Regional expansion of emerging market SMEs: the roles of domestic market environmental uncertainty and international alliance partner diversity

This study develops and tests a framework of the effect of domestic market environmental uncertainty on international alliance partner diversity (IAPD) and the effect of IAPD on small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) regional expansion. Leveraging primary data from a sample of 232 Pakistani SMEs, the findings indicate that domestic market dynamism and technological dynamism drive SMEs to engage in IAPD. The analysis further reveals that IAPD improves SMEs’ regional expansion, and particularly so at higher levels of cross-cultural knowledge absorption. The research and practical implications of these findings are discussed.