What Factors do Drive Small and Medium-sized Enterprises from the Czech Republic to Internationalization?

Increasingly, much attention has been paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are important economic entities in each country. With regard to the specifics of these enterprises is often discussed their ability to take part in the internationalization process and are investigated the main reasons for engaging in foreign trade activities. However, there are not many studies that would clearly define the main motives which lead Czech SMEs to enter foreign markets. In addition to these areas, the paper also addresses the question of whether the Czech SMEs consider internationalization as one of the ways to increase their competitiveness. The paper therefore focuses on the identification of factors that initiate the engagement of Czech SMEs in the internationalization process with an emphasis on micro-enterprises (less than 10 employees). Are the micro enterprises due to their specific characteristics motivated to enter foreign markets by different factors than small or medium-sized enterprises? Or is the motivation to take part in the internationalization process affected by the field of business in which the company works? The paper also deals with so-called 'Born Global' enterprises, which operate in foreign markets right from their founding or very soon after that and therefore refute the basic assumptions of traditional phase models of internationalization. In this context, the paper examines whether the 'Born Global' enterprises are motivated to enter foreign markets by different factors than SMEs that engage in internationalization rather gradually and which internationalization process can be explained by phase models.