MANAGING THE INTERNATIONALISATION PROCESS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN AFRICA AND ASIA PACIFIC (PDF)

This e-book focuses on the management of the internationalisation process of Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa and Asia Pacific. Internationalisation has been defined as the process of increasing involvement in international operations (Welch and Luostarinen, 1988). A narrower definition describes the outward movement in an individual firm's or larger grouping's international operations (Buckley, 1983; Johanson and Weidersheim-Paul, 1975). However, outward growth is tied with inward growth, and success in outward activities is dependent in part on inward performance (Huszagh and Huszagh, 1986; Welch and Luostarinen, 1988). The outward-inward growth link has been enabled by the growth in reciprocal trade, which has resulted to an increasing number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) venturing into foreign markets which were initially thought to be impossible due to their financial and foreign market knowledge constraints. As shown by Shamsuddoha, Ali and Ndubisi in this e-book, this, combined with government support initiatives in some cases, has culminated to a number of SMEs internationalising their activities. SMEs are gaining more and more in roads into overseas markets through different modes of entry and market oriented strategies. As demonstrated by Matanda and Ndubisi, market orientation is associated with high value creation and business performance of these SMEs.