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The purpose of this paper is to study the relation between to export performance measures; growth exports and export intensity with the resources, capabilities and characteristics of the firms as factors determining its success.

The study used a questionnaire, answered by 133 firms from a random sample of 480 Chilean firms.

The two performance measures of the study, export intensity and growth of the exports resulted equally predictive of the export success, but with a different set of variables. The export growth was strongly related with the firms that had recently started, that have executive staff with an overseas education and a long term commitment to export, did research and development, followed market developing strategies and strategic alliances. The export intensity shows a strong relation with smaller firms, more experienced and involved in foreign markets. The successful companies in the foreign markets are very opportune and flexible in satisfying the needs of their clients and innovate their products.

The biggest limitation of this research is that it was conducted only in one South American country with a limited sample size.

Smaller firms require support from the State, to finance market studies, to access international fairs and financial sources. The findings are innovative for the export management in developing countries, intensive in natural resources, especially those of small size such as the case of Chile.

Estudiar la relación entre dos medidas del desempeño exportador, crecimiento de exportaciones e intensidad de exportaciones, con los recursos, capacidades y características de la firma como factores determinantes de su éxito.

Un estudio basado en un cuestionario, respondido por 133 firmas de una muestra aleatoria de 480 firmas chilenas, representativa de las firmas exportadoras, seleccionadas aleatoriamente.

Las dos medidas de desempeño exportador del estudio, intensidad de exportaciones y crecimiento de las exportaciones resultaron igualmente predictivas del éxito exportador, pero con diferentes conjuntos de variables predictivas.

La mayor limitante de esta investigación es que fue realizada en sólo un país de Sudamérica con un tamaño de muestra algo limitado.

El crecimiento de exportaciones estuvo fuertemente relacionado con las firmas que se iniciaron recientemente, que poseen personal ejecutivo educado en el extranjero y un compromiso de largo plazo a exportar, realizan investigación y desarrollo, siguen estrategias de desarrollo de mercados. La intensidad de exportación expresa una relación fuerte con las firmas más pequeñas, más experimentadas e involucradas en los mercados extranjeros. Las compañías exitosas en los mercados de exportación son muy oportunas y flexibles en satisfacer las necesidades de sus clientes, innovan en sus productos y siguen estrategias de alianzas cooperativas y redes.

Los gobiernos deberían apoyar a las firmas pequeñas, financiando estudios de mercado, apoyando su acceso a ferias internacionales y financiamiento.

Los hallazgos son originales para la gestión de exportaciones en países en desarrollo, intensivos en recursos naturales, especialmente aquéllos de un pequeño tamaño, como Chile.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model that portrays how contextual factors and behavioural cooperation mechanisms influence the effect of trade associations on the export performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a Latin American emerging economy.

The author draws on multiple streams of literature including: co-location, networks, cooperation and export performance to suggest a series of solid theoretical insights to the literature on SMEs’ export performance, networks and co-location in the Latin American context.

Contextual factors and behavioural cooperation mechanisms influence the effect of trade associations on export performance determining the final sign of such effect. Trust plays a role within all proposed mechanisms, but is not as fundamental as previously characterised in studies on the export performance of SMEs. Cooperation might exist, prevail, and exert a positive impact on SMEs’ export performance even in the absence of trust.

This paper contributes to the literature on SMEs’ export performance, networks and co-location in the Latin American context by presenting a theoretical model that enfolds co-location, networks, trade associations and cooperation effects on SMEs’ export performance under the same foundation. It creates the categories of “contextual factors” and “behavioural cooperation mechanisms” to differentiate the elements that weight on the relationship between firms and trade associations, thus facilitating or hindering export performance. It guides policy makers and company managers on where to focus when incentivizing conduct towards a more productive export performance in Latin America and other emerging economies.

Este artículo presenta un modelo teórico que describe cómo factores de contexto y mecanismos de cooperación conductuales impactan el efecto de las asociaciones de negocios en el desempeño exportador de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES) en el contexto de los países emergentes de América Latina.

