Which organizational structures for SME opportunity recognition and exploitation?

Abstract

The updated internationalization process model (Johanson & Vahlne 2009) sees knowledge on opportunities as the single most important driver of internationalization, accessed and developed through network relationships. While what we know about the role of opportunities in internationalization has grown substantially (Mainela, Puhakka, & Servais 2014), our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of international opportunity development (OD) remains inadequate (Hilmersson & Papaioannou 2015). The Journal of International Business Studies, in a forthcoming special issue on the creation and capture of entrepreneurial opportunities across national borders, called for papers that address the processes that are involved in OD. The present study builds on the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) and focuses on the organizational structures and practices that are necessary in the different stages of opportunity development by SMEs in the process of internationalization. The study brings together ideas from the literatures on Internationalization Process Theory (IP), Opportunity Development (OD) and Structural Contingency Theory (SCT) to answer the question “How do SMEs use organizational structures and knowledge practices in the process of opportunity recognition, evaluation and exploitation?.”