FACTORS DETERMINING EARLY INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ENTREPRENEURIAL SMES: THEORETICAL APPROACH

Sa？etak The management literature has recently given the increased attention to the topic of entrepreneurial activity and internationalization of small and medium sized enterprises. The rapid internationalization of SMEs activities since their establishment becomes one of the features of international new ventures. This paper presents different factors, which determine early internationalization of international new ventures. These factors are divided to entrepreneurial, organizational and contextual factors. We argue that early internationalization of international new ventures is defined by entrepreneurial characteristics and previous experience of the entrepreneur, opportunities recognition and exploitation, risk tolerance, specific of the organization, involvement into networks and contextual factors. This paper conceptualizes a framework which links different factors. Benefits of early internationalization are provided too. The conceptual framework is built on the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature. Based on theoretical results further research directions are presented