Abstract:
The internationalisation of emerging market small, medium enterprises (“SMEs “) by
access to global networks and institutional changes has allowed them to compete with
large multinational enterprises (“MNEs”). Historically, focus has concentrated on studies
predominantly of developed economy MNEs who expanded from emerging markets and
with transfer of knowledge from head office to subsidiaries. This culminated in a lack of
focus on the internationalisation on emerging market SMEs and on the reverse
knowledge transfer from subsidiary to parent company of these firms.
SMEs make up the majority of businesses globally and employ more people than MNEs
thus justifying the need for further research. A qualitative study was conducted following
an interpretive and inductive research approach to gather participant insights and to
develop a greater understanding by exploring how and what knowledge SMEs gain from
internationalisation into other emerging markets. This provided an analytical lens to
explore how it was adopted and exploited back in their country of origin for commercial
or sustainable benefits. Data analysis was conducted from the transcripts to develop
codes which were then divided into categories and key themes aligned to the research
questions. The findings were then compared and contrasted against available academic
literature, which evolved into the development of a conceptual model of the key
constructs.
