IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/but/ijebfa/v2y2012i1p47-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Networks’ Contribution To Small-Sized Firms’internationalization

Author

Listed:
  • Mara Del Baldo

    (University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, University of Bologna)

  • Selena Aureli

    (University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, University of Bologna)

Abstract

This paper analyzes a new legislative instrument called network contract” designed to support inter-firm cooperation. It aims to verify whether this type of formal cooperation is used by small firms to support their international strategies. Results indicate that internationalization is not the primary goal for firms who participate in network contracts: Italian small and medium-sized firms use this instrument to achieve different strategies of growth and long-term objectives. While we found that some firms have indeed increased their business activity abroad after joining the network, we also found that those with an international dimension do not seem to have changed their approach towards internationalization. Consequently, we argue that the network contract is not the most suitable tool for promoting internationalization among domestic firms, although internationalization may emerge as a by-product of inter-firm relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Mara Del Baldo & Selena Aureli, 2012. "Networks’ Contribution To Small-Sized Firms’internationalization," The International Journal of Economic Behavior - IJEB, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, vol. 2(1), pages 47-66, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:but:ijebfa:v:2:y:2012:i:1:p:47-66
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ijeb.faa.ro/download/463_DEL%20BALDO%20-%20AURELI.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://ijeb.faa.ro/en/article/Networks--Contribution-to-Small-Sized-Firms--Internationalization~463.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Musso, Fabio & Francioni, Barbara, 2011. "Foreign Markets Entry Mode Decision for Italian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," MPRA Paper 50067, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 31 Oct 2011.
    2. Mike Wright & Paul Westhead & Deniz Ucbasaran, 2007. "Internationalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and International Entrepreneurship: A Critique and Policy Implications," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(7), pages 1013-1030.
    3. Gabrielsson, Mika & Kirpalani, V.H. Manek & Dimitratos, Pavlos & Solberg, Carl Arthur & Zucchella, Antonella, 2008. "Born globals: Propositions to help advance the theory," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 385-401, August.
    4. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 2009. "The Uppsala internationalization process model revisited: From liability of foreignness to liability of outsidership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(9), pages 1411-1431, December.
    5. Gary A Knight & S Tamar Cavusgil, 2004. "Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(2), pages 124-141, March.
    6. Benjamin M. Oviatt & Patricia P. McDougall, 2005. "Defining International Entrepreneurship and Modeling the Speed of Internationalization," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(5), pages 537-553, September.
    7. Jones, Marian V., 2001. "First steps in internationalisation: Concepts and evidence from a sample of small high-technology firms," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 191-210.
    8. Zahra, Shaker A. & Korri, Juha Santeri & Yu, JiFeng, 2005. "Cognition and international entrepreneurship: implications for research on international opportunity recognition and exploitation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 129-146, April.
    9. Paul Ellis, 2000. "Social Ties and Foreign Market Entry," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(3), pages 443-469, September.
    10. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 1977. "The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 8(1), pages 23-32, March.
    11. Ozgen, Eren & Baron, Robert A., 2007. "Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: Effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 174-192, March.
    12. Crick, Dave & Spence, Martine, 2005. "The internationalisation of 'high performing' UK high-tech SMEs: a study of planned and unplanned strategies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 167-185, April.
    13. Ritter, Thomas & Gemunden, Hans Georg, 2003. "Interorganizational relationships and networks: An overview," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(9), pages 691-697, September.
    14. Andrea Bonaccorsi, 1992. "On the Relationship Between Firm Size and Export Intensity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(4), pages 605-635, December.
    15. John H Dunning, 1980. "Towards an Eclectic Theory of International Production: Some Empirical Tests," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 11(1), pages 9-31, March.
    16. Peggy A. Golden & Marc Dollinger, 1993. "Cooperative Alliances and Competitive Strategies in Small Manufacturing Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(4), pages 43-56, July.
    17. Gary A Knight & S Tamer Cavusgil, 2004. "Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(4), pages 334-334, July.
    18. Benjamin M Oviatt & Patricia P McDougall, 2005. "The internationalization of entrepreneurship," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(1), pages 2-8, January.
    19. Coviello, Nicole & Munro, Hugh, 1997. "Network relationships and the internationalisation process of small software firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 361-386, August.
    20. Nicole E Coviello, 2006. "The network dynamics of international new ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(5), pages 713-731, September.
