The 2023 bibliography of IE articles includes papers found in:

• Thirteen IE-friendly journals (i.e. journals that have a track record of publishing IE articles) ranked as 4*, 4, or 3 in the Academic Journal Guide (AJG) of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) in two core areas for IE
  (“International Business & Area Studies” and “Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management”) plus three IE-friendly journals from other areas. 

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria were as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship (unless they relate to IE process).

The list is in Excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author, or journal.
The article titles contain a hyperlink leading to the article abstract.  Final Journal List 2023. 

Patterns?

1. There are 67 IE articles included in our list. This is a similar number to last year despite the change in our methodology.
2. Of these 67, twelve (~18%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals: JIBS (3), JBV (1), JWB (4), GSJ (3)  and SEJ (1). This is a very exciting observation indicating that IE continues to be seen as a relevant area of study for top academic outlets.
3. IBR (with 11 published IE articles) continues to be the most “IE-friendly” journal, followed by JBR (9 articles), IJSBM and JIM (6 articles in each).
4. The 2023 articles included 3 literature reviews (2 in JBR and one in JSBM) and one special issue (JWB).
5. We see ongoing research on themes that have emerged relatively recently such as IE through and on internet-based platforms along with research on entrepreneurial cognitions and international opportunity development. Scaling (thanks in part to a special issue in JWB) has been also a topic explored in several published papers in our compilation. Readers may also enjoy articles on “new” topics in the context of IE – e.g. corruption, the role of the board of directors, and religiosity.

NOTE – please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

Thanks to the Wendy Gillespie Center for Advancing Global Business for assistance in compiling this list.

The 2022 bibliography of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 30) with impact factor > 1.0; and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria were as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The list is in Excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal. The article titles contain a hyperlink leading to the article abstract. Final Journal List 2022

Patterns?

1. There are 62 IE articles included in our list. This is a slight increase from 60 published the previous year.
2. Of these 62, nine (15%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals: JIBS (2), JOM (1) JBV, (2), JWB (2), GSJ (1)  and SEJ (1). This is a positive trend indicating that IE continues to be seen as a relevant area of study.
3. Besides JIEN, the only journal devoted to IE, IBR and IJEBR published the most IE articles (8 and 14 articles, respectively).
4. The 2022 articles included 2 literature reviews and one special issue (IJEBR).
5. We continue see digitization and IE as an important theme along with entrepreneurial cognitions (e.g. entrepreneurial orientation, international experience) and social issues. There were relatively fewer articles featuring comparative studies.

NOTE – please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

Thanks to the Wendy Gillespie Center for Advancing Global Business for assistance in compiling this list.

The 2021 bibliography of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 29) with impact factor > 1.0; and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria were as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The list is in Excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal. The article titles contain a hyperlink leading to the article abstract. Final Journal list 2021

Patterns?

• There are 60 IE articles included in our list. This is a decrease from 82 published the previous year.  
• Of these 60, seven (12%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals: JBV (1), and JWB (6).
• Besides JIEN, the only journal devoted to IE, IBR, JBR and JWB published the most IE articles (8, 8 and 6 articles, respectively).
• The 2021 articles included 7 literature reviews or meta-analyses
• 6 articles were cross-country comparative studies
• The role of institutions in IE was among the most common themes (9 articles); the topic of international opportunity was a focus of 6 studies

NOTE – please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

Thanks to the Center for Advancing Global Business for assistance in compiling this list.

The 2018 spreadsheet of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 29); and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

The set of journals was expanded from 2017 to include 29 IE-friendly journals with an Impact Factor > 1.0 (we used 5-year Impact Factor where available).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria were as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE-Spreadsheet-2018 v2

Patterns?

• In 2018, 57 articles were identified which is a decrease from 2017 (88 articles) and a slight increase from 2016 (55 articles).
• Of these 57, ten (18%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals (FT List): JIBS (5), JBV (2), ETP (2) and JOM (1). No papers were found in SMJ or SEJ). Another 11 (19%) were in highly regarded journals with and Impact Factor > 3 (IMR, ISBJ and JWB).
• Besides JIE, the only journal devoted to IE, IBR continues to publish the most IE articles (7).
• IEMJ and SBE have also published significant numbers of IE articles – 5 and 4, respectively.
• Thanks to a Special Issue devoted to cross-border entrepreneurial opportunities, the number of articles published in JIBS is also relatively high (5).

