Corporate global mindset and internationalization of SMES

Introduction/background: Although internationalization is crucial for SMEs' development little research exists on the relationship between the attributes that create corporate global mindset, and their effects on companies’ internationalization. While existing research focuses on the isolated analysis of single factors, this paper introduces a set-theoretic approach, investigating interdependencies of complementarity, efficiency, and novelty among the various factors making up corporate global mindset. Aim of the paper: The study's objectives are to: (1) identify attributes (business postures) relating to corporate global mindset; and (2) identify and evaluate the combinations of corporate global mindset attributes that lead to internationalization behavior. Materials and methods: This study performs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) to analyze how corporate global mindset relates to SMEs internationalization. The sample consists of 73 Polish SMEs. Results and conclusions: This study confirms that four different combinations of corporate global mindset attributes can lead to the same outcome – the high degree of internationalization. This research lies in providing an understanding of how different solutions can lead to the same result. This insight is helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of firms’ internationalization