People, places and pathways: prioritizing internationalization risks for start-ups in developing communities

Purpose This study aims to identify and quantitatively prioritize the challenges faced by startups internationalizing in developing entrepreneurial ecosystems, highlighting the risks that most affect global success. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review yielded 162 challenges, aggregated to 65 and finalized to 47 via fuzzy-Delphi; priorities were then weighted with fuzzy best–worst method (FBWM). Findings Deployment, PESTEL and financial risks dominate the hierarchy; “communication with customers in the destination market” ranks first overall. Research limitations/implications Expert-driven weights limit statistical generalizability; future work should test the hierarchy on larger samples and model interrelations with structural approaches. Practical implications Founders and agencies can rank interventions by marginal risk reduction (e.g. streamline approvals, broker first-customer access and cofinance export-readiness). Social implications: targeted internationalization support fosters startup success, job creation and innovation in developing communities. Social implications Effective internationalization strategies foster startup success, contributing significantly to economic growth, job creation and innovation within developing entrepreneurial communities. Originality/value The innovative combination of fuzzy Delphi and FBWM methods provides enhanced reliability and generalizability of findings. The authors provide a measurement-ready risk matrix for startups in developing ecosystems, combining fuzzy-Delphi with the FBWM to deliver numerical priorities that translate into policy levers and enable tracking over time.