In the past, international business researchers have predominantly engaged their research upon multinational companies, mainly in the developed countries. Then over the years as the importance of SMEs grew in general, internationalization of SMEs grew as a topic as well, more in developed countries, but also in emerging markets or newly industrialized economies as well (Chiao et al., 2006). This abstract is part of a current research that analyzes the most significant successful factors and barriers for internationalization of SMEs in general, making a comparison between the ones from developed and developing countries. In the dissertation the author gives a detailed literature review of development of internationalization theories of SMEs throughout the years, while in this abstract, the authors provide short literature review with examples of some of the most significant factors and barriers for success. In addition to this as the dissertation is work in progress, the abstract concludes with discussion about the future development of the dissertation, with its methodology, data analysis and contributions to be gained by it. One of the most important factors for successful internationalization of small and medium sized companies if compared to multinational companies has been networking. Many scholars have researched the networking occurrence, that is, the inter-connection of the firm with its foreign partners, customers and suppliers, as the most significant success determinant in internationalization (Sekliuckiene et al 2016, Johanson & Vahlne 2009). Several opportunities are created with the international networking incremental for success: foreign market possibility identification, potential partners, reductions of foreignness and newness on the market, etc. Networking can have different forms, such as strategic alliances, joint ventures, licensing agreements, subcontracting, joint R&D, joint marketing activities, etc. (Shirec and Bradach, 2009). Incorporating the customers, suppliers, higher education institutions, research laboratories, public organizations, clusters, public groups and communities in the innovation process (called open innovation strategy) is another form of networking that can greatly assist the internationalization process (Sekliuckiene et al, 2016). Therefore, various forms of international networking exist and SMEs should be open minded and embrace as many forms as possible in order to successfully enter in foreign markets. Another significant factor of successful internationalization is outsourcing some of the activities, especially lately offshore outsourcing. Companies are struggling to gain innovative ideas and products in order to be able to compete against multinationals and low-priced competition coming from the emerging economies. (Tiwari et al., 2007). Especially for SMEs it is very difficult to be in line with the new trends and new technologies, because of several reasons, out of which most important are limited resources. SMEs have the opportunities with the globalization to hire companies internationally and engage them in some of their core activities, such as even R&D activities as many industrialized countries have shortages of skilled labor (Tiwari et al., 2007; Di Gregorio et al, 2009). Research done by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research upon 13295 German SMEs in 2003 confirms positive trends in almost one third of companies doing offshoring outsourcing (Kinkel at al, 2008). Therefore, offshore outsourcing should be evaluated as one of the valuable success factors for internationalization of SMEs. The literature review will continue with investigating further success factors such as entrepreneurial skills of the owners, training of people in international business, cultural closeness, international market monitoring, governmental funding programs and other assisting mechanisms, financial managerial skills, technology levels and investments in technology, niche markets specialization, imitating successful competition, etc. To continue with the search for all important factors of success, one needs to study not only the success positive factors, but also the difficulties when companies internationalize. Shortages of capital and limitations of banking support have been a major difficulty for going abroad, for all companies in general, but especially for small and medium sized enterprises. SMEs have been viewed as weak and insecure enterprises when compared to bigger companies and crediting organizations are not very willing to finance exporting activities of SMEs (Ruiz and Perez, 2017). Internationalization means confronting unknown markets, new competitors, unknown institutions and banks do not like to credit such uncertainties or usually would charge SMEs bigger interest rates if compared to MNEs (Ruiz and Perez, 2017; OECD, 2009). Therefore, lack of capital and shortages of working capital to finance exports has been one of the major challenge for internationalization of SMEs and SMEs should invest in better financial managerial knowledge and expertise in order to efficiently manage the scarce resources and become successful in the international markets. The next significant barrier that has emerged from current research is limited managerial internationalization knowledge (OECD, 2009). Managerial risk perceptions were one of the major reasons why companies did not go abroad. Human capital, the founders international background and global network and his/her entrepreneurial characteristics were biggest challenges for the success of the companies abroad (Filatotchev et al, 2009). Further research will analyze additional difficulties and barriers such as limited information to markets, the inability to contact potential overseas customers, difficulties of finding the right distribution channels and representation distributors, bureaucracy and local legislation, differences in product and service range, language barriers and cultural differences, lack of government incentives, etc. The methodology of the research will be a case study approach done upon 20-30 companies from 4 countries evenly distributed among countries. Two countries will be developed ones, that is Germany and Austria; and two countries will be developing ones, Serbia and North Macedonia. Interviews and questionnaires will try to depict the most significant success factors and difficulties of internationalization of SMEs and comparison between developing and developed countries will be searched for. SMEs will be selected that have over 5 years of experience in international markets and that successfully export or invest in 3 foreign markets. In addition to this data, the research will try to gain qualitative valuable information from interviews done with local experts in internationalization of SMEs, professors from local universities in this sector, public chiefs of export departments of local ministries or chambers of commerce, etc. After the analysis of both data, the author will try to gather all information in a valuable roadmap for successful internationalization of SMEs from both developed and developing countries. This roadmap will contribute to the academic knowledge of internationalization of SMEs, especially from developing countries. In addition, this research will be very significant for the SMEs that are speculating going abroad and of course to the governmental relevant institutions that aim to increase exports of local companies. Limitations could be limited number of countries and companies, coming all from the EU market. The author is considering to limit the research upon 2 industries, because differences among sectors have been evident. In addition, the author is considering to analyze factors and barriers at entrance in a foreign market, but also factors and barriers after 3 to 5 years of existence in the foreign markets, as differences have been evident here as well.
