Corporate Governance and Advanced Forms of Internationalisation in Italian SMEs

The majority of small firms lack the resources and competences required to implement advanced international strategies and to engage in global business activities; small firms face considerable barriers when attempting to engage in international partnerships, joint ventures and foreign direct investments, and are more likely to fail than large firms. In this paper, we investigate the role of corporate governance system in providing the small firms with resources and competences and in promoting the changes in the entrepreneurial culture which are necessary to pursue advanced internationalisation strategies. Results suggest that the governance system is important for the cooptation of new members in the strategic decision-making groups of the firm and indicate that the environmental context can be an important moderating variable in the relationship between corporate governance and internationalisation.