Introduction to Internationalization from a Network Approach: The Relevance of Domestic and International Relationships

The competitiveness of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) is deeply affected by the increasing globalization of the economy, which offers new growth opportunities. Recently, many traditional SMEs have decided to develop their activities abroad due to domestic saturation in all industries (Dominguez & Mayrhofer, 2017). In the field of international business, this increasing level of internationalization has generated a growing interest in explaining the factors that underpin a firm’s ability to gain a sustainable competitive edge in this new arena, with a special interest in SMEs that tend to possess far fewer resources than multinational enterprises (MNEs).