A culturally contingent view of the RBV in SMES internationalization

Rachida Aïssaoui, Norbert Sipos and Frances Fabian

Journal of International Management, 2025, vol. 31, issue 5

Abstract: This study advances a culturally contingent approach to the resource-based view (RBV) by theorizing how national culture may affect the ways SMEs evaluate their resource endowments before deciding to internationalize. Comparing 1060 SMEs from 4 advanced and 11 emerging and developing economies, and accounting for the SME's national culture, our study departs from universalistic assumptions about the role of resources as a barrier to SME internationalization. SME internationalization research has often emphasized nations' economic status to explain why and when firms expand globally; we demonstrate that its effects are conflated with culture, obscuring critical dynamics in the process. Our findings extend RBV theory by introducing “cultural resource valuation” as a key mechanism, highlighting, for instance, a more nuanced role for networking capabilities in supporting the successful internationalization of SMEs than previously argued. We conclude that both managers and policymakers must recognize this cultural contingency, as Western-derived generalizations may misalign with domestic trade imperatives in diverse contexts. Doing so offers both theoretical nuance and practical guidance for SME internationalization.

Keywords: Collectivism-individualism; International entrepreneurship; Internationalization; Resource-based view; National culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425325000535
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:intman:v:31:y:2025:i:5:s1075425325000535

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 601266/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2025.101275

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Management is currently edited by M. Kotabe

More articles in Journal of International Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().