Abstract
Drawing upon the liabilities of newness and smallness perspective, we explore the impact of the degree of internationalization (DOI) on the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the moderating impact of competitive strategies. An analysis of data from Korean SMEs reveals an S-shaped relationship between DOI and performance. Moreover, SMEs emphasizing a differentiation strategy may have better performance when increasing the DOI, whereas the opposite is true for SMEs emphasizing a cost leadership strategy. The findings support a three-stage internationalization theory in the SME context and provide a contingency perspective on the performance implications of the optimal DOI.
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