What does this mean?

Although the number of IE-friendly journals has grown, the IE research seems to have slowed down a bit. However, it is good to see that top journals continue to see the IE field as an interesting topic.

NOTE – Many thanks to IE Ambassadors Sascha Fuerst, Sreevas Sahasranamam, Stine Oyna, Andreu Blesa, Marleen McCormick Pritchard, Eldrede Kahiya, Ross Curran, Sinead Monaghan, Nicole Coviello and Lasse Torkkeli, for their contribution in compiling the list. Please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

The 2020 spreadsheet of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 29) with impact factor > 1.0; and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria were as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal. Each article title also contains a hyperlink to its abstract.  Final Journal list 2020

Patterns?

• We see a slight decline in the number of IE articles published in 2020 (82 in total) from 100 articles published in 2019 and 57 articles in 2018. 
• Of these 82, thirteen (16%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals: JIBS (3), JBV (2), ETP (1) and JWB(7). 
• Besides JIEN, the only journal devoted to IE, IBR and JBR published the most IE articles (13 and 10 articles, respectively).
• The other journals with a high number of IE publications include IJEBR (7 articles), ISBJ (6 articles) and IMR (5 articles).
• Among the published articles, there were 5 IE-related literature reviews
• New themes: 7 articles related to digitization, 5 articles related to international social entrepreneurship

What does this mean?

It is exciting to see that IE remains a field that is of interest to highly impactful journals. It is also heartening to see that research productivity of IE scholars remained high despite the unusual circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 crisis. The number of literature review papers indicates that as a field, IE appears to be maturing. We still see quite a few papers exploring the “traditional” IE concepts such as internationalization speed, born global ventures, networks and advantages of newness. Likewise, comparative studies of entrepreneurship remain relatively common. However, we also see studies exploring relatively new topics from the IE angle. These include digitization and social entrepreneurship.

NOTE –Many, many thanks to IE Ambassadors  Sreevas Sahasranaman, Meena Chavan, Marleen McCormick Pritchard, Sinea Monaghan, Andreu Blesa, Imtiaz Mostafiz, Lasse Torkkeli and Novika Casandra Astuti for their contribution in compiling the list.

Please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

The 2019 spreadsheet of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 29) with impact factor > 1.0; and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria were as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: Final Journal list 2019

Patterns?

• We see a big jump in IE articles published in 2019 (100 in total) from 57 articles published in 2018 and 88 articles in 2017.
• Of these 100, eleven (11%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals (FT List): JIBS (7) and JBV (4). No papers were found in AMR, AMJ, ETP, JOM, SMJ, or SEJ. Another 49 (49%) were in highly regarded journals with an Impact Factor > 3 (e.g. IMR, ISBJ and JWB).
• Besides JIEN, the only journal devoted to IE, IBR and IMR published the most IE articles (10 each).
• The other journals with a high number of IE publications include JBR (9 articles) and SBE (8 articles).

What does this mean?

It seems that IE field remains vibrant. The jump in the number of articles is probably due to a number of special issues published on topics related to IE and increasing interest of IE scholars in emerging topics such as digital entrepreneurship and international funding and VC capital. Cross-country, comparative IE (often based on the GEM dataset) is also an area that is receiving a lot of attention (particularly the role on institutional environment in entrepreneurship). It is heartening to see that that top journals (i.e. JIBS, JBV, JWB) continue to see the IE field as an interesting topic.

NOTE – Many, many thanks to IE Ambassadors  Sreevas Sahasranamam, Stine Øyna, Andreu Blesa, Marleen McCormick Pritchard,  Novika Astuti, Ross Curran, Sinéad Monaghan, Nicole Coviello and Lasse Torkkeli, for their contribution in compiling the list.

