Sme Internationalization Research, Theory And Practice

This dissertation focuses on the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) . The whole research covers the theories and practices of SMEs' internationalization, including the development of international business of SMEs in China.Traditional theories regard internationalization as an arena of large resource-rich firms, however, SMEs' increasingly active role in the international field in recent years has challenged this traditional mindset. In Europe, Asia(including Australia) and the United States, with the development of information and communication technology , the tendency of a globalized market ,as well as many other factors, a growing number of SMEs has begun to operate abroad.After more than twenty years' economic reforms, China has attracted a large amount of foreign capital and accordingly there are quite a lot of researches on the I-'I)I of foreign multinational companies in China . So far, some enterprises in China have aspired to international business and already possessed related qualifications for "going abroad". Moreover, with China's accession to WTO, our country has already reached a new era when it should shift its policy focus from "attracting FDI" to "both attracting FDI and going abroad". Accordingly, domestic enterprises in this country also need internationalize in order to cope with the new competitive environment. So is it possible for enterprises in China, especially those SMEs, which constitute the majority of Chinese companies, to operate successfully in foreign countries ? How could we promote the process of their internationalization? Research in such areas is relatively weak both inside and outside China at present.Under such circumstances, this dissertation focuses on the internationalization of SMEs. In view of the increasingly important role of SMEs in the international market, while traditional theories are largely derived from the experiences of large multinational companies, this dissertation tries to develop new theoretical perspectives to explain the internationalization of SMEs. In the meanwhile, since the internationalization of SMEs is still in its early stage compared with that of large multinational corporations, it has become an important concern that SMEs should be guided to speed up their internationalization process and compete successfully in the international field. Therefore, it has great theoretical merits and realistic values to explore theories of internationalization of SMEs, examine the practices of SMEs'internationalization all over the world and propose relevant strategies to promote the internationalization of SMEs in our country.This dissertation consists of eight chapters. The first chapter begins with an introduction of the research background and its expected value, then analyzes the existence of SMEs from an economic perspective and the role of SMEs in the national economy. On the basis of discussing the definitions of SMEs and internationalization by different countries and scholars, we define the specific meaning of SMEs and internationalization in this research. This chapter finally expounds the theoretical logic and methodology of the dissertation.After a review of traditional theories of internationalization, chapter two analyzes the limitations of traditional theories in explaining SMEs' internationalization . Then it tries to explore the internationalization theories of SMEs from different perspectives, namely, entrepreneurship, clusters and network capabilities, internalization of information and knowledge and resource-based view. C'hapter two is concluded by the development of a theory of SMEs' international competitiveness.Chapter three conducts an international review of the practices of SMEs' internationalization, including the tendency of development, the general situation as well as the specific practices of SMEs in the United States, Japan, Europe and Taiwan of China. At the end of this chapter, a survey of empirical studies by foreign scholars is presented to test and verify the theorie...