Purpose

Recognising the increasing relevance of digital platforms in socio-economic dynamics, the paper aims at investigating in which ways digital platforms can influence the economic performances of Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) actively engaged in foreign countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts the interpretative lens provided by the exploration–exploitation dichotomy within current studies in knowledge management for defining knowledge-based factors able to influence the economic performance of Italian SMEs in foreign countries. An explorative study on secondary data related to 746 Italian SMEs is conducted for testing via structural equation modelling (SEM) the positive relationships between (1) SME's investment in information and communication technologies (ICT), (2) number of languages available for the SME's website and (3) number of languages available for SME's social pages and SME's return on sales (ROS) in foreign countries.

Findings

The results underline the key role of exploitation factors in terms of influence on SME's performance in foreign countries.

Originality/value

The paper enriches current studies about international marketing providing preliminary evidence about the key role of exploitation factors in influencing SME's performance in foreign countries.

中文翻译：

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意大利中小企业的数字平台和国际表现：基于剥削的概述

目的

认识到数字平台在社会经济动态中的相关性越来越高，本文旨在调查数字平台可以通过哪些方式影响积极参与国外的意大利中小型企业 (SME) 的经济表现。

设计/方法/方法

本文采用当前知识管理研究中探索-开发二分法提供的解释性视角，定义能够影响意大利中小企业在国外的经济表现的基于知识的因素。对与 746 家意大利中小企业相关的二手数据进行了探索性研究，以通过结构方程模型 (SEM) 测试 (1) 中小企业对信息和通信技术 (ICT) 的投资，(2) 中小企业可用的语言数量之间的正相关关系。网站和 (3) SME 社交页面可用的语言数量和 SME 在国外的销售回报率 (ROS)。

发现

结果强调了剥削因素在影响国外中小企业绩效方面的关键作用。

原创性/价值

本文丰富了当前关于国际营销的研究，提供了关于剥削因素在影响国外中小企业绩效中的关键作用的初步证据。