ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET AND STRATEGIC THINKING AS DETERMINANTS OF GLOBAL EXPANSION IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of entrepreneurial mindset and strategic thinking on the global expansion of selected manufacturing firms in South-East Nigeria. The study focused on opportunity recognition as a predictor of foreign market entry and strategic foresight as a predictor of international partnerships. A predictive correlational research design was adopted, and data were collected with a structured questionnaire from 215 usable responses drawn from managerial-level employees and senior staff in six selected manufacturing firms. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and linear regression at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that opportunity recognition had a significant positive effect on foreign market entry (B = 0.544, p < 0.001, R² = 0.274), while strategic foresight had a significant positive effect on international partnerships (B = 0.612, p < 0.001, R² = 0.379). The study concluded that entrepreneurial mindset and strategic thinking are important drivers of global expansion among manufacturing firms in South-East Nigeria. It recommended that firms should strengthen opportunity recognition through market scanning, customer feedback, and market intelligence, and adopt strategic foresight through environmental scanning and scenario planning to improve their international expansion efforts.