IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijesbu/v15y2012i3p285-307.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The perceived usefulness of SMEs previous customer networks in the internationalisation process of firms

Author

Listed:
  • Angelika Lindstrand
  • D. Deo Sharma
  • Kent Eriksson

Abstract

Business networks have been found useful for the internationalisation process of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper presents the next step in research on internationalising SMEs and networks, as it investigates the unstudied perceived usefulness of the SME's previous foreign customer networks. The paper uses international knowledge development theory to better understand how firms find previous customer networks useful in internationalisation. A linear regression analysis of an international sample of 494 firms demonstrates that the perceived usefulness of an SME's previous foreign customer's network is increased by the firm's experience in diverse national markets, the need for more knowledge about its customers and suppliers, and the commitment to a national market. Utilisation of customer networks is thus an important strategic asset that the international firm develops from varied experiences, customer- and supplier-specific experiences, and national market commitment.

Suggested Citation

  • Angelika Lindstrand & D. Deo Sharma & Kent Eriksson, 2012. "The perceived usefulness of SMEs previous customer networks in the internationalisation process of firms," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(3), pages 285-307.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:15:y:2012:i:3:p:285-307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=45681
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Angelika Löfgren, 2014. "International network management for the purpose of host market expansion: The mediating effect of co-innovation in the networks of SMEs," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 162-182, June.

    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:ids:ijesbu:v:15:y:2012:i:3:p:285-307. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=74 .

    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.