Zuzana Virglerova

Tomas Bata University in Zlín, 

Faculty of Management and Economics, 

Zlín, Czech Republic

virglerova@utb.cz

ORCID 0000-0002-7957-9216

Factors influencing internationalization of micro-enterprises and SMEs in Central Europe

Sandor Kovacs

University of Debrecen, Faculty of Economics and Business,

Debrecen, Hungary

kovacs.sandor@econ.unideb.hu

ORCID 0000-0002-1216-346X

Jaroslav Belas

University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów,

Poland

belas111@gmail.com 

ORCID 0000-0002-5900-997X

Judit Olah

John von Neumann University, 

Kecskemét, Hungary;

College of Business and Economics, 

University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa;

University of Debrecen, Faculty of Economics and Business, 

Debrecen, Hungary

olah.judit@econ.unideb.hu

ORCID 0000-0003-2247-1711

Abstract. Internationalizing a company is particularly challenging for micro-enterprises and SMEs due to the limited resources available for managing strategic activities. This paper aimed to create a model of the factors influencing the internationalization process of micro-enterprises and SMEs from Central Europe. The study employed principal component analysis to identify latent components of the model, namely innovation, strategic management (SM), and barriers. The factors and their relationships were analyzed using Logit regression and ANOVA. Additionally, the influence of two control variables on the selected factors and barriers to internationalization was examined. The research findings indicate that the most significant barrier to internationalization is the difference in tax policies. Furthermore, a significant correlation exists between innovation and strategic management barriers, while the strategies for innovation depend on the size and age of the company.

Received: April, 2024

1st Revision: February, 2025

Accepted: March, 2025

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2025/18-1/11

JEL Classification: L10, L25, O32

Keywords: strategic management, internationalization, innovation, SMEs