The Influence of Decision-Maker Characteristics on the International Strategic Decision-Making Process: An SME Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to explore different aspects of SMEs’ strategic decision-making processes in international business. In particularly, we want to understand if exist a relationship between SMEs’ decision-maker characteristics (e.g. international experience, nationality, skill), and the process of strategic decision-making in international field. To achieve this, an examination of these aspects on a sample of 77 SMEs was conducted.Main results revealed that there is a strong relationship between decision-maker education and two important phases of internationalstrategic decision-making process, that are International Market Selection and Entry Mode Selection.