Journal of Small Business Management — Volume 55, Issue 1, 128-148
SME Networks and International Performance: Unveiling the Significance of Foreign Market Entry Mode
Maria-Cristina Stoian, Josep Rialp, Pavlos Dimitratos
- This study investigates the relevance of interorganizational networks for the international performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in relation to the foreign market entry mode (FMEM) selected. We distinguish two groups of internationalized SMEs: exporting firms and micromultinational enterprises (mMNEs). Drawing on insights from the network theory, our study accounts for the role of intermediate outcomes (innovative behavior and foreign market knowledge). Structural equation modeling is conducted in a sample of U.K.-based internationalized SMEs. Our findings suggest that interorganizational networks have an indirect influence on international performance but differences are found among the two groups of internationalized SMEs.
Journal of International Management – Volume 22, Issue 4, 365-379
Does Gender Matter in the Export Performance of International New Ventures? Mediation Effects of Firm-specific and Country-specific Advantages
In Hyeock Lee, Yongsun Paik, Ugur Uygur
- Based on a sample of 4240 Korean firms, this study explores the relationship between owner gender and export performance of international new ventures (INVs) by investigating four mediating mechanisms: venture capital financing, upstream firm-specific advantages, downstream firm-specific advantages, and country-specific advantages. Our empirical findings are threefold: (1) female-owned ventures are disadvantageous in obtaining access to venture capital, but venture capital financing is not positively associated with their export performance; (2) male-owned ventures achieve better export performance through superior innovation and marketing capabilities (i.e., mediation effects) than their female-owned counterparts; (3) while gender is not associated with the home-region destination of exports, the country destination of exports within the Asia-Pacific region positively affects INVs’ export performance.
Technovation – Volume 57-58, 47-57.
The impact of opportunity connectedness on innovation in SMEs’ foreign-market relationships.
Emilia Roviera Nordman, Daniel Tolstoy
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use of business networks has grown significantly during the last decades, partly due to increasingly complex innovation processes. This article investigates how different kinds of networks, depending on location, contextualize innovation in specific foreign market business relationships. Building on internationalization, network, and innovation research we develop a model that views opportunity connectedness in specific host-markets, home-markets, and other international markets as prerequisites to innovative collaboration and innovation outcomes in foreign business relationships. The results of our linear structural relations (LISREL) analysis of Swedish SMEs provide empirical evidence that the effect of opportunity connectedness on innovation outcomes in foreign business relationships is mediated by the level of innovative collaboration. These results indicate that SMEs need a relatively higher level of innovative collaboration in their partnerships with foreign market customers to convert opportunities conceived in home- and international- market networks into innovative outcomes in comparison to opportunities conceived in host-market networks. This finding implies that as opportunities become increasingly contextually remote, the importance of collaborative business relationships increases. By showing these results, the study contributes to research in the international small-business domain that seeks to identify important prerequisites of SME innovation.
Open Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016649721630027X
Journal of International Entrepreneurship – Volume 14, Issue 4, 483-512
Functional and contextual dimensions of INVs’ alliance partner selection
Nancy Haskell, Sophie Veilleux, Donald Béliveau
- Prior research on the selection of international alliance partners calls for investigation of the potential specificity of selection criteria for evaluating partners for alliances with different objectives or functions. The present study responds to this need and contributes to the development of the field of international entrepreneurship by examining the relation between the alliance function and the criteria chosen. We studied three alliance functions: R&D, production, and marketing. Second, for each alliance function, we analyzed the criteria selected within two contexts: developing countries and those that consider emerging markets in their partner choice set. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 executives from international new ventures (INVs) in two major North American biotechnology clusters, representing 239 alliances; 65.7 % of these were signed with international partners. Results indicate that, aside from compatibility/complementarity of resources (R&D and production alliances), all criteria used within a single function are unique to that function. Furthermore, these criteria differ somewhat when the potential partners considered by a firm include those from both emerging and developed markets, compared with firms that limit potential partners to those in developed market contexts. Finally, the study reveals that respondent firms integrate country, industry, and market attractiveness factors with partner selection criteria for marketing alliances. This suggests that, for many firms, market choice and partner selection are not successive steps. The study’s originality lies in its focus on the relationship between alliance function and partner selection criteria used by INVs as well as within different contexts.