Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

Speed of internationalization is a multidimensional concept with performance consequences, but little is known about the interrelatedness between different time-related concepts. The authors address this deficiency by developing three hypotheses, which are confronted with a dataset collected on-site at 203 SMEs. The analysis reveals that (i) the longer the time to internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, (ii) the earlier the point in time of start of internationalization, the lower the speed of international expansion, and (iii) there is an antagonistic interaction effect revealing that the negative effect on the speed of international expansion caused by a longer time to internationalization is moderated by the point in time of internationalization start. The study contributes to theory by examining the interrelatedness between temporal concepts in the internationalization literature and by showing how the underlying mechanisms influencing internationalization speed changes over time. For managers, insights into the importance of time and temporality for successful international expansion are provided.