Internationalisation of emerging market SMEs

While small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) comprise about 90% of all enterprises and more than 50% of all employees worldwide, there has been growing interest in SME internationalisation research in recent years. However, there is still little research on SMEs from emerging markets with distinctive characteristics that are culturally, institutionally and geographically different from those in developed markets.

Dr Hasan Harmanci interviewed 17 firm decision-makers, four industry experts and three government officials during his research at the School of Management to holistically investigate the internationalisation motives, enablers and patterns of EM SMEs.

He found that adopting a holistic approach is important to better understand the phenomenon of internationalisation by demonstrating the influence of internationalisation motives and enablers on the firms' internationalisation patterns. In addition to the theoretical contributions, his work offers implications for managers and policymakers for not only emerging markets but all SMEs worldwide. Considering that internationalisation is a complex and multi-staged process, SME managers should balance their short- and long-term goals equally to acquire resources, upgrade capabilities, increase efficiency and eventually provide for the growth of their firms.

Dr Harmanci successfully defended his thesis at a virtual viva in October 2022. His thesis was examined by the School of Management's Dr Min Li and Dr Wyn Morris of Aberystwyth University. He will be working as a lecturer at Duzce University in Türkiye at the Department of International Trade and Finance. Dr Harmanci is also conferred St Leonard's Associate of the University of St Andrews.