Return migration, informal learning, human capital development and SME internationalization in the CEE region: A systematic literature review

Bridging Intellectual Capital and SMEs Internationalization through the Lens of Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Systematic Literature Review

“…In what concerns the values bounding the conceptual framework-in line with Webster and Watson [57]-it is our belief that the multicriteria approach of the triad intellectual capital-SMEs internationalization-sustainable competitive advantage would become a good starting point for other scholars to make sense of the accumulated knowledge in the field via the multidisciplinary perspectives, beginning with the topic's central ideas towards the related key findings and relationships among variables. Hereby, the identified research areas which mainstream the relationship between intellectual capital and SMEs internationalization through the lens of sustainable competitive advantage fall under the following main directions and/or conceptual frameworks: (a) strategic alliances, e.g., [18,36,63,64], (b) social and business networks, e.g., [8,50,51,65,66], (c) business skills, e.g., [36,46,55,67], (d) pursue or achievement of sustainable competitive advantage, e.g., [19,36,68,69], (e) SMEs performance, e.g., [13,29,50,70], (f) family-owned business, e.g., [24,[71][72][73][74], (g) prior international experience, e.g., [55,[75][76][77], (h) knowledge transfer, e.g., [12,78,79], (i) institutional/governmental programs, e.g., [19,47,80,81], (j) business/organizational innovation, e.g.,…”

“…The second criterion used to group the selected articles envisaged the type of study, namely theoretical versus empirical (research paper). At this level, the great majority of the contributions in the field are empirical, e.g., [1,13,18,26,27,36,46,50,51,53,55,66,111] whereas theoretical papers are very scant, e.g., [12,19,124].…”

“…Among the motivations associated with internationalization initiatives, the literature in the field lists the economies of scale, knowledge acquisition and leverage, market power enhancement, stronger capabilities achievement, multilevel innovation, entrepreneurial opportunities seeking, sustainable competitive advantage, etc. [11,12,16,17,22,23,126,127]. Adjectively, the factors that influence the managerial decision to internationalize are related to knowledge of foreign languages, understanding of business opportunities, saturation on the local market, increased competition, globalization trend, and international contacts [36] (p. 53).…”

“…Going further, managers' international experience contributes to their international orientation [5,12,29,46,77], therefore, forming the basis for the internationalization of SMEs [2,13]. In the developing countries, managers who were able to use their capabilities in the quest for sustainable business opportunities, locally and afterwards internationally, once they establish the right course of action for resources exploitation, they succeeded in exploring and taking advantage of market opportunities [22,84].…”

“…Going further, after examining factors that drive internationalization undertakings, Vedula and Matusik [77] conclude that the initial experiences, the role of social cues, and firm-level heterogeneity are definitive in this dynamic. Individual relationships within a firm or with customers, contact networks involve social interaction and knowledge transfer and it represents a learning process, with the real capacity to strengthen business transactions [12,50]. The social cues have a major role in the managerial decisions whereas similarities with other firms influence actions; even though a firm possesses its own knowledge and routines, the common experiences will settle different capabilities and routines over time [77].…”