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The effect of international experience on the degree of SME insidership in newly opened business networks

Mikael Hilmersson (Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden)

Baltic Journal of Management

ISSN: 1746-5265

Article publication date: 21 October 2013

1050

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop internationalization process theory by examining the relationship between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) international experience and their degree of insidership in newly opened business networks.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies a quantitative approach. Data were collected on-site at 203 SMEs having entered the Baltic States, Poland, Russia and China. The data are analysed with structural equation modeling in SmartPLS.

Findings

The paper reveals that international experience is positively associated with both the country and customer experience in the newly opened business network. Country experience, in turn, is strongly associated with a firm's degree of insidership in the business network. Conflicting with the hypothesized model, no support is found for the direct relationship between international experience and insidership. Nor does the analysis reveal any significant relationship between a firm's customer experience, in terms of variation, in the newly opened business network and the degree of insidership in the network.

Research limitations/implications

The paper empirically discriminates different types of international experience derived from theory and examines their relationship with the degree of firm insidership in newly opened business networks.

Originality/value

Theoretically this paper advances internationalization process theory by developing its network aspect as well as discriminating different experience types and their role in predicting network insidership in newly opened business networks.

Keywords

Citation

Hilmersson, M. (2013), "The effect of international experience on the degree of SME insidership in newly opened business networks", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 397-415. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-08-2012-0077

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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