Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Business World

Résumé du document

The post second world war era had seen the appearance of many variations in the environments of companies. The phenomenon of globalization which has started to emerge during this period has given rise to internationalization of companies. However, the involvement in international activities sometimes can be risky for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) lifespan as the internationalization of the company reacts to additional threats and risks. Generally considered by authors of books as an enterprise with less than 500 employees, it is relevant to notice there is not universal definition of SME across countries. This heterogeneity of definitions is relevant to understand that studies concerning SMEs are variables, principally in the case of comparison between European SMEs and US SMEs. Nevertheless, nowadays SMEs play an important and growing role in world trade. SME internationalization benefits the world trade, but how international activities benefit SME?

Extraits

[...] Moreover, they are interesting tools which can help find solutions. In the case of SMEs' initial lack of resources, theories like 'stages of internationalisation of the firm' (Gankema et al., 2000) or even different international activities allow me to understand how SMEs can compensate for their weaknesses by going international. Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to rely only on simple theories since they do not explain everything. In my case, I had to link two theories together in order to have a full analysis of my topic. [...]

[...] Roberts and Senturia (1996) considered early internationalisation within the first two years of establishment and sales reached 40% at least at the international scale. This option enables SMEs to accelerate their access to competitive resources in foreign market and obligate them to be rapidly efficient and competitive (Laanti et al, 2007). Nonetheless, SMEs need to have an innovative advantage and may suffer from lack of international contacts and local knowledge (Tayeb, 2001). However, SMEs have high capacity of learning and flexibility that help them acquire and use local knowledge to innovate quickly (Gray, 2006). [...]

[...] Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Business World Part Evaluate the ways in which international activity can benefit SMEs Part Does the international business theory covered in Part 1 help you understand the business world? Part Evaluate the ways in which international activity can benefit SMEs The post second world war era had seen the appearance of many variations in the environment of companies. The phenomenon of globalization which has started to emerge during this period has given rise to internationalisation of companies (Gjellerup, 2000). [...]

[...] A., Neubaum DO, Huse M. (1997) The effect of the environment on export performance among telecommunications new ventures, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice pp.25–46. [...]

[...] Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are not an exception of this logic, even if SMEs have a traditional local sector of activities ( Pleitner cited by Ruzzier et al., 2006). Generally considered by authors of books as an enterprise with less than 500 employees, it is relevant to notice there is not universal definition of SME across countries. According to the European Commission, SME is defined according to two specifications. First of all, a is an enterprise which has less than 250 employees”. [...]