AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

TUESDAY
Session: 3.3.5 - Competitive
Track: 11 - SMEs and Entrepreneurship
Network Effects in Internationalizing SMEs
Presented On: July 3, 2012 - 13:00-14:15
Chair: Patricia Mcdougall , Indiana University
The Role of Organizational and Personal Networks in Exploring and Exploiting Opportunities in International
Markets
Manuel Eberhard, Bond University
Justin B. Craig, Bond University
In a study of 1304 Australian manufacturing industry SMEs, we investigate the relationships among networking
(i.e., inter-personal and inter-organisational networks), international market venturing (i.e., export intensity),
and family ownership. We find evidence that (1) inter-personal networking and inter-organisational networking
positively influence SME international market venturing, but this relationship is contingent on a time lag effect,
and (2) family ownership negatively moderates the effect of inter-organisational networking on international
market venturing. Implications for managerial practice and public policy are discussed. (For more information,
please contact: Manuel Eberhard, Bond University, Australia: meberhar@bond.edu.au)
Effectuation and Networking of Internationalizing SMEs
Tamara Galkina, Hanken School of Economics
Sylvie Chetty, Massey University
We explore previously discarded phenomena in the internationalization process literature, namely non-predictive
logic of foreign market entry. We use effectuation theory as a new lens to examine how small and medium size
enterprises (SMEs) network during their international expansion. We develop a conceptual framework by
contrasting how the network concept is used in the revisited Uppsala model from the International Business
literature and in effectuation theory from the entrepreneurship literature. This comparison shows that the
underlying assumptions of the network concept relating to trust, risk, uncertainty and coordination are
essentially different in these two streams of literature. Consequently, we identify how effectuation theory can
capture the unintentional aspect of networking by internationalizing SMEs. Our research design is a multiplecase
study approach. Our findings show how entrepreneurs network with all interested partners instead of
carefully selecting international partners according to pre-defined network goals. Entrepreneurs who network
effectually enter markets wherever an opportunity emerges to commit to a network relation which will increase
their means. Hence, the network relations determine which foreign markets the firm enters rather than vice
versa. An implication for entrepreneurs in internationalizing firms is that their networks need not necessarily be
planned, structured and coordinated. (For more information, please contact: Tamara Galkina, Hanken School of
Economics, Finland: tamara.galkina@hanken.fi)
Internationalization of SMEs into Emerging Market Business Networks - Antecedents of the Network Entry Node
Choice
Susanne Sandberg, Linnaeus University
As a result of the third wave of internationalization, Western SMEs have established themselves on a big scale in
the emerging markets of the world which offers a highly dissimilar institutional context. This paper aims to
determine antecedents of the emerging market entry node, being the establishment point into the foreign
business network, of 203 SMEs in Southern Sweden that entered the emerging markets of the Baltic States,
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
Page 226