Los autores se basan en diversas líneas de investigación de la literatura, incluyendo: Co-locación, Redes, Cooperación y Desempeño Exportador para sugerir una serie de conclusiones teóricas referentes a la relación entre las PYMES y las asociaciones de negocios.

Los factores contextuales y los mecanismos de cooperación conductuales influyen en el efecto de las asociaciones de negocios en el desempeño de las exportaciones de las PYMES, determinando el signo final de dicho efecto. La confianza desempeña un papel dentro de todos los mecanismos conductuales propuestos, pero no tan fundamental como se caracterizó previamente en los estudios sobre el desempeño exportador de PYMES. La cooperación podría existir, prevalecer y ejercer un impacto positivo en el desempeño de las exportaciones de las PYMES, incluso en ausencia de confianza.

Este artículo contribuye a la literatura enfocada en PYMES, redes, co-locación y desempeño exportador, mediante la introducción de un modelo teórico que incluye en una plataforma única los conceptos de co-localización, redes, asociaciones de negocios y efectos de la cooperación en el desempeño de las exportaciones de las PYMES. En adición, crea las categorías de “factores contextuales” y “mecanismos de cooperación conductual” para diferenciar los elementos que influyen en la relación entre las empresas y las asociaciones de negocios, facilitando u obstaculizando así el desempeño de las exportaciones de PYMES en América Latina y otras economías emergentes.

The purpose of this paper is to boost the internationalization of companies by implementing key factors that will help them to increase their exports in a context of an emerging country such as Mexico, where very few small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) achieve internationalization.

According to different theories on the internationalization of companies, five independent variables were designed to measure their effect on the export performance using a multiple regression model on a sample of 95 Mexican industrial SMEs. In this context, the objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the product price, product quality, installed capacity, innovation capacity and financial capacity on the export performance of SMEs; and to identify the factors that are more significant.

The results indicate that innovation has a positive relationship, while the price of the product has a negative relationship with the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises, showing that there is a possibility of overemphasizing the role of both variables in export performance of SMEs, at least in the Mexican context. The rest of the variables were not statistically significant to the generated model, perhaps because they are implicitly considered at the time of exporting and entering international markets.

These results will help companies to focus their efforts on obtaining resources to maintain and expand exports and find new opportunities in foreign markets to grow. They also show that companies can implement different types of internationalization strategies with the study’s variables to achieve better performance.

El objetivo de este estudio es impulsar la internacionalización de las empresas mediante la implementación de factores clave que les ayudarán a incrementar sus exportaciones en un contexto de países emergentes como México, donde muy pocas pequeñas y medianas empresas logran la internacionalización.

Según las diferentes teorías sobre la internacionalización de las empresas, cinco variables independientes fueron diseñadas para medir su efecto en el desempeño de las exportaciones, utilizando un modelo de regresión múltiple en una muestra de 95 pequeñas y medianas empresas industriales mexicanas. En este contexto, el objetivo de este estudio es investigar el impacto del precio del producto, la calidad del producto, la capacidad instalada, la capacidad de innovación y la capacidad financiera en el desempeño exportador de las PYME, e identificar los factores que son más relevantes.

Los resultados indican que la innovación tiene una relación positiva, mientras que el precio del producto tiene una relación negativa con la internacionalización de las pequeñas y medianas empresas, lo que demuestra que existe la posibilidad de sobre-enfatizar el papel de ambas variables en el desempeño exportador de las pequeñas y medianas empresas, al menos en el contexto mexicano. El resto de las variables no resultaron estadísticamente significativas para el modelo generado, tal vez porque están consideradas de forma implícita al momento de exportar e ingresar a los mercados internacionales.

Estos resultados ayudarán a las empresas a concentrar sus esfuerzos en obtener recursos para mantener y expandir las exportaciones y encontrar nuevas oportunidades en los mercados extranjeros para el crecimiento. También demuestran que las empresas pueden implementar diferentes tipos de estrategias de internacionalización con las variables de estudio para lograr un mejor desempeño.

