Internationalization of SMEs in the Baltic Sea Region: Barriers of cross‐national collaboration considering regional innovation strategies for smart specialization

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on barriers that hamper small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) to establish international collaboration. Our analysis makes use of collected data concerning internationalization of SMEs in seven BSR countries. Our logistic

Barriers to the implementation of innovations in information systems in SMEs

“…The emergence of such barriers is particularly noticeable in SMEs, which is the result of all organizational difficulties resulting from the lack of proper (or poorly developed) systemic management. Small and medium-sized enterprises management is particularly difficult, and this is due to a review of the world literature on various management problems (Mueller-Using et al, 2020;Niciejewska et al, 2021;Żywiołek et al, 2021). First of all, difficulties in management result from relations between employees, awareness of responsibility and positioning the organization structure based on employee competences.…”

Cooperation Networks and Embeddedness—The Case of the Portuguese Footwear Sector

“…Among the basic proactive motives that motivate entry into foreign markets are the objectives related to increasing profit and growth, management initiatives, improving technological skills, product exclusivity, economies of scale, tax benefits, and general opportunities that may arise from penetrating foreign markets. In turn, the proposed reactive motivations are competitive pressure, a small domestic market and the lack of domestic demand, the company's overproduction or overcapacity, unconsolidated foreign orders, the possibility of extending sales of seasonal products, and the proximity to international customers [33,34].…”

“…(ii) management, such as management attitudes [41,42], the lack of international experience and knowledge [37], or difficulties in commitment and partnership [39,40]; (iii) those of the market, such as, for example, environmental perception [41], government regulation, including charge and non-charge barriers [40,43], lack of market knowledge and cultural differences [37] and the strong position in the domestic market [44]; (iv) and industry, such as competition or technological differences [45] and internal barriers to the company, such as access to capital, training and research and development, or product activities, prices, distribution, logistics and promotion of the company abroad [34].…”

“…Network embeddedness provides organizations with two main advantages: the exchange of high-quality information and tacit knowledge, while also serving as part of the social control mechanism that governs the behaviour of companies [34]. In cross-border activities, less experienced companies wishing to establish credibility in a new foreign market must maintain relations with a host partner to demonstrate local legitimacy and complement their lack of local knowledge [60].…”

Regional expansion of emerging market SMEs: the roles of domestic market environmental uncertainty and international alliance partner diversity

“…The exploitation of international business opportunities has become a viable firm strategy to cope with the increased pressure of globalization and competitiveness. Accordingly, scholars and practitioners have become interested in understanding the regional and global expansion strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Boso et al, 2017;Mueller-Using et al, 2020). Chetty and Campbell-Hunt's (2003) view on the regional expansion of SMEs challenged the implicit notion of globally competing SMEs due to their resource deficiencies and lack of capabilities (Iurkov & Benito, 2018).…”