Factors affecting small and medium family businesses' internationalisation in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study is aimed to investigate factors that influence small and medium enterprises towards internationalisation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There are variables delineated from theories which influence the firm's internationalisation, which include: size of the firm, age of the firm, education of the manager, training, experience of the manager and network relationship. The descriptive and multivariate regression analyses were used to analyse the data. A combination of stratified and snowball sampling techniques is adopted with a sample size of 119 managers of small and medium enterprises. The results of the research were consistent with past studies where it was revealed that the firm size, manager experience, training and network relationship had a significantly positive relationship with internationalisation. However, contrary to current findings outside Saudi Arabia, education of the manager and age of the firm did not have a significant positive relationship with internationalisation. This study could be considered as a pioneer study of internationalisation within the context of Saudi Arabia and expose the specific factors considered by Saudi Arabia family business managers who intend to embark on internationalisation.