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Understanding the internationalization process of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is imperative for emerging economies to compete globally. Empirical findings of SMEs from emerging countries are still lacking. Thus, this study intends to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive model for the process of SMEs internationalization in Malaysia. Five major internationalization perspectives namely process and stage models, network, born-global and international new ventures, resource-based view, and international entrepreneurship were integrated in formulating a framework for this study. In-depth interviews were carried out with thirty-two Malaysian experts including academics, policy makers, government agencies, chamber of commerce, and research institute. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed manually using thematic coding and frequency counts analysis. Six important factors with distinguished categories and items pertaining to SME internationalization process were identified: 1) triggering factors; 2) internal factors; 3) external factors; 4) networking; 5) barriers and challenges, and 6) operations for internationalization. The main contribution of this study is a generic model of SME internationalization that can provide apertures on researching into SME internationalization in emerging economies.

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Purpose The paper is grounded in a comparatively unexplored but growing research interest, which seeks to explain the effect of a country’s religious composition on its economic activity. As an extension of that, this study aims to examine the relationship between Muslim populations and the prevalence of entrepreneurial activity across nations. Integrated with institutional theory, the authors also consider formal and informal institutional variables as contingency factors in this milieu. So, it further investigates if the strategic intervention of formal and informal institutions moderates the relationship between religion and entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach This study uses multi-source data sets from the association of religious data archive, global entrepreneurship monitor and the World Bank. The sample includes 88 countries for analysis, aggregated from 2012 to 2014. The ordinary least squares regression using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) Statistics Version 26 is used for the analysis. Findings The findings show that Muslim populations are negatively associated with the rate of new business activities in a country, including the formal type of entrepreneurship. However, further analysis reveals that Muslims entrepreneurship is actually driven by necessity and not by opportunity. Practical implications The regulatory environment and entrepreneurial culture are not enough to overcome resistance toward entrepreneurship among Muslims. One possible practical recommendation is to empower religious institutions to preach a clear message supporting participation in economic activities. Social implications This research sheds light on the discrepancy between Islamic religious teaching and eventual behavior of the followers. Originality/value This research contributes to both academics and practitioners in several ways. First, it responds to the recent call for more studies on the effect of religious beliefs toward secular organizations by providing empirical evidence on how the prevalence of Muslims in a particular country is associated with levels of entrepreneurship. Second, it adds to the theoretical understanding of the mechanism that explains the relationship between the two. As institutional theory has not been applied extensively in the study of religion and entrepreneurship, it proposes that dynamic institutions play major roles to accelerate or attenuate the effect of Islam on entrepreneurship.

Purpose This study aims to integrate both internal and external factors to examine the effect of innovation and perceived trade barriers on firms’ export activity. In particular, the authors expand the scope of innovation into both technological (product and process) and non-technological (marketing and management) innovation. Furthermore, the authors examine the potential joint effect of perceived customs and trade barriers on firms. Design/methodology/approach The authors empirically test the hypotheses by using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey during the most recent year available for each ASEAN country, together with both firm- and country-level controls from various data sources. Specifically, the final sample for analysis includes 3,602 firms from Cambodia (100), Indonesia (1157), Laos (99), Malaysia (445), the Philippines (719), Thailand (572) and Vietnam (510). Findings First, the results show that firm-specific innovation capabilities (including non-technological of managerial innovation) do matter for explaining export propensity. Furthermore, in contexts in which location-bound advantages are prevalent, the effects of innovation may disappear and further deteriorate performance in the post-entry stage. Second, the findings support the notion regarding the prevalence of country- over firm-specific advantages for the international expansion of companies from ASEAN countries. More specifically, this study holds that innovation does not matter for export intensity and that factors related to the location’s institutions appear to be more important. Originality/value First, it acknowledges and examines the effect of not only technological innovation, but also non-technological innovation on export intention. Second, the paper measures the institutional effect at the firm level, rather than as a country-specific factor, to better understand the combined effect of internal and external variables on firms’ export strategy. Furthermore, it performs a cross-country analysis while controlling for other confounding firm and macro factors. Third, the authors test the model on both pre-entry (export propensity) and post-entry (export intensity) stages. Finally, the study responds to calls for research that examines the international competitive advantages of firms from ASEAN countries.