Drivers of SMEs’ exporting activity: a review and a research agenda

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic and updated assessment of studies on key exporting stimuli for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to propose a research agenda on this topic. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a review of empirical articles on SMEs’ exporting stimuli and outline future research directions based on key emerging drivers. Findings – Research on SMEs’ exporting drivers focuses mainly on human resources’ competences, skills and subjective characteristics and on the role of relevant network actors (customers, intermediaries). Originality/value – This paper provides an original contribution with regard to updating the framework on export drivers by Leonidou et al. (2007), highlighting an emerging research perspective based on internal/external network dimensions and proposing future research directions on internal individual and organisational actors and on new external network actors