Abstract
The main objective of this article is to analyze those factors that explain or are mostly related to the type of internationalization followed by the exporting company. Special emphasis is placed on internationalization from a process perspective and focusing on exports as the main form of internationalization in a small economy. The firm is taken as the unit of analysis and the different hypotheses proposed, which relate the internal characteristics of the companies and their export activity, with the type of internationalization followed, are tested using data from a survey carried out with the main exporting companies in Uruguay. . The most consistent results refer to the positive relationship that is verified between the competitive capacity of the firm and its early internationalization model, although there is also evidence that the existence of a department specialized in foreign trade and the entrepreneur's export experience, These are two aspects that influence the type of early internationalization of companies. The results contribute to a better understanding of the export dynamics of a country in which there are still no major empirical studies on the subject under study.