Exporting is a vital source of growth for Central and Eastern European emerging economies. Market liberalization at home and the rapidly changing global business environment have forced small and medium emerging-market firms to radically change their growth strategies by focusing on internationalization. As a consequence, the number of first-time exporters originating from European emerging markets has increased. The success of first-time internationalization however is not guaranteed for all emerging-market firms; failure rates in this process remained high and this calls for further examination of the internationalization strategies and patterns of internationalization. We study changes in internationalization patterns, by examining the strategies of new exporters from a small European emerging market. We explore how successful new exporters differ from unsuccessful ones by focusing on firms’ foreign market export destinations and exported product varieties. The analysis of firm-level data for Slovenian first-time exporters over the period 1994 -2010 revealed that successful international growth is related to an increased diversification in internationalization. By intensifying both geographical and product diversification first-time emerging-market exporters increased the probability of survival in export markets. Considering the predicaments of the Uppsala model of gradual (less risky) internationalization, we found that successful first-time exporters are more risk prone as they tend to follow more diversified internationalization strategies. Step-wise approach to internationalization by following a more focused exporting strategy diminishes emerging-market firms’ survival chances.

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