    21. Dimitratos, Pavlos & Jones, Marian V., 2005. "Future directions for international entrepreneurship research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 119-128, April.
    22. Phillips McDougall, Patricia & Shane, Scott & Oviatt, Benjamin M., 1994. "Explaining the formation of international new ventures: The limits of theories from international business research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 469-487, November.
    23. Hara, George & Kanai, Toshihiro, 1994. "Entrepreneurial networks across oceans to promote international strategic alliances for small businesses," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 489-507, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lorenzo Compagnucci & Alessio Cavicchi & Francesca Spigarelli, 2019. "The network contract in the agrifood industry: An exploratory study on collaborative drivers in central Italy," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(2), pages 335-358.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dzikowski, Piotr, 2018. "A bibliometric analysis of born global firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 281-294.
    2. Kontinen, Tanja & Ojala, Arto, 2011. "Network ties in the international opportunity recognition of family SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 440-453, August.
    3. Jones, Marian V. & Coviello, Nicole & Tang, Yee Kwan, 2011. "International Entrepreneurship research (1989–2009): A domain ontology and thematic analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 632-659.
    4. Francisco García-Lillo & Enrique Claver-Cortés & Bartolomé Marco-Lajara & Mercedes Úbeda-García, 2017. "Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Research on ‘Born Global’ Firms and INVs: A Citation/Co-citation Analysis," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 631-652, August.
    5. Knight, Gary A. & Liesch, Peter W., 2016. "Internationalization: From incremental to born global," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 93-102.
    6. Yoruk, Deniz E. & Bunduchi, Raluca & Yoruk, Esin & Crișan-Mitra, Catalina & Salanță, Irina-Iulia & Crișan, Emil Lucian, 2021. "Pathways to innovation in Romanian software SMEs: Exploring the impact of interdependencies between internationalisation and knowledge sources," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(4).
    7. Eberhard, Manuel & Craig, Justin, 2013. "The evolving role of organisational and personal networks in international market venturing," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 385-397.
    8. Ciravegna, Luciano & Majano, Sara B. & Zhan, Ge, 2014. "The inception of internationalization of small and medium enterprises: The role of activeness and networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1081-1089.
    9. Khan, Zaheer & Lew, Yong Kyu, 2018. "Post-entry survival of developing economy international new ventures: A dynamic capability perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 149-160.
    10. Ciravegna, Luciano & Kuivalainen, Olli & Kundu, Sumit K. & Lopez, Luis E., 2018. "The antecedents of early internationalization: A configurational perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1200-1212.
    11. Fletcher, Margaret & Harris, Simon & Richey, Robert Glenn, 2021. "Retrospective and prospective learning: Accelerating the internationalization process," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    12. Schwens, Christian & Kabst, Ruediger, 2011. "Internationalization of young technology firms: A complementary perspective on antecedents of foreign market familiarity," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 60-74, February.
    13. Chandra, Yanto & Wilkinson, Ian F., 2017. "Firm internationalization from a network-centric complex-systems perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 691-701.
    14. Farhad Uddin Ahmed & Louis Brennan, 2021. "A review of methodological diversity within the domain of international entrepreneurship," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 256-299, June.
    15. Renato Cotta Mello & Angela Rocha & Jorge Ferreira Silva, 2019. "The long-term trajectory of international new ventures: A longitudinal study of software developers," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 144-171, June.
    16. Ciravegna, Luciano & Lopez, Luis & Kundu, Sumit, 2014. "Country of origin and network effects on internationalization: A comparative study of SMEs from an emerging and developed economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 916-923.
    17. Svante Andersson & Natasha Evers, 2015. "International opportunity recognition in international new ventures—a dynamic managerial capabilities perspective," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 260-276, September.
    18. Bai, Wensong & Holmström-Lind, Christine & Johanson, Martin, 2018. "Leveraging networks, capabilities and opportunities for international success: A study on returnee entrepreneurial ventures," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 51-62.
    19. Johanson, Martin & Martín Martín, Oscar, 2015. "The incremental expansion of Born Internationals: A comparison of new and old Born Internationals," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 476-496.
    20. Oliva, Fábio Lotti & Teberga, Pedro Marins Freire & Testi, Lucas Israel Oliveira & Kotabe, Masaaki & Giudice, Manlio Del & Kelle, Peter & Cunha, Miguel Pina, 2022. "Risks and critical success factors in the internationalization of born global startups of industry 4.0: A social, environmental, economic, and institutional analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:but:ijebfa:v:2:y:2012:i:1:p:47-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Cosmin Catalin Olteanu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/faaubro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.