IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijeima/v3y2003i5-6p447-467.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the driving forces behind the internationalisation process of fast-moving SMEs: implications for export assistance programmes

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabeth Lefebvre
  • Mario Bourgault
  • Lise Prefontaine
  • Louis A. Lefebvre

Abstract

The number of exporters among small firms continues to grow in most countries, particularly those SMEs that have developed unique capabilities and a high level of innovation. Overall, this trend supports the view, which is gradually becoming widely accepted, that internationalisation is a key ingredient of the knowledge based economy. This paper presents five case studies as a means to investigate the internationalisation process for fastmoving SMEs and to discover the driving forces behind their rapid expansion in foreign markets. The sets of factors that emerge as determinants of export performance are classified into three categories: the characteristics, beliefs and attitudes of the founder/entrepreneur; the degree of innovativeness of the firm; and the influence of external change agents. The implications for increasing the efficiency of government support programs are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabeth Lefebvre & Mario Bourgault & Lise Prefontaine & Louis A. Lefebvre, 2003. "Understanding the driving forces behind the internationalisation process of fast-moving SMEs: implications for export assistance programmes," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(5/6), pages 447-467.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:3:y:2003:i:5/6:p:447-467
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=3937
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Macpherson, Allan & Holt, Robin, 2007. "Knowledge, learning and small firm growth: A systematic review of the evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 172-192, March.
    2. Anisur Faroque & Olli Kuivalainen & Jashim Uddin Ahmed & Mahabubur Rahman & Hiran Roy & M. Yunus Ali & Md Imtiaz Mostafiz, 2021. "Performance implications of export assistance: the mediating role of export entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-03545902, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:3:y:2003:i:5/6:p:447-467. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=7 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.