Italian banks and business services as knowledge pipelines for SMEs: Examples from Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

There are few analyses available of the role played by finance and business consultancies in post-socialist economic geographies and even fewer on the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Both issues are addressed in this paper with a focus on Italian banks and business services as well as their relationship to SME outsourcing in Central and Eastern Europe. The basic premise of this paper is that a relationship exists between the internationalization of banks, services, and SMEs when analyzed within the framework of the Uppsala Internationalization Process Model. Specifically, banks and services allow the mobilization of resources forming knowledge pipelines between Italian firms and Central and Eastern European regional economies.

Banking services for SMEs' internationalization: evaluating customer satisfaction

“…In fact, they create around 80% of satisfaction when provided and less than 20% of dissatisfaction when absent. These results show that if the bank wants to differentiate its offer from that of competitors and pursue a strategy of market leadership, it should act simultaneously as lender, consultant and cultural mediator (Sellar, 2012;Shahnoori and Jenkins, 2019), supporting the customer in collecting information and entering in business networks abroad (Jin and Zhang, 2019), facilitating buyer-seller transactions (Durkin et al, 2013), reducing information asymmetries and screening and monitoring economic agents (Eriksson et al, 2017).…”

“…The high impact on satisfaction of these services, in particular of S3 and S4, shows that SMEs, in addition to financial and credit services, need assistance and advisory services for their international activities. This kind of services have been mostly ignored by the previous literature except for some authors who have highlighted their importance and asked for more consideration in future research (Binks et al, 2006;Sellar, 2012;Durkin et al, 2013;Stouraitis et al, 2017;Shahnoori and Jenkins, 2019).…”

“…In fact, in addition to offering financial services like factoring, guarantees and letters of credit, banks collect and process information which support SMEs in reducing information asymmetries and screening and monitoring economic agents (Eriksson et al, 2017). Banks can play the role of cultural mediators between SMEs and the local communities that host them by providing companies with information on local standards and customs, as well as facilitating working relationships and business opportunities (Sellar, 2012).…”

Transnationalizing bureaucracies through investment promotion: The case of Informest

“…The goal of the table is not to draw conclusions on the effects of services on firms’ performances, or to invite comparison between areas with or without IPCs; rather, it is to show that services to internationalization flow seamlessly from public to private sector providers and that there is a constant exchange of information among service providers themselves. As a result, services oftentimes overlap, leading to conflicts between public and private actors, and sometimes even between IP and clients (Sellar, 2015). Thus, outward IP can be described as a field, because it involves socialization and struggles among service providers with similar and overlapping interests, even though it involves actors in different professions in the public and private sectors.…”

Place-based entrepreneurs and their competitiveness: a relational perspective on small regional banks

“…Place-based entrepreneurs are challenged in today's seemingly placeless marketplace even though their business model might prove to be a source of sustained competitiveness (Dybdahl 2019;Vlasov et al 2018). Small regional banks in countries like Italy or Germany are prototypical place-based entrepreneurs with their century-long tradition of business operations within a limited regional market area and their role as core financial partners of notably SMEs (Sellar 2015;Fiordelisi and Mare 2014;Mercieca et al 2007;Usai and Vannini 2005). In spite of its practical relevance, such place-based entrepreneurship represents an understudied topic in the entrepreneurship and small business management literature with only a few publications addressing it (Bollweg et al 2020;Hakenes et al 2015;Howorth and Moro 2006).…”