Does age matter? The impact of SMEs age on the relationship between knowledge sourcing strategy and internationalization

The use of external knowledge has received substantial attention in the literature of innovation management and open innovation as well. However, despite the interest in understanding the impact of knowledge sourcing strategy on financial and innovative performance, there is still a lack of studies assessing the impact of openness on internationalization. Drawing on the inbound open innovation perspective, we theorize that searching widely and deeply is related to internationalization performance and that firm age contributes to enhance this relationship. Based on data gathered from 135 SMEs, we found support for the positive relationship between knowledge sourcing strategy and internationalization, but not for the moderating role of firm age. These findings offer several implications to managers and scholars alike.