Reports

Market insights: The view from United States

As the world’s largest economy, entrepreneurial – and interpreneurial — drive has historically been extremely strong among business leaders in the US. So, it’s encouraging to see how confident respondents are feeling today, giving the current climate for international expansion an 8.6 out of 10 positivity score. Eight in 10 (82%) said it is easy to expand overseas in the current geopolitical and economic environment, while 90% expect the international business expansion environment to improve looking ahead.

What were the biggest challenges you faced during your international expansion process?

Seizing market growth opportunities and gaining competitive advantage were the primary motivators for expanding abroad (at 65% and 47% respectively). The former represents a significant increase from 2024 where 40% cited market growth as a primary motivator to expand. However, American interpreneurs struggled more than their peers elsewhere in the world with regulatory, ESG and legal compliance. Given the heightened uncertainty around policy direction following the change of administration in 2025, this is perhaps unsurprising.

Balancing global standards with local flexibility was the number one challenge US interpreneurs faced when maintaining organisational culture while expanding overseas (50% said so, versus a global average of 42%).

In the birthplace of AI,11 as you might expect, most (89%) US interpreneurs said AI has had a significant impact on expansion strategy. But human skills and talent remain an important factor behind going global too — in fact, availability of local talent and openness to skilled talent immigration is the main reason why a country would be an attractive location for international expansion (said 58%, compared to 43% globally).

Tariff wars and trade disputes have taken their toll on interpreneurial businesses in the US as elsewhere in the world — 69% said they have had a significant impact on global strategy in the past one to two years. But US interpreneurs reported feeling more concerned about geopolitical instability (43%), supply chain disruption (39%) and data breaches/cyber incidents (36%) than tariff-related cost increases (35%) in the future.

11. Dartmouth https://home.dartmouth.edu/about/artificial-intelligence-ai-coined-dartmouth

For many middle market companies in the United States, international expansion is becoming an increasingly important part of the growth agenda. As such, it’s not surprising that nearly two-thirds of respondents identified access to new market growth opportunities as the leading motivator of international expansion.

Cross-border opportunities are emerging amid continued private equity-driven consolidation across the U.S. middle market. As businesses scale from local operators to regional and national platforms, international growth can offer the next avenue for expansion. But as the report further notes, overseas activity brings greater regulatory, compliance, and ESG complexity that must be managed with discipline.

Success depends on having the right capabilities, structures, and advice in place. With disciplined planning and coordinated support, we’re seeing middle market companies pursuing international growth with greater confidence.

Daniel Johnson
Managing Director, CBIZ Advisors, LLC