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How can emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises m internationalisation benefits?

A fundamental assumption in the small business literature is that the competitive advantages of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are rooted in their organisational flexibility. However, prior research tends to view the effects of different types of organisational flexibility as homogeneous....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhang, Xiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Description
Summary:A fundamental assumption in the small business literature is that the competitive advantages of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are rooted in their organisational flexibility. However, prior research tends to view the effects of different types of organisational flexibility as homogeneous. In the context of the internationalisation of SMEs from emerging markets, this article proposes that different types of organisational flexibility influence the extent to which SMEs can benefit from their internationalisation. Using a sample of Chinese SMEs, the study shows that strategic flexibility helps emerging market SMEs benefit from their internationalisation, but that operational flexibility weakens the main effect. Finally, structural flexibility has no significant influence on the internationalisation