Third-party certifications promote firms' high standards and enhance their legitimacy and reputation, potentially positively impacting their performance, namely on exports.

This paper studies the differences in firms' export performance between firms with and without the “SME Leader” label, a Portuguese firm-specific label. This study data set comprises data for 5.489 SMEs, for 2014–2020, where 2.950 firms obtained their certification during the period and 2.539 are non-certified control firms. The methodology adopted circumvents the traditional endogeneity problems in this type of study.

The results indicate that the “SME Leader” label does not directly improves a firm's export performance. Additionally, industry characteristics seem relevant for the relationship between SMEs' certification and their levels of internationalization.

Since the study sample includes firms from all industrial sectors, this study results apply to various organizations.

Las certificaciones de terceros promueven los altos estándares de las empresas y mejoran su legitimidad y reputación, lo que puede tener un impacto positivo en su desempeño, especialmente en las exportaciones.

Este documento estudia las diferencias en el desempeño de las exportaciones de las empresas entre las empresas con y sin la etiqueta “Líder PYME”, una etiqueta específica de la empresa portuguesa. Nuestro conjunto de datos comprende datos de 5.489 Pymes, para 2014–2020, donde 2.950 empresas obtuvieron su certificación durante el período y 2.539 son empresas de control no certificadas. La metodología adoptada sortea los tradicionales problemas de endogeneidad en este tipo de estudios.

Los resultados indican que la etiqueta de “PYME líder” no mejora directamente el desempeño exportador de una empresa. Además, las características de la industria parecen relevantes para la relación entre la certificación de las PYMES y sus niveles de internacionalización.

Dado que nuestra muestra incluye empresas de todos los sectores industriales, nuestros resultados se aplican a varias organizaciones.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the perceived institutional environment of Colombian internationally operating small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the software industry comes to determine their performance.

The research applies regression modelling to a sample of 43 internationally operating Colombian SMEs in the software development industry, collected via an online survey.

The results indicate that the normative dimension of the institutional environment comes to determine the export performance of the SMEs. Conversely, the cognitive and regulatory dimensions of the institutional forces do not have a significant effect.

The cross-sectional nature of the survey tool, the single industry and the single country context place limitations on the generalisability of the results across different industry and country contexts.

The results highlight the need for entrepreneurship-friendly norms and values in the context of internationalising SMEs in Latin America. Governments should focus on the development and promotion of international entrepreneurs that inspire and serve as role models for other entrepreneurs rather than concentrate on the creation of regulatory frameworks and the provision of knowledge of how to start and manage risk for the internationalising SME.

The study is one of the first to apply the Busenitz et al. (2000) scale on the institutional country profile to real entrepreneurs. Previous studies have mainly applied the framework to a sample of students or officers assigned to US embassies. Besides Renko et al.’s (2009) conference paper, ours is the first one that links the country institutional profile to the performance of internationalising software firms and, especially, in the context of a Latin American country. The study, therefore, attempts to contribute to a better understanding of how a country’s institutional environment impacts the performance of internationalising SMEs.

Este estudio muestra cómo el entorno institucional percibido por parte de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (Pymes) exportadoras de Colombia determina su desempeño.

Nuestra investigación aplica un modelo de regresión a una muestra de 43 Pymes exportadoras de Colombia de la industria de desarrollo de software recolectado a través de una encuesta en línea.

Los resultados muestran que la dimensión normativa del entorno institucional determina el desempeño exportador de las Pymes. Al contrario, las dimensiones cognitivas y regulatorias del entorno institucional no tienen un efecto significativo.

La característica transversal del método de encuesta y el enfoque en una sola industria y un sólo país genera limitaciones sobre la posibilidad de generalizar los resultados entre diferentes industrias y países.

Los resultados resaltan la necesidad de normas y valores amigables con el emprendimiento en el contexto de Pymes exportadoras en América Latina. Los gobiernos deberían enfocarse en el desarrollo y el fomento de emprendedores internacionales que inspiren y sirvan como modelo a seguir para otros emprendedores. Esto en lugar de crear marcos regulatorios y el suministro de conocimiento para poner en marcha una empresa y gerenciar el riesgo para Pymes exportadoras.

