Building Blocks for Chinese SMEs to Enter the Global Market: The Roles of Upstream Knowledge and Downstream Channel Infrastructure

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most important economic components in China's economy-in that they account for 98.9 percent of the total number of businesses and 65.6 percent of China' s industrial output value. Chinese SMEs have forestalled rapid expansion into global markets due to the constraints of language, culture, and logistics. This paper examines Chinese SMEs limitations in addressing these constraints. Three contingency strategies (niche market strategy, strategic networking and e-commerce) are proffered to assist China's SMEs to more fully compete and succeed in their international efforts.

Exploration of Chinese SMEs' export development: The role of managerial determinants based on an adapted innovation‐related internationalization model

“…Likewise, foreign language proficiency may enhance the understanding of foreign regulations and allow the planning of better export‐related activities (Stoian et al, ). The findings also support the argument that a lack of foreign language ability may lead to increased uncertainties and barriers perceived by the decision maker (Cao, Hartung, Forrest, & Shen, ). For example, Delta's manager/founder recounted experiencing problematic communication with foreign customers due to language barriers.…”

An E-Commerce Key Success Factors Framework for Chinese SME Exporters

“…The adoption of e-commerce by SMEs has been studied by a number of researchers (Nguyen & Barrett, 2006;Gilmore, Gallagher, & Henry, 2007;Li & Tao, 2009;Cao, Hartung, Forrest, & Shen, 2011;Senik, Scott-ladd, Entrekin, & Adham, 2011;R. Ramanathan, U. Ramanathan, & Hsiao, 2012).…”

“…First, there are only a few studies looking at adoption of e-commerce by Chinese SME exporters. For those who looked at adoption of e-commerce, they only discussed the drivers of e-commerce (Cao et al, 2011;Li & Tao, 2009). Second, while most of the studies have focused on the general adoption of e-commerce in SMEs, there seems to be relatively few studies that attempt to understand the success factors of e-commerce, with one exception (Chong, Shafaghi, & Tan, 2011).…”

The Impact of Strategy, Technology, Size and Business Environment on the Organizational Form of Small Firms in China

“…The key sampling criteria were that the SMEs should be privately owned, independent, and located within Guangdong province. Fieldwork contacts were obtained through entrepreneurial family links [57], as access to the field is particularly difficult in China [58]. 'Snowball' sampling was therefore used [59].…”