The relationship between entrepreneurship and international performance: the importance of the domestic environment

This article investigates the effect of environmental conditions on the association between entrepreneurship and international performance. Drawing upon a sample of 152 internationalized Greek firms, it presents evidence related to mainly contingency and configurational effects of international and domestic environments. The key conclusion from the evidence is that uncertainty of domestic country plays significant role, positively moderating the entrepreneurship-international performance relationship. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in the emerging international entrepreneurship literature pinpointing the significance of uncertainty in domestic country for superior organizational performance abroad. This finding stresses the importance of the environmental determinism view suggesting that the alignment of entrepreneurship with domestic environmental conditions enhances international performance. It also suggests that domestic country risk reduction policies may not be implemented since these can lower performance abroad for entrepreneurial activities.