IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intman/v14y2008i1p65-77.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internationalization of small and medium sized enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region

Author

Listed:
  • Jansson, Hans
  • Sandberg, Susanne

Abstract

We integrate internationalization process theory with industrial network theory to explain SME entry in emerging markets. We show that entry modes are complemented by entry nodes and entry processes. We develop a Five/Five Stages Model to consider the dynamic interaction between these factors. We undertook a survey of 116 SMEs in Southern Sweden trading with the Baltic States, Poland and Russia, as complemented by a case study of ten SMEs trading with Poland and an analysis of trade statistics of SMEs in Southern Sweden. We find that relationships are critical for entry as most firms rely on direct relationships with customers or dyads. The involvement of subsidiaries is uncommon, suggesting a low degree of FDI. Meanwhile, triads or indirect relationships through distributors or agents are more important. This low cost entry node creates a paradox in that the insufficient learning it provides about local markets obstructs further internationalization. By relating entries to the global internationalization process, we find that most SMEs trade with few countries in the region, indicating a low degree of regional internationalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Jansson, Hans & Sandberg, Susanne, 2008. "Internationalization of small and medium sized enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 65-77, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:14:y:2008:i:1:p:65-77
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425308000069
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonidas C Leonidou & Constatine S Katsikeas, 1996. "The Export Development Process: An Integrative Review of Empirical Models," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(3), pages 517-551, September.
    2. Warren J Bilkey, 1978. "An Attempted Integration of the Literature on the Export Behavior of Firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 9(1), pages 33-46, March.
    3. George Nakos & Keith D. Brouthers, 2002. "Entry Mode Choice of SMEs in Central and Eastern Europe," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(1), pages 47-63, January.
    4. Meyer, Klaus & Skak, Ane, 2002. "Networks, Serendipity and SME Entry into Eastern Europe," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 179-188, April.
    5. Stan D Reid, 1981. "The Decision-Maker and Export Entry and Expansion," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 12(2), pages 101-112, June.
    6. 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.
    7. Forsgren, M., 2002. "The concept of learning in the Uppsala internationalization process model: a critical review," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 257-277, June.
    8. Shaker A Zahra, 2005. "A theory of international new ventures: a decade of research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(1), pages 20-28, January.
    9. McDougall, Patricia Phillips & Oviatt, Benjamin M., 1996. "New venture internationalization, strategic change, and performance: A follow-up study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 23-40, January.
    10. Madsen, Tage Koed & Servais, Per, 1997. "The internationalization of Born Globals: An evolutionary process?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(6), pages 561-583, December.
    11. Ingmar Björkman & Mats Forsgren, 2000. "Nordic International Business Research," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 6-25, March.
    12. Sharma, D. Deo & Blomstermo, Anders, 2003. "The internationalization process of Born Globals: a network view," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 739-753, December.
    13. Klaus E. Meyer & Modestas Gelbuda, 2006. "Process perspectives in international business research in CEE," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 143-164, March.
    14. 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.
    15. Klaus E Meyer, 2001. "Institutions, Transaction Costs, and Entry Mode Choice in Eastern Europe," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 32(2), pages 357-367, June.
    16. Jane W. Lu & Paul W. Beamish, 2001. "The internationalization and performance of SMEs," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 565-586, June.
    17. Blomstermo, Anders & Eriksson, Kent & Lindstrand, Angelika & Sharma, D. Deo, 2004. "The perceived usefulness of network experiential knowledge in the internationalizing firm," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 355-373.
    18. Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson & Anders Majkgård & D Deo Sharma, 1997. "Experimental Knowledge and Costs in the Internationalization Process," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(2), pages 337-360, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sandberg, Susanne, 2014. "Experiential knowledge antecedents of the SME network node configuration in emerging market business networks," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 20-29.
    2. Sandberg, Susanne & Sui, Sui & Baum, Matthias, 2019. "Effects of prior market experiences and firm-specific resources on developed economy SMEs' export exit from emerging markets: Complementary or compensatory?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 489-502.
    3. Dzikowski, Piotr, 2018. "A bibliometric analysis of born global firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 281-294.
    4. Nowinski, Witold & Rialp, Alex, 2013. "Drivers and strategies of international new ventures from a Central European transition economy," Journal of East European Management Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 18(2), pages 191-231.
    5. Ripollés, Maria & Blesa, Andreu, 2012. "International new ventures as “small multinationals”: The importance of marketing capabilities," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 277-287.
    6. 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.
    7. Fletcher, Margaret & Harris, Simon & Richey, Robert Glenn, 2021. "Retrospective and prospective learning: Accelerating the internationalization process," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    8. Paul, Justin & Parthasarathy, Sundar & Gupta, Parul, 2017. "Exporting challenges of SMEs: A review and future research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 327-342.
    9. Alex Rialp Criado & Josep Rialp Criado & Gary A. Knight, 2002. "The Phenomenon of International new Ventures, Global Start-ups, and Born-Globals: What do we know After a Decade (1993-2002) of Exhaustive Scientific Inquiry," Working Papers 0211, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Dec 2002.
    10. Brennan, L. & Garvey, D., 2009. "The role of knowledge in internationalization," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 120-133, June.
    11. Mikael Hilmersson & Stylianos Papaioannou, 2015. "SME international opportunity scouting—empirical insights on its determinants and outcomes," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 186-211, September.
    12. Kahiya, Eldrede T., 2018. "Five decades of research on export barriers: Review and future directions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1172-1188.
    13. Wu, Aiqi & Voss, Hinrich, 2015. "When does absorptive capacity matter for international performance of firms? Evidence from China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 344-351.
    14. Araujo, Luis & Rezende, Sergio, 2003. "Path dependence, MNCs and the internationalisation process: a relational approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 719-737, December.
    15. Lindstrand, Angelika & Melén, Sara & Nordman, Emilia Rovira, 2011. "Turning social capital into business: A study of the internationalization of biotech SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 194-212, April.
    16. Christian Schwens & Florian B Zapkau & Keith D Brouthers & Lina Hollender, 2018. "Limits to international entry mode learning in SMEs," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(7), pages 809-831, September.
    17. Arild Aspelund & Carina Moen, 2012. "International new ventures and governance structures—are international entrepreneurs strategic or entrepreneurial?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(1), pages 125-146, February.
    18. Vijay Narayanan, 2015. "Export Barriers for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: A Literature Review based on Leonidou’s Model," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 3(2), pages 105-123.
    19. 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.
    20. Sleuwaegen, Leo & Onkelinx, Jonas, 2014. "International commitment, post-entry growth and survival of international new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 106-120.

    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:eee:intman:v:14:y:2008:i:1:p:65-77. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/description#description .

    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.