The role of the entrepreneur in identifying international expansion as a strategic opportunity

Information, knowledge and collaboration management in the internationalisation of SMEs: A systematic literature review

“…This, together with the previous point, set an important path for further research in information management for internationalisation processes. In fact, only a few pieces of research address explicitly the influence of information management in the internationalisation process of SMEs (Casillas et al, 2010;Child & Hsieh, 2014;Dutot et al, 2014;Rodriguez et al, 2010;Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010;Xie & Amine, 2009). As previously shown, the topics addressed are limited to the identification of informational needs, general information subjects (e.g.…”

“…The main subject that SMEs look for within their information sources was about foreign market conditions (Cannone & Ughetto, 2014;Ibeh & Kasem, 2011). Other information subjects identified were the following: attractiveness of specific locations and host countries (Aspelund & Butsko, 2010;Peng et al, 2011;Xie & Amine, 2009); internationalisation strategies and the internationalisation process itself (Peng et al, 2011;Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010;Xie & Amine, 2009); obstacles faced in internationalisation processes (Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010; Xie & Amine, 2009); support programmes for helping firms to internationalise (Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010); experiences and knowledge about foreign industries (Chen, 2011;Peng et al, 2011); and marketing opportunities (Xie & Amine, 2009).…”

Information Management for Network Transformation in Industrial Enterprises Associations

“…Internationalization is the process of adapting firms' operations to international environments, increasing awareness in terms of direct and indirect influences of international transactions on their future (Beamish, 1990;Calof & Beamish, 1995). However, internationalization is a complex and hard process dealing with a large variety of decisions and, most of the times, requiring a great amount of resources (Andersson, 2011;Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010). Particularly in the case of SMEs, standing out in this competitive environment can be quite difficult, with the lack of information and the lack of contacts representing the main hindrances to internationalize (OECD, 2009).…”

“…Decision-makers have characteristics that influence the information management in internationalization, such as this age, tenure, international experience, information processing capability or organizational memory (Chen, 2011;Cui, Li, & Li, 2013;Hsu et al, 2013). In order to learn and develop new knowledge about markets, SMEs can use different internal and external sources of information, which can come from social and business relations, from previous international experiences or experience of others, or from externally available information (Akerman, 2014;Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010  Support programs.…”

“…To compensate the lack of information about foreign markets, SMEs can form collaborations and establish network relationships with different types of entities, such as suppliers (Hultman, Johnsen, Johnsen, & Hertz, 2012), customers (Cannone & Ughetto, 2014), competitors (Casillas, Acedo, & Barbero, 2010), foreign firms (Castellacci, 2014), institutional agencies (Santos-Alvarez & García-Merino, 2010), and government bodies (Child & Hsieh, 2014). Collaborations can be established between firms to complement core competencies, providing complementary and attractive products or services to markets and increasing competitive advantages to internationalize (Spence, Manning, & Crick, 2008).…”