Although earlier studies have repeatedly emphasized the central role of international opportunities in driving the internationalization process, most of this work continues to treat opportunities as essentially uniform constructs and pays little attention to the improvisational elements of decision-making that shape how these opportunities actually take form. The degree of novelty embedded in an opportunity is particularly critical for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as it simultaneously signals greater profit potential and heightened costs and risks.The present study investigates the interplay between firms’ stock of international experiential knowledge, their reliance on improvisational decision-making logic, and the subsequent impact of this interplay on both the novelty and the economic value of the opportunities they develop during internationalization. To test the proposed direct and indirect relationships among experiential knowledge, improvisational logic, opportunity novelty, and opportunity value, we employ structural equation modeling on a dataset comprising 262 distinct international opportunities identified and pursued by SMEs.By placing opportunity novelty and value at the heart of the analysis, this research advances our understanding of the entrepreneurial dimensions of SME internationalization and highlights the conditions under which experiential knowledge either fosters or constrains the emergence of truly innovative and valuable international opportunities.