Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices

Zahoor, Nadia; Donbesuur, Francis; Khan, Zaheer; Tarba, Shlomo Y.; Cooper, Cary L.

doi:10.3390/su15021685

Open AccessArticle

Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices

by

Nadia Zahoor

^1,2

,

Francis Donbesuur

³,

Zaheer Khan

^2,4,5,*

,

Shlomo Y. Tarba

⁶ and

Cary L. Cooper

⁷

¹

Department of Business and Society, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK

²

InnoLab, University of Vaasa, 65200 Vaasa, Finland

³

University of Leicester School of Business Leicester, Leicester LE2 1RQ, UK

⁴

Business School, King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 5UA, UK

⁵

Africa–Asia Centre for Sustainability, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 5UA, UK

⁶

The Department of Strategy and International Business, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

⁷

Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1685; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021685

Submission received: 17 November 2022 / Revised: 7 January 2023 / Accepted: 10 January 2023 / Published: 16 January 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Sustainable Management)

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Abstract

Although the performance implications of inter- and intra-firm collaborations have been discussed by prior studies, how such collaborations can drive the accelerated internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) originating from emerging markets remains unclear. This study was, thus, aimed at shedding light on this relationship by drawing insights from the resource-based view (RBV). We argued that the interaction between inter- and intra-firm collaborations can drive accelerated internationalization through environmental management practices. We, thus, developed and tested a conceptual framework by performing structural equation modeling on a sample of 208 SMEs based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Our findings reveal that the interaction between inter- and intra-firm collaborations is indeed conducive to accelerated internationalization. More importantly, we found that environmental management practices mediate the relationship between such interaction and accelerated internationalization. Our findings have important implications for international entrepreneurship research and practice in relation to how environmental management practices can enhance such a relationship.

Keywords: intra-firm collaboration; inter-firm collaboration; environmental management practices; accelerated internationalization; SMEs; emerging markets

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MDPI and ACS Style

Zahoor, N.; Donbesuur, F.; Khan, Z.; Tarba, S.Y.; Cooper, C.L. Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices. Sustainability 2023, 15, 1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021685

AMA Style

Zahoor N, Donbesuur F, Khan Z, Tarba SY, Cooper CL. Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices. Sustainability. 2023; 15(2):1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021685

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zahoor, Nadia, Francis Donbesuur, Zaheer Khan, Shlomo Y. Tarba, and Cary L. Cooper. 2023. "Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices" Sustainability 15, no. 2: 1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021685

APA Style

Zahoor, N., Donbesuur, F., Khan, Z., Tarba, S. Y., & Cooper, C. L. (2023). Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices. Sustainability, 15(2), 1685. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021685

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs: The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices

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