Please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

The 2017 spreadsheet of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 28); and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

The set of journals was expanded from 2016 to include 28 IE-friendly journals with an Impact Factor > 1.0 (we used 5-year Impact Factor where available).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria are as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE-Spreadsheet-2017-v5

Patterns?

• In 2017, 88 articles were identified which is an increase from 2016 (55 articles) and from 2015 (83 articles).
• Of these 88, ten (11%) were from the elite group of our IE-friendly journals (FT List): JIBS (3), JBV(3), ETP (1), SMJ (1) and SEJ(1) and 41 (47.1%) were in highly regarded journals (Impact Factor > 3).
• Besides JIE, the only journal devoted to IE, IBR continues to publish most IE articles (16). SBE and IEMJ have also published significant numbers of IE articles – 14 and 11 for SBE and IEMJ, respectively. Those published in SBE focused primarily on cross-country comparative issues.

What does this mean?

Bucking the two-year trend, the IE research seems to have picked up. This may be, in part, because of the increased numbers of journals considered in compiling the list but it is good to see that top journals continue to find the area interesting. Another factor that may be bearing on the higher number is the somewhat arbitrary/subjective criteria for inclusion/exclusion. While we made the best effort to follow these (using two raters to determine inclusion/exclusion of ambiguous cases), the definitions of what constitutes IE area and IE article can differ. One of the examples is the Meuleman et al. (2017) article which doesn’t address the “traditional” IE themes such as international sales, opportunity identification, networks, and business models but examines cross-border partner selection in venture capital syndicates.

NOTE – Many thanks to Igor Laine for his contribution in compiling the list. Please email Martina Musteen at mmusteen@mail.sdsu.edu to report any errors or omissions.

Consistent with the methodology used in previous years, the 2016 spreadsheet of IE articles includes papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 25); and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

The set of journals includes 25 IE-friendly journals with an Impact Factor > 1.0 (we used 5-year Impact Factor where available).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria are as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE-Spreadsheet-2016-v9

Patterns?

• In 2016, 58 articles were identified which is a slight drop from 2015 and a significant drop from 2014’s high of 83.
• Of these 58, nine (15.5%) were from the top group of our IE-friendly journals (Impact Factor > 3): JIBS (2), JBV (3), JWB (1), ETP (1), IMM (1) and JOM (1).
• Besides JIEN, the only journal devoted to IE, JBR and IBR published the most IE articles (9 in both cases) during the past year.

What does this mean?

The IE research is represented in a relatively large number of solid journals; however, in terms of the total number of articles, the growth of  the IE area appears to be slowing down somewhat. The same is true regarding the representation of IE in the top journals although the next year’s numbers may be better given the upcoming Special Issue on Entrepreneurial Opportunities Across National Borders in JIBS, which is due to come out this year. My other observation is that the IE is still slanted toward the “I” type of research questions. I would personally like to see more papers incorporating  the “E” by addressing topics such as  business models in IE, entrepreneurial dynamics in INVs/born globals, the role of entrepreneur in early stage international venturing, etc. I also think there are more opportunities for IE research in the context of emerging and developing economies.

NOTE – please email me at mmusteen@mail.sdsu.edu if any articles in the relevant list have been missed!

The 2015 spreadsheet of IE articles continues to focus on papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals (n = 21); and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

However, in 2015, we expanded our set of journals to include IE-friendly journals with a 5-year Impact Factor > 1.0 (this is more reliable than 1-year IFs).

Editorials/introductions to special issues were excluded and core exclusion criteria are as follows:

1. Studies focused on SME internationalization rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE Spreadsheet 2015 v2

Patterns?

• In 2015, 59 articles were identified – quite a drop from 2014’s high of 83.
• Of these 59, eight (13.5%) were from the top group of our IE-friendly journals: JIBS (4), ETP (3), and JBV (1). At the same time, three of the JIBS papers were commentaries on Knight and Cavusgil (2004).

What does this mean? My observation is that IE researchers have solid representation in solid IB journals (e.g. JWB, IBR) and we have some traction with both solid entrepreneurship (and small business) journals such as JSBM. Journals that seem under-represented but are welcome to IE research include ISBJ and MIR (note – MIR dipped down in Impact Factor and  lost it’s place on the FT list in the last few years but is making a come-back effort).

