Two important phenomena have increasingly been noted in relation to small firms: they are internationalising more often and early in their life cycle. However, less is known about the other process dimensions of small firm internationalisation, particularly about the number of international markets small firms venture into, their choice and geographic scope of international markets, and levels of commitment in these markets. If we follow the internationalisation process models, we can assume that small firms will gradually internationalise and increase their commitments to psychically close international markets. However, as this empirical study using multiple case study methodology shows, recent internationalisers are internationalising to multiple and distant markets across a broader and global geographic scope with a low and fluctuating international market commitment. This internationalisation behaviour reflects “compressed internationalisation” involving the compression of internationalisation processes across distances and geographic markets. Although compressed internationalisation has largely been enabled by the new international environment, internationalisation strategy and international entrepreneurial orientation influence whether a firm engages in compressed internationalisation.

与小公司有关的两个重要现象越来越多地被注意到：它们在其生命周期的早期，更频繁地进行国际化。但是，对于小公司国际化的其他过程维度，尤其是对小公司所涉足的国际市场的数量，他们对国际市场的选择和地理范围以及对这些市场的承诺程度，知之甚少。如果我们遵循国际化过程模型，我们可以假设小公司将逐渐实现国际化，并加大其在心理上封闭国际市场的承诺。但是，正如使用多个案例研究方法进行的实证研究所示，近期的国际化公司正在国际化的市场中，波动性较低且波动较大，因此正在更广泛的全球地理区域中向多个遥远的市场进行国际化。这种国际化行为反映了“压缩的国际化”，涉及跨距离和地域市场的国际化过程的压缩。尽管压缩的国际化很大程度上是由新的国际环境推动的，但国际化战略和国际企业家取向会影响企业是否进行压缩的国际化。