As an essential micro-organizational unit of economic resilience, the international growth of “SRDI” (specialized-refinement-differential-innovation) enterprises is significant to the high-quality development of China’s economy. “SRDI” enterprises refer to a group of small and medium-sized enterprises that have outstanding performance in production, innovation, and management. As the market is narrow and deep, the internationalization speed of “SRDI” enterprises is faster than that of general enterprises. Therefore, how the internationalization speed affects the performance of “SRDI” enterprises has become an important topic.

Based on the theory of internationalization speed and dual innovation, this paper uses the unbalanced panel data of 115 manufacturing single-champion listed enterprises from 2010 to 2020, and empirically tests the role of internationalization speed and dual innovation on the performance of “SRDI” enterprises. The study finds that internationalization speed has a U-shaped relationship with the performance of “SRDI” enterprises, and dual innovation has a significant positive impact on the performance of “SRDI” enterprises. Exploratory and exploitative innovation has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between internationalization speed and the performance of “SRDI” enterprises.

The main contributions of this paper are as follows: First, it focuses on the micro-mechanism of the impact of internationalization speed on the performance of “SRDI” enterprises, providing a new perspective to understand the internationalization development of “SRDI” enterprises, and enriching the internationalization strategy of “SRDI” enterprises. Second, it introduces dual innovation into the study of the relationship between internationalization speed and the performance of “SRDI” enterprises, contributing to a deeper understanding of the patterns of diversified innovation activities of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and expanding the research on the innovation of “SRDI” enterprises. Third, it uses the empirical method to test the influencing factors of the performance of “SRDI” enterprises, providing management inspirations on how to choose internationalization and innovation strategies for “SRDI” enterprises in the new era, and providing a new way of thinking about the research methodology of “SRDI” enterprises.