International Business Competence Framework: Internationalized Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) survival in the international world has received many research interests as SMEs’ success contributes to the country’s economy. Empirical evidence has demonstrated the importance of SMEs to possess business competence in order to gain superior performance in the international market. However, studies on business competence of internationalized SMEs are still limited. The author set out to design a testable hypothesized international business competence framework for internationalized SMEs with a consideration of a multidimensional concept which includes international orientation, international marketing skills, international innovativeness, and international market orientation (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional orientation) against qualitative and quantitative international SME performance.