This article extends knowledge of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) by examining EO in the context of international performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We enhance understanding of foreign market entry of SMEs by taking into account the mediating mechanisms (i.e. networking capability and experiential learning) through which firm EO leads to superior performance across borders. A sample of 164 internationalising SMEs in New Zealand supported the direct impact of EO on international performance as well as the mediating role of experiential learning and networking capability in this focal relationship. These findings reveal the importance of EO in internationalisation of SMEs.

Little research addresses the likely enabling character of the discovery and creation of opportunities during the internationalization of small firms or how international opportunities are found and constructed during the process of foreign market entry (FME). This article therefore studies how opportunities become connected during small firms’ FME. By incorporating the concept of duality, this article conceives of the discovery and creation of opportunity as mutually enabling rather than opposed. From this duality perspective, opportunity discovery and creation facilitate each other during internationalization processes. This case study involves five high-tech Australian firms and 30 FMEs. The findings show that knowledge, networks, and capabilities enable opportunities in the FME context. International opportunities are connected and nested in different levels of generality and specificity. The FME opportunities may be based on opportunity embeddedness, because each opportunity has implications for other opportunities. The findings lead to a model and propositions to explain the relationships between opportunity discovery and creation in FME.

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