The Importance of Locally Embedded Personal Relationships for SME Internationalisation Processes From Opportunity Recognition to Company Growth

Ratajczak‐Mrozek, Milena

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2578709

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Due to the fact that embeddedness of enterprises in the local environment might improve access to local resources (Ratajczak-Mrozek, 2009;2014), it is paramount to their operation (Dacin et al, 1999;Thornton, 1999) and is particularly important in the case of newly-created, innovative enterprises established in rural areas. The success of those entities is grounded in the development of cooperation (Bengtsson and Kock, 2000) (both formal and informal or general and individual) on different levels: i) business to business (B2B), ii) business to administration (B2A), and, iii) business to consumer (B2C).…”

Section: Embeddedness Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community tensions, participation, and local development: Factors affecting the spatial embeddedness of anaerobic digestion in Poland and the Czech Republic

Chodkowska‐Miszczuk

Martinát

Cowell

2019

Energy Research & Social Science

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AD plants are an important part of energy transition towards low-carbon rural economies in Central European countries. However, their benefits in making rural spaces more energy sustainable and energy self-sufficient are frequently questioned. In our paper, we strive to deepen our understanding of the level of embeddedness of two modes of operation of AD plants (AD on-farm, AD off-farm) in cases of Poland and the Czech Republic. We evaluate the pros and cons of both modes and assess their importance for the local rural development and energy transition through the lens of their embeddedness in the life of rural communities.Through questionnaire surveys in two municipalities (Buczek in Poland, Stonava in the Czech Republic, n=232) and a set of expert interviews (19) with local and regional stakeholders, we have found that AD plants are specific rural enterprises as they usually rely on local biomass resources and are generally more grounded in the local economy and in local social structures than other enterprises. We also discovered that both types of AD plants investigated create significant (but varied) linkages with local stakeholders. The awareness of ADs among local population is high and significantly influenced by previous visits to the AD plant. By providing jobs and organizing local events for the local population operators of AD plants create space for their deeper acceptability and their embeddedness into the life of rural communities, however, site-specificity and local socio-cultural contexts must be also considered.

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Section: Embeddedness Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community tensions, participation, and local development: Factors affecting the spatial embeddedness of anaerobic digestion in Poland and the Czech Republic

Chodkowska‐Miszczuk

Martinát

Cowell

2019

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…Sharing information, knowledge and skills expresses collective agency and assists the constructing of (individual and collective) meanings regarding local resources (Sotarauta & Suvinen, 2018). In this sense, social and community resources provide access to capacities located both within and outside a given locality (Ratajczak-Mrozek, 2014;Šumane et al, 2018). Moreover, it has been highlighted that the low actor densities of rural regions encourage interactions between rather dissimilar actors, inducing potentially productive diversity into social ties and firm networks (Mcpherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001).…”

Section: Social and Community Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How local resources shape innovation and path development in rural regions. Insights from rural Estonia

Reidolf¹,

Graffenberger²

2019

JEMI

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This paper examines the role of local resources (physical, human, immaterial, social and community, and fi nancial) in shaping fi rm innovati on and path development in rural areas. Existi ng research in spati ally informed innovati on studies has largely overlooked the place-specifi c resources of rural regions as innovati on facilitati ng qualiti es. This paper addresses the following research questi ons: (i) what is the role of local rural resources in a fi rm's innovati on acti viti es, and (ii) how do these resources shape regional development paths? We propose a framework that takes a holisti c view of rural resources and their role in shaping innovati on and regional development paths. The empirical analyses suggest that rural resources off er valuable and diverse opportuniti es for fi rm innovati on, providing that fi rms (pro-)acti vely mobilize and purposefully exploit these resources as part of their innovati on endeavors. We fi nd that rural resources have the potenti al to extend and upgrade regional development paths and operate as ingredients to enrich existi ng paths with additi onal functi ons and, thereby, to make them more future-oriented. However, merely relying on rural resources does not suffi ce to facilitate substanti al changes in regional paths. Our analyses are based on semi-structured interviews with representati ves of fi rms located in rural Estonia, acti ve in diff erent manufacturing and service industries. This paper contributes to the emerging, but sti ll fragmented, literature on rural innovati on and off ers a contextually grounded micro-level framework on the role of local rural resources for fi rm innovati on in rural areas. Furthermore, the study adds an empirical contributi on from a rarely studied Central and Eastern European regional context.

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Internationalization, Company Value Creation, and European Funds

Teixeira

Costa

Lisboa

et al. 2021

Handbook of Research on Reinventing Economies and Organizations Following a Global Health Crisis

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In recent years, the business environment has become increasingly complex, creating additional risks for companies to manage, resulting from globalization, technological innovation, market competitiveness, more demanding consumers, and changes in companies' ownership structure, presently also due to the pandemic situation. In dealing with this situation, EU funds should play an essential role. Thus, this research study aims to analyze the impact of EU funds on Portuguese companies, considering the companies that have benefited from European incentives under the Qualification and Internationalization Incentive System, since it is directed to financing investments in strategic areas to business success such as internationalization and innovation. Therefore, the sample includes the companies that had projects approved in 2015 and aims to show the impact of these incentives on value creation capacity, as well as employment and internationalization level in the years from 2016 to 2019.

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The Importance of Locally Embedded Personal Relationships for SME Internationalisation Processes From Opportunity Recognition to Company Growth

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to present the importance of locally embedded personal rela•onships and individuals' networks for the rise of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)' opportuni•es in the interna

Cited by 3 publications

References 51 publications

Community tensions, participation, and local development: Factors affecting the spatial embeddedness of anaerobic digestion in Poland and the Czech Republic

Community tensions, participation, and local development: Factors affecting the spatial embeddedness of anaerobic digestion in Poland and the Czech Republic

How local resources shape innovation and path development in rural regions. Insights from rural Estonia

Internationalization, Company Value Creation, and European Funds

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