Strategic Orientations of Smes Internationalization: Moderating Effect of Firm Size (original) (raw)
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The Determinants of Internationalization of Small and Medium Enterprises (Smes): A Case in Malaysia
Internationalization is recognized as a valuable strategy for organizations' growth and expansion; however little is known about the determinants of internationalization of SMEs in Malaysia, which is in a fast growing economy. In attempt to investigate the antecedents of internationalization, three key determinants are identified: the competitive advantage, the management attitude and the management knowledge and experience. The problem statement was as follows; are there any differences in landscape of both internationalization of the Malaysian SMEs compared to developed economies and on the factors that influences the variations in the SMEs internationalization in those economies. Therefore, the research focus will be to understand the extent of the internationalization of the Malaysian SMEs and to understand whether competitive advantage, the management's international knowledge and experience and its attitude determine internationalization as the case in developed economies. The research used a survey instrument for a sample consists of 300 SMEs located in Northern region of Malaysia in the manufacturing sector. The unit of analysis was organizations and the target respondents were business owners and export managers. The internationalization of the SMEs is measured by an index -index of internationalization. The findings showed that competitive advantage, management attitude and international knowledge and experience do not show a significant relationship with internationalization. The findings clearly show that emerging economies has different set of variables that explains internationalization which will pave way for future research interest. The implications for policy makers and ideas for future research are discussed.
ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SME'S
Internationalization is the keyword which is focused by many export oriented firms in recent days in order to expand their business across the globe. This scenario is not much different from small and medium scale industries. In this framework, incorporating the behavioral factors on the business expansion process, it is argued that one of the most significant factors that influence any business operation is the orientation of entrepreneur. Contextualizing this field of research to internationalization of business a study has been conducted to analysis how far the entrepreneurial orientation factors influence the entrepreneur's decision to go global i.e. expand their business operations across the countries with a vision of profit maximization. The study considered entrepreneurial orientation as the independent variable and internationalization factors as the dependent variable. The data collected from the Indian context, SIDCO industrial estate in the Madurai region, which focused on small and medium scale manufacturing industries, subjected to analysis based on the dependent and independent variable is made and the result indicates that the entrepreneurial orientation factors highly support the entrepreneur's decision to face the challenges and the barriers of internationalization from within and outside the country.
Influential Factors for SME Internationalization: Evidence from Malaysia
International Journal of …, 2010
influencing small-to-medium enterprises (SME) internationalization have been discussed in developed countries, yet developing counties are still struggling for empirical evidence. This article seeks to investigate the influential factors and identify the most influential aspects that drive Malaysian SMEs to internationalize. This exploratory study applied a Delphi technique through telephone interviews and e-mails. A panel of 32 experts including academicians, policymakers, government agencies, the Chamber of Commerce and research institute participated in this study. The Expert Panel was identified from the internet and through personal contacts. The experts were selected based on their positions, qualifications, affiliations, age and length of working experience. The findings found that the influential factors are firm characteristics, industry factor, external influence, and motivational aspects. Interestingly, this study revealed that the most influential factor is networking. Therefore, a Malaysian model of the factors influencing SME internationalization is derived. In particular, this study provides some insights into SMEs internationalization process and identifies suggestions for future research.
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Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has become an active role in development of the economic for a country. It’s not only give an impact on the local market, but also in the international market. The involvement of SME in international market has brought the big contribution in economics development, employment, and a nation’s total export. Despite these contributions, SMEs inevitably are lack of resources, capability and market power as compared to the large firm. In Malaysia, the total establishment of SMEs is higher, the involvement of these SME into the international market is still considering low. The aim for this conceptual paper is to examine previous scholar research papers that related to the internationalization process of the SMEs that will enhance the conceptual understanding on the study. The internationalization is a process of increasing involvement in international operation and the process of adapting firm’s operations that consist of strategy, structure, and res...
