been widely studied. Second, three aspects of export development have been analysed at the same time: intention, propensity, and intensity. And third, the effect of industry‐specific characteristics on internal export factors has been isolated through the selection of one industry in one country for the empirical research.