Abstract
A viable strategy for SMEs to go international is to establish collaborative ventures with local partners in targeted countries. Yet, theory and empirical evidence looking at the influence of specific firm characteristics, such as the foreign SME’s local visibility, in the collaboration formation in developing economies (DEs) are very limited. Drawing on the extant literature, we put forward a conceptual model regarding the effect of the foreign SME’s local visibility on the formation of the collaborative venture or alliance. We look at the effect of local visibility in attracting a fitting local alliance partner. Implications for practitioners and policy makers are provided.