Digital platforms and international performance of Italian SMEs: an exploitation-based overview
研究了数字平台如何影响意大利中小企业在国外的经济绩效，发现利用因素（如ICT投资、网站和社交页面的语言数量）对销售回报率有正向作用。
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.