Motivating SMEs to Cooperate and Internationalize
A Dynamic Perspective
Routledge Studies in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Series

Interest in generally expanding the understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially understanding their strategies and operations to enter international markets, is growing rapidly among researchers and academics globally. Government officials, regional and economic specialists, and international trade advisers are directly involved in assisting small and medium-sized enterprises in developing their international marketing expertise.

Motivating SMEs to Cooperate and Internationalize consists of research studies, cases, and experiences obtained by researchers and academics from managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Europe as they worked closely with managers on issues and problems leading to internationalization of enterprises. This book will map not only the attempts of small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Europe to enter foreign markets, but also to understand how researchers and academics can help small and medium-sized Northern European enterprisers achieve their objectives. This compilation of approaches, perspectives, and experiences will serve as a resource tool for researchers and academics active in international management training programs worldwide and help illustrate how to close the gap between publishing results of their findings and efforts to disseminate their findings among managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in their domains.

This book is the first attempt to integrate results of research studies and practices as an illustration of how knowledge of small and medium-sized enterprises has evolved since the 1980s with the contributions of individual researchers and academics in Northern Europe. It will be of relevance to academics and researchers interested in working closely with small and medium-sized enterprises to meet their goals in entering international markets.

1.Motivating SMEs to Cooperate and Internationalize: a Dynamic Perspective – Introduction

George Tesar

Part 1: Entrepreneurial Action

2. From Small Businesses to Internationalized Entrepreneurial Ventures – Some Personal Notes

Rolf A. Lundin

3. Come to the Northern Side – We have a Business Model

Petri Ahokangas, Irina Atkova and Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen

4. Managerial Initiatives, Internationalization and Smaller Manufacturing Enterprises: Perspectives and Approaches

George Tesar

Part 2: Managerial Aspects of SMEs

5. Triggers of Substantial Business Model Innovation: Lessons Learned from Swedish SMEs

Vladimir Vanyushyn and Jan Abrahamsson

6. Digitally Enabled Platforms: Generating Innovation and Entrepreneurial Opportunities for SMEs

Arnim Decker and Liliyana Makarova Jørsfeldt

7. The Role of Auditing in Banks’ Risk Assessment of SMEs: A Literature Review and New Venues for Future Research

Giulia Giunti and Tobias Svanström

Part 3: Industrial Networks Development

8. Nascent Entrepreneurial Teams Managing in Networks: Mobilization, Utilization and Saturation

Thommie Burström, Jussi Harri and Timothy Wilson

9. SME-MNE Cooperation in a Regional Cluster

Zsuzsanna Vincze and Peter Zettinig

10. Straight ahead or Wandering through the Woods? - Decision-Making in Entrepreneurial Internationalization

Niina Nummela, Leila Hurmerinta and Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki

Part 4: Internationalization

11. Growth Ambitions and Internationalization Among Newly Started Small Swedish Firms

Gert-Olof Boström, Karl Jo

George Tesar is Professor Emeritus of Marketing and International Business at Umeå University in Umeå, Sweden and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA. He is an Adjunct Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark.

Zsuzsanna Vincze is Associate Professor at Umeå School of Business and Economics (USBE), Head of the Entrepreneurship, and holds a position of Docent of International Business at the University of Turku, Finland.