# Assessing SMEs' Internationalisation Strategies in Action
## 1 Introduction  
Previous literature highlights the pivotal role of globalisation in the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which results in an increasing effort in managing SMEs' internationalisation processes [1; 2]. The efficiency and effectiveness of these processes are directly related to the way SMEs manage their internationalisation-related information [3; 4] and their internationalisation-related knowledge [5; 6] to internationalize their business activities. Within this scenario, previous studies have shown that the internationalisation of business activities is more complicated for SMEs than large firms [7; 8]. Consequently, the recent literature has focused on the barriers and risks hindering SMEs to enter new foreign markets. A variety of specific factors hindering the internationalisation of SMEs have been previously explored empirically, analysing environmental, financial, operational and Organisational barriers [9; 10]. Previous literature has shown that SMEs are more successful in internationalizing their business when they leverage on strong internal resources or if they receive incentives and/or support from external sources. Furthermore, a rather new research direction aims to explore the critical success factors affecting the process of internationalisation of SMEs positively. Specifically, several contributions have previously analysed how SMEs can be supported in their internationalisation process by external partners [11], local target-country partners [12], home-countryparthers and institutions that provide consulting services or foreign-trade promotion [13]. Within this evolving scenario, a systematic review analysing the different topic areas investigated in the body of literature (i.e., factors influencing internationalisation, internationalisation models, internationalisation barriers and the impact of internationalisation on performance) and the specificity of the diverse phases of internationalisation of an SME (start-up, early entrance and international growth) still seems to be neglected. These two perspectives of analysis are crucial and highlight important additional issues. The factors influencing the process of internationalisation in the various phases are not necessarily the same. These factors include aspects related to changes in SMEs with a view to Industry 4.0. Businesses are changing by introducing industry 4.0 technologies, such as cyber-physical systems, cloud computing or visual analytics, that may be linked to bringing transparency to the industry, increasing sustainability [14]. Besides, vertical integration, holistic life-cycle management, horizontal integration through value networks and sustaining innovative product design is among the most pressing challenges for SMEs [15; 16]. Even internationalisation models adopted are different. Nevertheless, the different phases of the process of internationalisation of an SME remain an underexplored area of research. Thus, the main aim of this paper was to discuss SMEs' internationalisation processes. This paper finds a place in the emerging debate regarding whether regular business-to-business ties with companies can intensify the internationalisation process of SMEs. With these premises, this paper aimed to conduct a literature review on the topic of internationalisation of SMEs. This review extends the body of knowledge on business management and internationalisation domains: (i) investigating the impact of the thematic areas described above in the internationalisation process of SMEs, with particular attention on decision-making; (ii) detecting the research gaps to be further investigated in the existing literature. With these premises, the remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the methodology used to conduct the review and presents the five-step approach used to analyse the literature on the topic. Section 3 discusses the findings of the structured literature review (SLR).