Rapid Internationalization of SMEs from Resource Based View: A longitudinal Study of a Pharmaceutical company in Iran

In current global economy with hyper competition in home market, access to foreign markets has become a must for most of SMEs; therefore, SMEs internationalization has received great attention. However, internationalization of SMEs from developing countries in general and rapid internationalization in particular has remained largely unsearched. This longitudinal study was carried out with the aim of exploring the pattern of successful internationalization of an active pharmaceutical ingredient B2B SME from the resource based view (RBV). The study covers the company’s activities for establishment in foreign markets over a 12-year period (2000 2011) during which it entered 25 countries and increased its export by 20 times. The results of the study show that the internationalization behavior of the studied SME can be explained by a combination of three main critical resources such as entrepreneurial orientation, networking capability and adaptive production capability. These three resources have played crucial role as source of competitive advantage across foreign markets over time. Furthermore, although the RBV was constant during the period studied, the resources as bases for creating competitive advantages were changed from tangible to more intangible sources. The study has significant managerial and academic implications.