Abstract
This paper addresses the largely unresearched area of export performance of SMEs located in regional areas. In many countries like Australia exporting is fundamental to sustaining regional communities. In addition the contribution of SMEs is increasingly important in many economies as they play a critical role in economic development. However, in general the literature fails to take into account the environmental context where SMEs are located and much research combines regional and metropolitan SMEs, thus not allowing a clear distinction to be made.