The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the relationship between exit from exports and the subsequent performance of SMEs. Based on the internationalization-performance literature I hypothesize that exit from export markets does not have a significant effect on performance unless the firm is active in a complex or dynamic environment. Using a panel data set with 822 Swedish manufacturing SMEs, covering the period 2008-2012, it is confirmed that exit from exports has no effect on performance unless the firm is facing a dynamic environment. The paper has a number of contributions to theory as well as practice among which that it emphasizes that exit from exports is an alternative path in the internationalization process that is not necessarily bad for the firm