“…Small firms, especially those in hi-tech industries, show a tendency to engage in relatively intermittent exporting for extended periods (Welch & Welch, 2009), and sporadic exporting is commonplace among UK SMEs, without either entry or exit from export markets being a coherent strategy (Crick, 2003;Love & Ganotakis, 2012). There is also evidence that hightech SMEs typically begin to internationalise on the basis of geographically dispersed niche markets on an opportunistic basis, relying largely on unsolicited orders from abroad (Bell, McNaughton, & Young, 2001), or as a result of family or other ties in foreign countries (Van Biesebroeck, 2005).…”