Anna Fung

This study uses bibliometric mapping analysis to systematically trace the evolutionary trajectory, core characteristics, and dynamic trends of 598 research papers on internationalization in the digital economy era. These papers were published between 2006 and 2025 on the Web of Science Core Collection. The findings reveal that this research field exhibits an average annual growth rate of 31.88%, with increasing collaborative research. While Technological Forecasting and Social Change has the highest publication output, Journal of World Business demonstrates the most significant academic influence. We uncover a new mode of international investment toward emerging markets across all countries, reflecting new structures of resource allocation for digitally enabled institutional openness, digital ecosystem–based resource sharing, and digitally driven value chain upgrading, particularly evident in emerging markets. Overall, this research provides critical insights for multinational corporations (MNCs) formulating digital internationalization strategies and for policymakers refining digital trade governance, thereby facilitating the coordinated development of the global digital economy and international business.

Burgeoning research on trust has revealed an incomplete understanding of how government trust shapes the R&D behaviors of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). To study this, we use data collected on 3001 Chinese SMEs to find that for every standard deviation increase in the government trust index, an SME has a 15.2% increase in the standard deviation of their R&D investments. We further discover that SME owners who are more motivated to conduct innovation will make more R&D investments when they trust the government, accounting for approximately 29% of the impact of government trust on an SME’s R&D investment. Having government trust improves the willingness of the SME owner to take more risk, leading to increased R&D investments. Finally, the effect of government trust on R&D investments is more salient when the region has a high marketization level, high legal protection, high non-government economic sectors, and low government intervention.