Internationalization of SMEs: a systematic review of 20 years of research

摘要: This article shares the results of a systematic review literature on internationalization small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based bibliometric techniques. resulted in identification main themes that have been focus researchers over 20 years, emerging last 5 years, research agenda for future studies. It was also possible to propose theoretical framework with influential factors various stages SMEs. The analysis 669 articles from 1998 2017 carried out two involving quantitative methods (bibliometric bibliographic coupling). first helped identify authors, journals, countries conducted SMEs within these 20 years. In second analysis, we divided total period 20 years into four sub-periods coupling grouped similar each themes. thematic clusters emerged indicated more relevant cutting-edge were as follows: antecedents, patterns, outcomes These consistent De Clercq et al.’s (2012) framework, making evident, by way an exploratory method, convergence international business (IB) SMEs, but specific concerning