We acknowledge the limitations of this study, one of which is the specific empirical context of Finland and Russia, which would not be generalisable across all developed-emerging economy contexts. In fact, the two countries present a unique context for studying cross-border relationships, as we outlined when discussing the characteristics of each country in this study. Therefore, the extension of the results to other country contexts requires additional research.
Another limitation is the inclusion of only the SMEs with an international partner: for future research, the inclusion of domestically operating SMEs from both countries could yield further insights into how far the impact of international business relationships (in terms of the development of responsible thinking) goes. Non-experienced Finnish SMEs, in comparison, may perceive responsibility issues differently and may be more active in undertaking a greater variety of responsibility actions, since internationally experienced Finnish SMEs may have fewer free funds to allocate to responsibility activities.
Moreover, the importance of trust between the companies was derived from the interpersonal communications and attitudes of SME managers towards different aspects of responsible business behaviour, as well as to their international business strategy. Thus, deeper analysis of the managerial cognition and analysis of the influence of institutions on the individual level are advised for further research, as institutional forces operating at the level “beneath” the firm level selected in this study are influential (Scott, 2008).
Another possibility for widening the setting and enriching the findings might be to include SMEs from different industries, since in several industries, tackling environmental issues might be more important in international business relations than in some purely service companies. To take it further, such a strong call from society for greater responsibility and more sustainability orientation
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among business actors led to the recent trend of the highly environmentally conscious start-ups in the form of ecopreneurship, as well as the rise of social entrepreneurship, which is often referred to when discussing sustainable entrepreneurship (Dean & McMullen, 2007). Thus, because of the specifics of their business, following their internationalisation paths could help clarify the picture on sustainability in international business and entrepreneurship.
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