Purpose –Internationalisation is considered as a key strategy to grow and survive over longer period of time for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Although internationalisation is a popular strategy both for large and small firms, the decision to enter in a foreign market is not a straight forward story particularly for the small firms. Considering the resource limitation, SMEs need to analyse the key drivers of internationalisation very carefully. The purpose of this paper is to identify these drivers for the SMEs in a developing country.
Design/methodology/approach – By using questionnaire survey, this study collected primary data from 212 Bangladeshi SMEs. From sampling point of view, this study used cluster sampling. A mixed method data analysis technique is used to analyse the firms both from micro and macro levels. Based on the survey data, this study has developed and validated partial least square based structural model (PLS-SEM) to assess the key drivers to enter in foreign markets.
Findings – This study contributes to extend our knowledge in relation to the drivers of internationalisation in the context of developing countries’ SMEs with particular attention to Bangladesh. To identify the major drivers, this study develops and validates a hierarchical reflective model through PLS based SEM. From the structural analysis, this study proposes 3 major types of drivers related to the internationalisation of SMEs in the context of Bangladesh- Firm specific drivers, industry specific drivers and country specific drivers. While all of these three types of drivers (Firm specific drivers, industry specific drivers and country specific drivers) are significantly related to the overall drivers of internationalisation, firm specific drivers seems most influentia
