Guest editorial

Abstract

Entrepreneurship and SME internationalization in Latin America This special issue comes to life after the First Global Entrepreneurship Development Centre Conference at Kingston Business School London in October 2016, which was attended by participants from five continents. We announced at the conference the possibility for this special issue followed by an open call for papers. The issue contains seven articles on the topic of entrepreneurship and small-and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization in Latin America. Entrepreneurship and small firms are becoming an ever more important topic for academics, policy-makers, and universities around the world. One of the reasons is the way they contribute to the growth of local and often deprived economies. It is well-known fact that smaller firms are forced to extend the scope of their business because they face a large number of international competitors in their home market (Felzensztein, 2016). Competition in today's environment not only means local competition, but mainly international, where with the new use of technologies SMEs can have the chance to compete with multinationals if they are able to achieve a differential strategy. Many SMEs have advanced in their internationalization processes and many Latin American countries are adopting specific policies to enhance SMEs' internationalization potentials to encourage their further participation in global markets (OECD, 2018) and develop active formal and informal networks for their internationalization, considered a key for reaching global customers (Felzensztein et al., 2015; Fuerst and Zettinig, 2015). Felzensztein et al. (2015) examine the issues of networking for the internationalization process of SMEs and the effects of both the network and entrepreneurial orientation on the scope of small firm internationalization. Findings suggest that the greater the number of networks utilized, the more entrepreneurs are likely to target markets based in diverse regions of the world. This may have a real impact for SMEs from Latin America expanding abroad and the support public policies they need for their internationalization into global competitive markets. More recently, Felzensztein et al. (2018) compare SMEs in New Zealand vs South America and found that small firms in regional clusters located in the southern hemisphere use local informal networks for their internationalization. Understanding the use of informal networks, Dimitratos et al. (2014) provide important insights for entrepreneurs in Latin America that are choosing their internationalization strategies as well as for the institutions that may support them, such as export promotion agencies and trade associations. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Chile and Colombia have large percentages of entrepreneurs (more than 80 percent) that exhibit some degree of international orientation (Amorós et al., 2015; Felzensztein, 2016). From this perspective, it is interesting to analyze, learn, and explore some results in greater detail relat...

Do economic freedom, business experience, and firm size affect internationalization speed? Evidence from small firms in Chile, Colombia, and Peru

“…Moreover, despite the growing importance of emerging economies and the important role played by the entrepreneur in advancing the economy and its growth, our undersetting of IE in emerging economies is still limited (Kiss et al 2012). For example, it has been suggested that the existing strategy of "market liberalization" in Latin America depends to a great extent on entrepreneurship, and thus, a better understanding of the internationalization process of firms in this region is essential in order to enable their international expansion (Filatotchev et al 2009;Felzenszetein and Fuerst 2018). However, although firms from this region are growing, they still face significant barriers.…”

Capabilities and the internationalisation of smaller-sized, service-oriented firms in the southern hemisphere

“…Although exceptions exist (such as Brenes et al, 2019;Felzensztein, 2016;Felzensztein et al, 2015Felzensztein et al, , 2019Felzensztein & Fuerst, 2018;Lopez et al, 2009), the practices of smallersized, internationalising firms from emerging markets is relatively under-explored, particularly those from South America that feature as part of this current study. Not least, an under-explored context involves firms that engage in services-oriented businesses where examination in this current study involves managerial capability-building behaviour within such organisations from the southern hemisphere, namely, one advanced small economy and two emerging economies.…”

“…In addition to the micro-level benefit of building capabilities, at the macro level, certain support programs have associated benefits like enhancing a country's trade figures and maintaining trade relationships (Crick & Lindsay, 2015;Felzensztein et al, 2015;Felzensztein & Fuerst, 2018). Public initiatives, such as those supporting firms' internationalisation by specialised public agencies, promoting and facilitating outward-foreign direct investment (FDI), strengthening the financial access for SMEs, fostering international commerce by free trade agreements (FTA), and the liberalisation of economies, are common practices in modern emerging economies like those within certain Asian and Latin American countries (Aguilera et al, 2017;Felzensztein et al, 2015;Felzensztein & Fuerst, 2018); also, in small developed countries like New Zealand (Crick & Lindsay, 2015). Nevertheless, particular assistance can range from 'how to' type programs to help management teams with limited experience to build capabilities, through to more experiential support such as trade missions where more specialised capabilities are developed vis-à-vis product/service-market strategies (Crick, 1992;Leonidou et al, 2011;Spence & Crick, 2001).…”