Personally, I would like to see more IE research in JIBS, JBV and ETP. However, to accomplish this, we need to up our game in terms of theoretical framing and contribution as well as methodological rigour.

If I were to give one piece of advice to authors wishing to target these journals: read them. The more you read the top journals, the more you will become familiar with how they ‘feel’ and what the quality standards are. Of course, not all the articles will be fabulous but I am pretty sure they will be theoretically and technical stronger than papers published in lower tier journals.

NOTE – please email ncoviello@wlu.ca if any articles in the relevant list have been missed!

Like 2013, the 2014 spreadsheet of IE articles focuses primarily on papers found in:

• IE-friendly journals with an impact factor over 1 (n = 20; details on 2014 spreadsheet); and
• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE).

The same inclusion parameters were used as in previous years (see below), and editorials/introductions to special issues were also excluded.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE Literature (2014) v2

In 2014, 83 articles were identified – a BIG jump from 2013 (58 articles). Of these, 12% were from the top group of our IE-friendly journals: JBV (5), JIBS (4), and SMJ (1). Notably, two journals (ETP and MIR) had special issues devoted to IE.

The are categorized as follows:

• Type A (Entrepreneurial Internationalization): 57 (69%)
• Type B (International Comparisons of Entrepreneurship): 23 (28%)
• Type C (Comparative Entrepreneurial Internationalization): 3 (3%)

The 2013 spreadsheet of IE articles focuses only on papers found in:

• the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (the only journal devoted to IE); and
• IE-friendly journals with an impact factor over 1 (n = 22; details on 2013 spreadsheet).

The decision to restrict the search parameters to these journals came after the review to identify the 248 IE articles published from 2010-2012 (inclusive) took a full year and enormous amounts of digging and support.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE Literature (2013)

As usual, the parameters established by Jones et al. (2011) were used. Exclusion criteria are as follows:

1. Studies focused on SMEs rather than IE per se, i.e. where entrepreneurship issues and theories are not integrated or addressed in the study;
2. Studies in which the primary focus is not international entrepreneurship. E.g. studies of biotech firms in global industries or in which the focus is on technological innovation rather than business or entrepreneurial processes;
3. Studies focused on domestic entrepreneurship in one country;
4. Cross-cultural assessments of (e.g.) EO measures that focus on scale and measure development or validation;
5. Studies on transnational and/or immigrant entrepreneurship.

In addition, the 2013 spreadsheet does not report editorials/introductions to special issues (e.g. McDougall-Covin et al. 2013).

The results for 2013 indicate that 58 articles were published in the above set of journals.  They are categorized as follows:

• Type A (Entrepreneurial Internationalization): 35 (60%)
• Type B (International Comparisons of Entrepreneurship): 19 (33%)
• Type C (Comparative Entrepreneurial Internationalization): 4 (7%)

To extend the list of IE research (1989-2009) reviewed by Jones, Coviello and Tang (JBV 2011), we compiled a spreadsheet of published articles for the period 2010-12. We used the same search and selection criteria from Jones et al. (2011) but during 2013, have continued searching for papers that don’t necessarily emerge through keyword search.

The spreadsheet is in excel format, allowing you to search by keyword, date, author or journal: IE Literature (2010-2012)

Note 1 – papers highlighted in colour are the new additions (by date).

Note 2 – as per Jones et al. (2011, JBV), this listing is an effort to include all IE papers published between 2010-2012. The list includes articles from both mainstream journals and many smaller, newer or hard to find journals. NOTE – I encourage you to read and use articles carefully. This is because not all journals have the high levels of review rigour as found in the main journals – at the same time, some of the lesser known journals have interesting papers!

Jones et al. (2011) published their domain ontology of IE, and Appendix C lists IE authors by type of research and thematic area (pp 650-651).

Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to provide a copy of the paper, but here’s a link to the JBV URL: Jones, Coviello and Tang (2011)

You can also contact me (Nicole) if you need a copy and I’ll be happy to send it to you.