This study seeks to gain a better understanding of how small late internationalising (mature) firms operating in mature industry contexts, which seem largely ignored in international entrepreneurship research, identify primary and subsequent international opportunities. Integrating international opportunity and network literature, as well as adopting a multiple case study design, we build on the evidence obtained from two Swedish and two Norwegian late internationalising firms operating in medium-technology industries. Our findings highlight the vital importance of business ties for identification of both primary and subsequent international opportunities by mature firms operating in mature industries. We find that such firms may identify their primary international opportunities by both discovery and creation. Furthermore, the firms’ reputation in the domestic market, accumulated technological knowledge and needs for product customisation and/or customer involvement in product development, may indicate whether the firms tend to discover primary international opportunities or create them either by strengthening existing business ties or by forming new ones. With regard to subsequent international opportunities, creation is found to be a more likely way to identify opportunities. We show that ‘false’ (identified but not pursued) international opportunities, apart from generating a beneficial learning experience for both entrepreneurs and firms, prompt the entrepreneurs to (i) realise the urgency of needed strategic changes and (ii) identify future learning content, i.e. knowledge which should be acquired by the firm for successful pursuit of subsequent international opportunities.

这项研究旨在更好地了解在成熟行业环境中运作的小型国际化（成熟）小型公司在国际企业家研究中似乎被很大程度上忽略了，它们确定了主要和后续的国际机会。我们整合了国际机会和网络文献，并采用了多案例研究设计，我们基于从两家瑞典和两家挪威中后期国际化公司从事中型技术行业获得的证据为基础。我们的发现凸显了业务联系对于在成熟行业中运营的成熟公司识别主要和后续国际机会至关重要。我们发现，这些公司可以通过发现和创造来确定其主要的国际机会。此外，公司在国内市场的声誉，积累的技术知识以及对产品定制和/或客户参与产品开发的需求，可能表明公司是倾向于发现主要的国际机会还是通过加强现有业务联系或形成新的机会来创造机会那些。关于随后的国际机会，发现创造是发现机会的更可能的方式。我们表明，“错误的”（确定的但没有追求的）国际机会，除了为企业家和企业都带来有益的学习经验之外，还促使企业家（i）意识到需要进行战略变革的紧迫性，以及（ii）确定未来的学习内容， IE