Nuestro estudio es uno de los primeros en aplicar la medición del perfil del entorno institucional de Busenitz et al. (2000) a una muestra de emprendedores. Estudios anteriores aplicaron la medición a una muestra de estudiantes y oficiales de embajadas estadounidenses. Aparte del artículo de conferencia de Renko et al. (2009), nuestro artículo es el primero que relaciona el perfil institucional de país con el desempeño de empresas exportadoras de software y en especial en el contexto de un país Latinoamericano. Por lo tanto, nuestro estudio trata de contribuir a un mejor entendimiento de cómo el entorno institucional de un país impacta al desempeño de Pymes exportadoras.

In this issue we present seven articles originally from Canada, Chile, Colombia and Spain. The articles are of diverse subjects: first, some herd behaviour of the institutional investors in Chile; second, the impact of growth strategies and the company's resources on the business growth method; third, the effectiveness of the norms on the directives of the remuneration committee of the board of directors on the appropriate remuneration of the directors; fourth, the incidence of the behaviour of the stakeholders in the failure of the companies; fifth, barriers and options to increase the female workforce in mining companies; sixth, the factors that impulse the exporting behaviour of companies; and seventh, the impact of the design of a product in the buying intention of the consumers. All the articles, including those written in Spanish or Portuguese, are available in English.

En este número presentamos siete artículos provenientes de Canadá, Chile, Colombia y España. Los artículos tienen temáticas muy diversas: 1) algunos comportamientos en manada de los inversores institucionales en Chile; 2) El impacto de la estrategia de crecimiento y de los recursos de la empresa en el método de crecimiento empresarial; 3) La efectividad de las normas sobre la Comisión de Remuneraciones de los Consejos directivos sobre la remuneración apropiada de los consejeros; 4) La incidencia del comportamiento de los grupos involucrados (stakeholders) en el fracaso de las empresas; 5) Barreras y opciones para incrementar la fuerza laboral femenina en las empresas mineras; 6) Los factores que impulsan el comportamiento exportador de las empresas; y 7) El impacto del diseño de un producto en la intención de compra de los consumidores. Todos los artículos, aún los escritos en español o portugués, están disponibles en inglés.

The objective of this research is to analyse the joint impact of export proactivity and coordination capacity as mediators on the relationship between export market orientation (EMO) and export performance and the relational norms and export continuity as EMO's antecedents.

The study uses structural equation modelling for the analysis of 127 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the agri-export sector in Peru.

The research demonstrates the mediating role of export proactivity between EMO and export performance and the impact of relational norms as an antecedent of EMO as well as that of export continuity in export performance.

The cross-sectional study design has certain limitations; thus, longitudinal research is necessary to analyse the evolution of the impact of these variables. Future research should also consider new variables, such as absorptive capacity and institutional distance, in relation to EMO and export performance in emerging markets.

This research paper provides a perspective that is an alternative to the traditional literature related to EMO since coordination capacity and export proactivity have been used as EMO's antecedents. However, in emerging countries, such as Peru, exports are based on comparative advantages. Under this context, it is necessary to analyse export proactivity and coordination capacity as mediators of the relationship between EMO and export performance and the relational norms and export continuity as EMO's antecedents.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that could help differentiate between successful and unsuccessful small- and medium-sized exporter firms.

A causal model of the exporting process was developed from the literature, from which a set of hypotheses was posed and a questionnaire was made. A sample of 37 small and medium exporter firms in Chile was subject to the questionnaire. From the data collected, the critical aspects that could help differentiate between successful and unsuccessful exporting organizations were statistically identified.

