IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ujbmxx/v49y2011i3p490-514.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International Opportunity Recognition among Small and Medium‐Sized Family Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Tanja Kontinen
  • Arto Ojala

Abstract

Current research in the field of entrepreneurship emphasizes the importance of opportunity recognition as a key element in the entrepreneurial process. It has been recognized that network ties, activeness and alertness, and prior knowledge are related to how entrepreneurs recognize new opportunities. However, it is unclear how important these factors are when a firm explores opportunities for entry into a foreign market. In this exploratory case study, covering the international opportunity recognition of eight family‐owned small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), we found that the firms in question mainly recognized international opportunities by establishing new formal ties rather than using existing informal or family ties. The findings also indicated that due to the small size and the flexibility of the management team in family SMEs, these firms were able to react quickly to new international opportunities. However, there was no direct relationship between the prior knowledge of the firms and their international opportunity recognition. In addition, we found that trade exhibitions formed the primary context for the international opportunity recognition of the SMEs in this study. These findings motivate a set of five propositions that may lead to further studies on this topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanja Kontinen & Arto Ojala, 2011. "International Opportunity Recognition among Small and Medium‐Sized Family Firms," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 490-514, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ujbmxx:v:49:y:2011:i:3:p:490-514
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-627X.2011.00326.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2011.00326.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2011.00326.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Hazem Ali & Min Li & Xunmin Qiu & Qamar Farooq, 2023. "Global Mindset and Adaptive Marketing Capabilities in the Internationalization of Mature Chinese SMEs: International Opportunity Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Lobo Carla Azevedo & Fernandes Cristina & Ferreira João & Veiga Pedro M. & Gerschewski Stephan, 2023. "The Determinants of International Performance for Family Firms: Understanding the Effects of Resources, Capabilities, and Market Orientation," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 773-811, July.
    3. Eduardo Terán-Yépez & David Jiménez-Castillo & Manuel Sánchez-Pérez, 2022. "The effect of international opportunity recognition processes on problem-solving competence: how does past negative entrepreneurial experience matter?," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 13(2), pages 541-579, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:ujbmxx:v:49:y:2011:i:3:p:490-514. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ujbm .

    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.