Afr. J. Bus. …, 2010
Previous research on the internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) explored the relationship between adoption of global orientation and competitive advantage, management attitude, and international knowledge and experience. However, there was a difference in opinion between those arguing that there is a positive relationship between these variables and others who contended that there is moderating effect of size on the internationalization. Within this context, this study sets out to further the discussion by comparing the global orientation of SMEs in Malaysia with their different level of size. In doing so, it draws upon the findings of survey of 300 internationalized enterprises located in northern region of Malaysia. The results suggest that size functions as moderating factor for internationalization only for relatively smaller firms. It has its biggest impact when relatively smaller SMEs acquire international knowledge and experience. They also note implications for managers and policy makers.
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Internationalization procedure of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is part of the increasing economy. The study aims to identify relationships between the factors influencing the SMEs to internationalize and identifying the most impactful factor that affects the internationalization of SMEs. The factors affecting internationalization of SMEs identified were external, internal, networking as well as barriers and challenges. The study focusses on SMEs in the service sector in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The methods used to conduct the survey is by distributing the questionnaire through email. There are 100 selected SMEs in the service sector which are listed in SME Corp Malaysia website and MATRADE website. Regardless of whether the SME's are practising international business or not, they will still be one of the potential respondents. The data were examined and obtained using the statistical software SPSS. The analysis used is reliability analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis to meet the research objectives. The expected outcome from this research is to analyze the factors that will impact the internationalization of SMEs. The results of the analysis show that all the variables have a low positive correlation. The most influential factors that effects SMEs decision to go international are barriers and challenges.
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Purpose –Internationalisation is considered as a key strategy to grow and survive over longer period of time for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Although internationalisation is a popular strategy both for large and small firms, the decision to enter in a foreign market is not a straight forward story particularly for the small firms. Considering the resource limitation, SMEs need to analyse the key drivers of internationalisation very carefully. The purpose of this paper is to identify these drivers for the SMEs in a developing country. Design/methodology/approach – By using questionnaire survey, this study collected primary data from 212 Bangladeshi SMEs. From sampling point of view, this study used cluster sampling. A mixed method data analysis technique is used to analyse the firms both from micro and macro levels. Based on the survey data, this study has developed and validated partial least square based structural model (PLS-SEM) to assess the key drivers to enter in ...
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The influence of different orientations on firm performance has been widely analysed in developed countries, but little is known on how strategic orientations affect new market entry and internationalisation speed in the distinctive operating environment of emerging markets. To address this gap, this study investigates how strategic orientation affects firms' new market entry and early internationalisation in the emerging market of Malaysia. We interviewed key representatives of 14 internationalised SMEs, focusing on the critical components of strategic orientation that facilitate a firm's new market entry and early internationalisation. The findings reveal that entrepreneur and market orientations are critical for new market entry through management commitment and market selection. Learning and networking orientations are critical for internationalisation speed through firm competencies. Managers can accelerate their firms' internationalisation process by cultivating similar characteristics.
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This study explores the factors influencing the internationalization of small and medium enterprises located in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. Four major factors emerged from the data to explain the internationalization. The four factors include owner manager's international orientation, globalisation of the firm's industry structure, established international networks, and foreign market potential. Successful firms were found to have owner managers with an international orientation and established international networks.
Universiti Teknologi Mara Selangor, 2020
Internationalization provides various strategic benefits to the SMEs. It might increase the firm's sales and revenue and be able to sustain in the economy for a longer period. However, the lack of information may become a challenge to the business, thus it is not easy to carry out the internationalization successfully due to limited resources and capabilities. On the other hand, influential factors on SMEs internalization have been discussed in developed countries, yet some developing countries are still struggling for empirical evidence. Some SMEs are facing difficulties in entering the global market as they have zero or less information on it while some of them successfully entered the market and can compete internationally. This indicates that every SMEs has the opportunity to internationalize their goods or services with proper understanding and better information about the global market. Prior studies have been carried out on factors influencing internationalization of SMEs however this study has been done specifically on internationalization of the SMEs in Malaysia. The determinants of internationalization investigated are internal factors, external factors, and networking, using partial least square method. The outcome of this study indicated that external factors, internal factors, and networking do not have any significant relationship with SMEs decision to internationalize.