The following aspects are the ones that could allow the statistical differentiation of successful and unsuccessful exporter firms: incentives at the firm level for increasing output, improved operations planning, international quality assurance certification, large percentage of sales devoted to innovation, highly frequent innovations, qualified and innovative workers, local alliances for innovation, and the possession of strategic allies at destination

The results of this research can be useful for intending small and medium exporter firms in Chile, as well as for firms in other developing countries. The results are based on a rather small sample of exporting firms in Chile; therefore, the generalizability of the results cannot be assured

A detailed model of the exporting process of small and medium firm (SMF) was developed that is a contribution of the theoretical framework related to SMFs’ exports. The findings could be used by government agencies to offer better guidance to SMF intending to become exporters

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the state of entrepreneurship research in the Latin American context, with special emphasis on international entrepreneurship research developed in this region. Therefore, the aim and contribution are to identify the main themes in the literature about entrepreneurship and show the evolution of entrepreneurship research in Latin America to stimulate the research and provide future research lines.

The methodology is based in a systematic literature review, using 128 articles published between 2002 and 2018, in scientific journals in the region according to SCImago Journal & Country Rank.

The results show the evolution through the journals, authors, topics and methodologies used by the researchers. It is emphasized that there is a very low level of research in international entrepreneurship in Latin America. This result is coherent with higher levels of entrepreneurship in Latin American countries but very few oriented to international markets. This is one of the challenges considering the importance of this field.

Entrepreneurship is a field of study that has grown throughout history. Even so, in the Latin American context, research published in high impact journals is limited. This paper is the first systematic literature review and thematic analysis of research on the field of entrepreneurship in the Latin American context. In this way, it serves as encouragement for future research, providing possibilities and challenges within the field of study.

Este artículo presenta el estado de la investigación en emprendimiento en el contexto latinoamericano, haciendo énfasis en el emprendimiento internacional.

Se llevó a cabo una revisión sistemática de la literatura en la cual se encontraron 147 artículos, publicados entre 2002 y 2018 en revistas científicas de la región de acuerdo con el ranking SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR).

Los hallazgos presentan la evolución de las revistas, los autores, los temas y las metodologías usadas por los investigadores. Se resalta el bajo nivel de investigaciones en emprendimiento internacional en la región, lo cual es coherente con altas tasas de actividad emprendedora de Latinoamérica, pero baja orientación a la internacionalización. Este es uno de los retos de los países, considerando la importancia de esta área.

Aunque la investigación en emprendimiento ha aumentado a través de la historia, en el contexto latinoamericano las publicaciones en revistas de alto impacto son limitadas. Este estudio es la primera revisión sistemática de la literatura y análisis temático de la investigación en emprendimiento. En este sentido, los resultados sirven somo estímulo a la investigación futura mostrando las oportunidades y los desafíos dentro de este campo de estudio.

Firms are the primary producers of innovations, and understanding how these agents acquire, update and manage the knowledge of their employees is central to understanding economic growth. However, in developing economies, technology adaptation plays a critical role in innovation compared to knowledge creation. Thus, this research investigates the role of human capital in innovation at the firm level in the case of a small developing economy, which ranks highly on several human capital dimensions but shows declining levels of investment in advanced human capital development in its manufacturing sector.

This research examines the relationship between innovation and human capital at the firm level in a small peripheral economy. The human capital theory is applied to a firm context to understand variations in innovative behavior depending on the size of manufacturing companies. The effect of several human capital dimensions on product innovation is estimated by applying binomial logistic regression models with firm and time-fixed effects.

This article contributes to innovation economics and public policy by highlighting that not all dimensions of human capital operate similarly for all companies in the context of developing economies. In such settings, technology adaptation plays a critical role in innovation. While employees' human capital endowments significantly impact small firms in that context, firm-level practices such as internal training are crucial for large companies. Consequently, policymakers should consider that firms' human capital endowments impact their innovative behavior differently to avoid one-size-fits-all policy design approaches in this regard.

Prior research on the relationship between human capital and innovation in developing economies was based on a cross-sectional approach. This research's unique panel dataset covering 11-year triennial innovation surveys enabled a modeling strategy that controls for time-invariant unobservable firm characteristics. Three aspects of firms' human capital have been analyzed human capital endowments, internal training and human resource management (HRM) practices for the first time longitudinally in a developing economy, enabling to contrast of empirical findings with policy design.