Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to understand the contribution of digitalisation, channel integration and sustainability to the improvement of industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)' international performance. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a reviewof the literature, the authors developed a researchmodel that included six hypotheses about the relationships between the constructs studied: digitalisation, channel integration, sustainability and international performance. The structural equation model was tested with data from a survey answered by 200 exporting industrial SMEs, by means of partial least squares regression. Findings - The digitalisation of SMEs contributes positively to channel integration and sustainability, while channel integration is positively related to their international performance. Although a direct relationship between digitalisation and international performance was not observed, a mediated relationship through channel integration was confirmed. Additionally, the multi-group analysis according to the level of internationalisation revealed that sustainability positively influences the international performance of companies with a high degree of internationalisation. Originality/value - This study is original insofar as it examined the role of digitalisation in the international performance of industrial SMEs, considering the mediating role of sustainability and channel integration.