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Drivers of SMEs’ exporting activity: a review and a research agenda

Barbara Francioni (Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Urbino, Italy)
Alessandro Pagano (Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Urbino, Italy)
Davide Castellani (Department of International Business and Strategy, Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, UK)

Multinational Business Review

ISSN: 1525-383X

Publication date: 19 September 2016

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic and updated assessment of studies on key exporting stimuli for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to propose a research agenda on this topic.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a review of empirical articles on SMEs’ exporting stimuli and outline future research directions based on key emerging drivers.

Findings

Research on SMEs’ exporting drivers focuses mainly on human resources’ competences, skills and subjective characteristics and on the role of relevant network actors (customers, intermediaries).

Originality/value

This paper provides an original contribution with regard to updating the framework on export drivers by Leonidou et al. (2007), highlighting an emerging research perspective based on internal/external network dimensions and proposing future research directions on internal individual and organisational actors and on new external network actors.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This paper builds on work done for the European Commission, under our Framework Contract ENTR/2009/033. An earlier version has been the basis of Chapter 3 of the European Competitiveness Report “Helping Firms Grow” (2014) – SWD(2014)277 Final.

Citation

Francioni, B., Pagano, A. and Castellani, D. (2016), "Drivers of SMEs’ exporting activity: a review and a research agenda", Multinational Business Review, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 194-215. https://doi.org/10.1108/MBR-06-2016-0023

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Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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