Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly driven to internationalize to remain competitive. However, SME owner-managers, who are the key decision-makers, face numerous challenges in managing cross-cultural complexities, which can hinder successful international market expansion. Previous research often neglects the pivotal role of owner-managers in SME internationalization models. This study investigates the role of Leadership Self-Efficacy (LSE) in shaping the foreign market entry mode choices of SMEs, while considering the moderating effects of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Drawing on upper echelons theory, we propose that high LSE among SME owner-managers fosters more ambitious and risk-taking entry strategies. Our research emphasizes that CQ and EQ are essential in navigating the complexities of internationalization, enabling managers to effectively manage diverse cultural environments and stakeholder relationships. Data were collected from 399 SME owner-managers in Norway and Azerbaijan, utilizing binary logistic regression analysis to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that owner-managers with high LSE are more likely to choose equity-based entry modes, such as joint ventures or wholly-owned subsidiaries, particularly when they also exhibit high levels of CQ and EQ. This study advances theoretical understanding by highlighting the significance of specific managerial competencies in enhancing international expansion efforts.

Which countries exhibit the largest gender disparities in entrepreneurship—and what is the role of gender equality in these disparities? We argue that a multifaceted approach that distinguishes between different types of entrepreneurship is warranted to better understand the cross-national variation in entrepreneurial gender gaps. Our phenomenon-driven study documents that gender disparities are substantially more pronounced in employer entrepreneurship than in solo self-employment and that the two constructs are only weakly related to one another across countries. This has important implications for the role of gender equality: it is positively associated with women representation in employer entrepreneurship and negatively with women (over-)representation in solo self-employment. Unpacking gender equality, we find that informal institutional de facto gender equality plays a larger role than formal institutional de jure gender equality. Our findings draw attention to the multifaceted nature of entrepreneurial gender disparities and their institutional roots, which hold important implications for entrepreneurship theory and policy, as well as international business scholarship on cross-national gender disparities.

In this paper, we challenge the dominant wisdom about the need to combine both exploitation and exploration for the successful management of the internationalization process. From our analysis of five case SMEs, we find that during the internationalization of production, firms react to the changing external environment not only by adapting their strategies but also by implementing a number of incremental changes long after their initial entry into the foreign market. The continuous pace and the radical scope of change suggest that entrepreneurially-driven SMEs focus on the exploitation of incremental adaptations distributed over time based on existing knowledge. These adaptations lead to radical organizational renewal without the explorative introduction of new means.

This paper aims at increasing the theoretical precision when using the international entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial internationalization concepts. In particular, the paper addresses the apparent interchangeable use of these concepts. The paper utilizes international exchange relationships, value chains, and learning to explore their respective ontologies, thereby developing a framework that facilitates a distinction between the concepts. Using this framework suggests that international entrepreneurship can be understood as the exploitation of international exchange opportunities in the value chain, while entrepreneurial internationalization can be understood as the exploration of these opportunities, also outside the current planned value chain.