Goal-directed and stimulus-driven processes of international attention: Evidence from SME exporter

This study investigates how managers’ international attention can be developed in international SMEs. The results obtained from the analysis of 135 Dutch SME exporters revealed three significant findings. First, there is a goal-directed process in which international attention of SME managers is influenced by the firm’s export years and the global aspect of the firm’s export strategy. Second, there is also a stimulus-driven process where the market turbulence of a firm’s export environment matters for the variation in SME managers’ international attention. Third, the relationship between a firm’s export environmental features and the manager’s international attention is contingent on the presence of a separate export department.