U sing the technology-organization-environment model, this study investigates the adoption and impact of information and communications technology by small and medium-sized enterprises in South Africa.

Firms are epitomised as complex structural variables moulded by their environments, capabilities, and resources. For cross-border firms whose existence is typified by researchers as ‘global commons' may no longer be governed by the rule of law but by their degree of geographical spread. These firms leverage their resources, experiences, and capabilities to access global markets beyond the comfort of local environments. This chapter focusses on firms foraying into international markets hence gives us an insight into their attempts at exploiting market power, accessing resources, and overcoming limitations of the home market by developing strategies that overcome the complexities of operating in a foreign market. The existence of institutional variations in these contexts call for a different set of capabilities and strategies that reside outside the firm's repertoire. Any failures by firm managers to understand the complexity of global markets and “raison d'être” of their internationalising will have wider strategic implications.