Internationalisation challenges of SMEs: role of intellectual capital

The study examines the impact of internationalisation challenges on the internationalisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Second, the study investigates the role of intellectual capital in the association between internationalisation challenges and the firm's internalisation. By collecting data from 211 manufacturing sector SMEs of Pakistan, PLS-SEM was employed to analyse the hypothesised relationship. Second, one-way ANOVA was employed to check whether the internationalisation differs by the level of IC or not. The results depicted a significant negative influence of all four groups of internationalisation challenges on the firm's international performance. Results also showed a significant and direct impact of human capital and structural capital on a firms' international performance. Results showed that IC significantly and negatively moderated the association between internationalisation challenges and performance. Likewise, results also showed that firms with stronger IC were having better international performance as compare to the firms with weaker IC.