Field of study: International Business/International Entrepreneurship
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises:
Definitions, Economic Functions and
Determinants of Internationalisation
This study investigates a number of motives stimulating the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).The internationalisation of SMEs usually is not part of a strategy but a reaction to a stimulus. An internationalisation stimulus is a factor fostering a firm’s decision to start or maintain committing some resources to act on an international basis. The reaction to stimuli is an indicator for the flexibility of SMEs. It is an interesting point that flexibility helps small firms to overcome the lack of financial resources and is their advantage with regard to internationalisation.
After dealing with different definitions of "small" and "medium" with regard to enterprize size and evaluating on the economic functions of smaller firms this work explains the ten following internationalization stimuli:
- Potential for extra growth/sales/profit
- Production of goods with unique qualities
- Influence of decision maker
- Orders from abroad
- Saturation/shrinkage in domestic market
- Intense competition of domestic market
- Networking
- Fulfilling an international need
- Limitation of trade barriers
- Global trade infrastructure
Table of Contents
List of tables
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
2.2. Internationalisation
2.3. Export
3. Economic Functions of SMEs
3.1. A Pluralistic Economic Structure
3.2. Job Creation
3.3. Economic Growth
4. Motives for SMEs to Internationalise
4.1. Internal and External Motives
4.2. Early Stages of Research
4.2.1. Internal Motives
4.2.2. External Motives
4.3. Modern Approaches of Research
4.3.1. Internal Motives
4.3.2. External Motives
5. Discussion
5.1. Justification
5.2. Summary
5.3. Practical Implications
6. Limitations and Further Research
References
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