The effect of business and social networks on firms internationalization

Increasing the volume of global trade and its changes in the economic environment of countries has increased the competitiveness of businesses and has made internationalization a major component of business strategies in many companies in the world. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the impact of business and social networks on internationalization of firms. The research method is descriptive and survey that have used a questionnaire for datacollecting. Cronbach's alpha is 0.890 which indicates strong reliability of questionnaire. Its validity has been measured and confirmed by experts and specialists as well as AVE. The statistical population of this research is the sample of Iranian export companies during the years 2012-2016. To obtain the sample size, Cochran's formula was used and sample sizes of 143 companies were used. SPSS (version 23) and SmartPLS (version 2) software were used to analyze the data. The results of the research indicate that business and social networks affect international firms. Therefore, creating and interacting with these networks is one of the main factors behind the success of firms in the process of internationalization.