Trade Shows and Proactiveness of International SMEs: Networking for Performance

Gerschewski, Stephan; Evers, Natasha; Nguyen, Anh Tuan

doi:10.5465/ambpp.2019.17277abstract

Cited by 1 publication

(6 citation statements)

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“…The results confirm the findings of the literature, demonstrating that trade fairs are an excellent opportunity for companies, particularly for SME, to open up to international markets, which increases their exports (Gerschewski et al, 2019;Monreal-Pérez and Geldres-Weiss, 2019;Gerschewski et al, 2020), as well as to promote product innovations (Kim and Mazumdar, 2016;Bathelt, 2017;Golfetto and Rinallo, 2017).…”

Section: Theoretical Contributionssupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Trade fairs are a vital vehicle for export performance. They are events where SME develop networking, through which valuable resources for export can be acquired (Measson and Campbell-Hunt, 2015;Geldres-Weiss and Monreal-Pérez, 2018;Gerschewski et al, 2019). Interestingly, Monreal-Pérez and Geldres-Weiss (2019) show that small, young and inexperienced companies are the ones that get the most out of trade fairs to generate international leads.…”

Section: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Product Innovation Stimulates Networking Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2.5 Small and medium-sized enterprisesinnovate to networking and networking to export Trade fairs are important events for promoting product innovations (Dawson et al, 2014;Santos and Mendonça, 2014;Kim and Mazumdar, 2016) and exports (Geldres-Weiss and Monreal-Pérez, 2018;Gerschewski et al, 2019;Monreal-Pérez and Geldres-Weiss, 2019). However, studies do not make the connection between product innovation and exports in the context of trade fairs, even though they highlight the role of networking in product innovation (Dawson et al, 2014;Jalal and Haim Hilman, 2015;Foroudi et al, 2016) and exports (Measson and Campbell-Hunt, 2015;Geldres-Weiss and Monreal-Pérez, 2018;Gopalakrishna et al, 2019;Vissak et al, 2020).…”

Section: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Product Innovation Stimulates Networking Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The network capability of smes naturally influences their export performance, as it allows the exhibitor to Geldres-Weiss and Monreal-Pérez, 2018;Gerschewski et al, 2019). Contacts and relationships with international partners help to overcome export barriers (Kellezi, 2014) and provide preliminary information, which improves export performance (Yu et al, 2011).…”

Section: Theoretical Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Establishing professional relationships for different purposes is important for any company. This attitude contributes to the exchange of information and knowledge, as well as the mutual exchange of benefits, helping to overcome barriers to access international markets (Measson and Campbell-Hunt, 2015;Jeong, 2016;Geldres-Weiss and Monreal-Pérez, 2018;Gerschewski et al, 2019).…”

Section: Managerial Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between product innovation and network and their export performance, particularly in trade fair context. Moreover, this paper conducts a comparative study among services/industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and considers the home-country context. Innovation and internationalization are stagnant themes in the recent literature on trade fairs, so they require to be renewed. Design/methodology/approach The empirical study includes a survey with 341 SMEs’ respondents separated into both industrial/producer and service/other. A conceptual model was developed and examined from three different perspectives: Model A encompasses all surveyed SMEs, Model B includes only industrial/producer SMEs and Model C comprises service/other SMEs. Data analysis happened in two steps. The first step included the structural equation model (SEM) and the assessment of hypotheses (from three different perspectives). Thus, it was possible to make a comparative analysis between the models. In the second step, the ordered logit model (OLM) is used to study relationships between control variables and the criteria variable export performance. Findings The SEM’s results confirm a conceptual model about a dynamic trajectory that SMEs, mainly industrial/producer, can take advantage of: innovate to networking and networking to export. The results allowed to verify when comparing services/industrial SMEs that the tangibility which characterizes the innovation of industrial SMEs' products contributed significantly to the performance of business networks and exports. The study also reveals, through the OLM, two catalysts for the success of the SME’s export performance: export experience and continued participation in trade fairs. The OLM results also reveal that the size of the companies is not relevant, so trade fairs are marketing tools accessible to any company, regardless of their size. Finally, the study considered home-country context of the surveyed SMEs, which allowed additional interpretations to be drawn. Research limitations/implications The study does not reflect the individual's personality in his network capacity and the export performance was measured based on the level of satisfaction and not on real sales results. However, the study provides relevant practical implications and can support future studies. Practical implications The study offers important implications for SME. The results reveal that presenting product innovations at trade fairs is a useful tool for SMEs to create networks, which facilitates their export performance, especially for industrial SMEs residing in small economies such as Portugal. This study is also relevant for business associations of industrial SMEs and/or public or semi-public SME promotion agencies. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on trade fairs, suggesting a new innovation, networking, export (INE) framework to reflect on the participation in international trade fairs. So, this research especially combines product INE performance in a particular context – international trade fairs for SME. It also considers the home-country context of the SMEs, which adds depth to the study. Finally, the comparative study also provides insightful implications for industrial SMEs on how to improve the export performance from trade fairs by leveraging innovation and networking.

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