PIERRE-ANDRE JULIEN, AN INDUSTRIAL economist, is Director of the Bombardier Chair in Management of New Technology for Small Businesses and director of the Revue Internationale PME; Andr6Joyal is a regional economist and co-director of the Research Group in Economy and Management of Small Businesses (GREPME); Laurent Deshaies is a regional geographer and a member of GREPME. All three are professors at the University of Quebec at Trois Rivieres, Canada. Charles Ramangalahy is a research assistant with the Bombardier Chair. This paper presents the result of an in-depth case study of 20 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms, which examined their historical background, the entrepreneurs' objectives, marketing strategies, and the resources used to support export activities. Three different types of firms were identified. The first type, referred to as 'professional exporters', are proactive, have complex marketing strategies and use considerable internal and external resources in export development. A second type, referred to as 'opportunist' exporters, comprises small businesses that export as the opportunity arises; they wait for orders, behave reactively, have no specific strategy and no dedicated export resources. Between the two are 'transitional' exporters, firms trying either to achieve the status of professional exporters by becoming better organised, or to withdraw altogether from exporting in order to devote their resources to domestic market needs.
L'article analyse les réseaux d'information des PME situées au Québec en milieu non métropolitain. Le recours aux réseaux est analysé en fonction de l'internationalisation et de leur localisation en site rural ou urbain. Il appert qu'il n'y a pas de différences significatives entre les PME exportatrices et non exportatrices quant aux recours aux ressources externes, à l'exception des associations sectorielles et des organismes gouvernementaux davantage utilisés par les entreprises exportatrices. Contrairement à l'opinion largement répandue, l'implantation en milieu rural des PME a peu d'effet sur le caractère novateur des entreprises. En fait, l'inconvénient le plus important sur le plan de l'information est leur accessibilité aux centres de recherches privés. Bref, l'écart entre les zones urbaines et rurales en matière de réseaux d'information, d'innovation et d'exportation s'est amenuisé pour les PME en milieu non métropolitain.This paper refers to Québec non-metropolitan SME information networks. The latter are analyzed with respect to globalization taking into account an urban as well as a rural localization. With regard to external resources, this study shows an absence of difference between exporting and non-exporting SME with the exception of sectorial organizations and governmental agencies whose resources are more utilized by exporting SME. Contrary to what it is generally thought, a rural localization has no negative effect on innovation. Actually, the main disadvantage these enterprises have to cope with is the isolation from research centres. We can conclude that for the non-metropolitan SME, the differential between rural and urban areas, concerning information networks and their impact on innovation and exportations, has decreased very significantly in recent years
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