About
Susan Freeman is a Professor of International Business at the Business School of the University of South Australia (UniSA). She is actively involved in research and supervision within the UniSA Business academic unit, with a strong focus on international entrepreneurship, SME internationalization, and global strategy. Her work frequently appears in top-tier journals such as International Business Review, Global Strategy Journal, and Scandinavian Journal of Management.
Her research interests span a broad range of topics including international business strategies, subsidiary autonomy in multinational enterprises, value creation in global value chains, high-performance work systems, and the dynamics of social networks in firm internationalization. She has contributed significantly to the understanding of how SMEs from diverse contexts—such as Brazil, India, and Australia—navigate international markets and develop competitive strategies.
The recent publications of Professor Freeman reflect a strong trend toward conceptual and systematic reviews that integrate theoretical frameworks like the attention-based view, resource-based view, and dynamic capabilities. Her work often explores paradoxes and tensions in international management, such as coopetition at the supranational level and the balance between autonomy and control in multinational subsidiaries. She also contributes to policy-relevant research, particularly in how governments can better support foreign subsidiaries through after-care services and tailored investment promotion.
- Internationalization through social networks: a systematic review and future research agenda (2024)
- Paradoxical tensions at multiple levels: a model of unbalanced supranational coopetition (2024)
- High-performance work systems in public service units (2024)
- Are all cats grey in the dark? A new taxonomy of internationalizing SMEs (2024)
- Developing successful assumed autonomy-based initiatives (2023)
Professor Freeman has received recognition through citations in Web of Science and Scopus, with several of her articles cited over 10 times. She has collaborated with researchers from institutions in France, Iceland, China, and the UK, indicating a strong international research network. While specific grants are mentioned in some publications (e.g., Watanabe Trust Fund, Letterstedtska Fund, HI NIAS), detailed grant histories are not fully elaborated in the provided texts.
She serves as a Research Degree Supervisor at UniSA and has contributed to edited volumes and book chapters on SME internationalization and growth frontiers in international business. Her work bridges academic theory with practical implications for managers and policymakers, particularly in the areas of export strategy, organizational design in MNEs, and support mechanisms for growing firms.
