The aim of this paper is to conceptualise the internationalisation of food and drink SMEs by developing and evaluating a framework specifically for food and drink SME internationalisation. SME internationalisation is an established area of research that has seen a wealth of research since the seminal work of the Uppsala scholars on the stage approach (cf. Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Johanson & Vahlne, 1977). In recent decades SME internationalisation research has focussed on a range of issues that impact on internationalisation, from company characteristics (cf. Jones & Coviello, 2005; Hsieh et al., 2019) entrepreneur characteristics (cf. Reuber & Fischer, 1997; Ramón-Llorens et al., 2017), network connections (cf. Johanson & Mattson, 1988; Johanson & Vahlne, 2009) and determinants to international growth (Katsikeas et al., 1996; Li, 2018). This wealth of research underlines the complexities in understanding and explaining internationalisation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand and evaluate the critical determinants of internationalisation specifically for food and drink SMEs, through an evaluation of relevant theory and the development of a framework for food and drink SME internationalisation. These aims address three gaps in the literature, namely, limited research on specific industries, limited research on food and drink SMEs, and few efforts to conceptualise the SME internationalisation process.

• Robert Bowen(Cardiff University, Wales, UK)