Macro-level spillovers and micro-level capabilities as antecedents of young SMEs’ propensity to export and to become a born global

After reviewing literature on knowledge-based antecedents of the internationalization of SMEs, one could conclude that knowledge-based capabilities of the firm and external spillovers are influential factors equally valid for leading a firm to decide becoming an exporter or becoming a born global. Since these decisions are conceptually different, and so are those potentially influential factors, one at the micro and the other at the macro level of antecedents, this research work assumes the opposite thesis. For hypotheses testing, we examined the case of young Spanish manufacturing SMEs combining firm-level data with territorial data at the autonomous community level in Spain. Applying binomial logistic regression models, which estimate the probability of an event happening, results from a sample of 242 young Spanish manufacturing SMEs corroborate that knowledge spillovers rather than firm’s capabilities influence a young SME’s propensity to export, while firm’s capabilities rather than knowledge spillovers influence a new venture propensity to become a born-global firm.