Country of origin and network effects on internationalization: A comparative study of SMEs from an emerging and developed economy

Abstract

This study examines the internationalization of high technology small and medium enterprises (HTSMEs). It explores how they develop and use networks to penetrate their first foreign market relying on information collected via direct interviews with the CEOs or founders of 58 high technology small firms that operate internationally. It uses mixed methods to discuss the network building mechanisms identifiedclient supplier relationships, existing personal contacts, contacts acquired by chance, and contacts acquired through specific strategies. The findings provide the basis for developing propositions for further comparative analyses of the internationalization of HTSMEs based in emerging and developed markets. The study contributes to the literature on networks, internationalization and international entrepreneurship.

Internationalization and value orientation of entrepreneurial ventures—a Latin American perspective

“…There is a dearth of empirical evidence on internationalization of ventures from Latin American emerging economies, reflected by the fact that less than 4 % of publications in major IB Journals are from Latin American authors or about a Latin American company (Biggemann 2013). Empirical evidence on internationalization of ventures from Latin American emerging economies were scare and shallow (Pérez-Batres et al 2010;Ciravegna et al 2014). …”

Lean Internationalization: How to Globalize Early and Fast in a Small Economy

“…Networking and learning ability were identified as the key abilities of the entrepreneurs (Ciravegna et al, 2014;Coviello, 2015;Neubert, 2016b) and the main drivers of the speed of internationalization. Several interviewees mentioned that their whole network has changed since the foundation of their high-tech startups.…”

“…To date, there is little research on born-global from emerging economies (Gonzalez-Perez et al, 2016). A study by Ciravegna, Lopez, and Kundu (2014) emphasizes the importance of social networks -particularly, the networking ability of an entrepreneur as a driver of the speed of internationalization. Hitt, Li, and Xu (2016) and Zucchella, Hagen, Denicolai, and Masucci (2016) reported that the reputation of the home country and the quality of institutions in that country also influence early and fast internationalization.…”

A New Insight in the SMEs Internationalization Process

“…It has in fact been shown that information is crucial for more rational decision-making [8], to manage international complexity and ambiguity [29], to reduce risks and uncertainty [26], and to stimulate awareness of foreign market opportunities [30]. There are also studies on the importance of the role of information in the creation of internationalization knowledge [17,31], as well as on demonstrating that cooperation and networks are facilitators of internationalization [19,32]. In spite of this, surprisingly there is a clear lack of exploratory studies on how state-of-the-art information management models and technologies can be used to improve collaborative decision-making in the internationalization of SMEs.…”