SMEs' formation of minority international joint ventures and level of internationalization: The moderating role of a global versus regional focus

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the number of minority international joint ventures (MIJVs) formed and the level of internationalization attained in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We argue that this is an inverted U-shaped relationship that is negatively moderated by a global (versus regional) focus. We test our hypotheses on a comprehensive sample of Spanish manufacturing SMEs from 2006 to 2013. Whereas our empirical analysis does not provide enough support for a curvilinear relationship, the results we obtained show a positive linear association between SMEs' number of MIJVs and internationalization and corroborate the negative moderation of a global focus. Thus, this study enhances our understanding of the specific impact of an internationalization strategy based on the formation of MIJVs in the context of SMEs. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of considering contingencies at the regional frontier to understand the effect of SMEs' foreign expansion strategies.