Corresponding Author Affiliation*: Horizons University, France

Abstract:

To survive and prosper in the era of globalization, Italian fashion SMEs increasingly operate overseas, directly or through intermediaries. Expanding internationally helps these firms seize new business opportunities, but also confronts them with strategic and operational issues, challenging their ability to remain competitive in existing markets. Starting from these premises, an empirical study was conducted to assess the impact of internationalization processes on market exploitation in Italian fashion SMEs. The researcher analyzed a sample of 310 companies and adopted the explanatory sequential design, involving the use of quantitative and qualitative methods in two consecutive phases. According to the research results, most SMEs experienced a lower degree of responsiveness, higher costs and growing levels of organizational complexity during the first stages of internationalization, with detrimental effects on market exploitation.

Keywords: Internationalization, SMEs, Exploitation, Exploration, Operations, Italian Fashion