Abstract
Enterprise internationalization, as one of the key strategies for companies to increase business opportunities and expand their business territory, is not only the core driving factor of economic globalization, but also a key link for SMEs to make strategic decisions to enter the international market. However, the speed of enterprise internationalization and market performance will show huge differences under different environmental factors. In particular, the current academic research is more focused on the internationalization speed and market performance of large enterprises, the trajectory and influence mechanism of how SMEs are going international and how to proceed quickly are rarely known. On the other hand, the internationalization speed of SMEs is often accompanied by many limitations, such as lack of resources, etc. Thereby, if SMEs want to realize the internationalization more quickly, they tend to rely on the entrepreneurial orientation, innovation capabilities, and a certain degree of adventurous spirit. This research will focus on how entrepreneurial orientation affects the speed of internationalization of private SMEs in China. It further explores the relationship between the institutional environment and different relationship networks on the impact of entrepreneurial orientation and the speed of corporate internationalization. We hypothesize that entrepreneurial orientation has a positive role in promoting the speed of enterprise internationalization, and this promotion relationship will be stronger in a more developed institutional environment. At the same time, we also believe that an established relationship network will have a positive impact on this facilitating role of entrepreneurial orientation. From a historical perspective, China, as an important part of the international market, has provided active institutional and environmental support for the internationalization of local enterprises. This research provides support for our hypothesis based on the survey research of 146 Chinese private enterprises. The results of this study not only bring theoretical enlightenment and support to the research of private SMEs, but also have practical significance of management practice.