Regulatory barriers of internationalisation for the SMEs: an emerging market context

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify, categorise and compare regulatory barriers of internationalisation for the SMEs from an emerging market context. Design/methodology/approach -Using primary data from a questionnaire survey, this paper has developed and validated a partial least square-based structural model to assess the key regulatory barriers of internationalisation with particular attention to the SMEs in Bangladesh. Findings -The results indicate that both administrative and economic regulatory barriers are significant for the internationalisation of SMEs where administrative regulatory barriers are slightly more substantial in Bangladesh. Originality/value –Internationalisation of SMEs has received increasing attention over recent decades, but the association between these two components (regulatory barriers and internationalisation of SMEs) is under explored particularly from emerging country context. By integrating findings from previous studies, this study provides further discussion from both theoretical and methodological aspects, and points out the directions for future research

Mapping the barriers to socio-economic freedom in internationalisation of women-owned SMEs: Evidence from a developing country

Internationalisation of women-owned firms is considered a new strategy for unlocking the full economic potential of a country. However, there has been a desultory work on gender and trade, particularly the epistemological and methodological approaches to explore this phenomenon, which has received inadequate attention. Drawing on the institution-based- theory and incorporating the feminist perspective, this study identifies barriers to socio-economic freedom as a multidimensional concept that influences the internationalisation of women entrepreneurship. Using mixed methods and based on findings from focus group discussion (study-1), in-depth interviews (study-2) and a survey (study-3) of SME women entrepreneurs, the study develops and validates a gender-specific model of barriers to socio-economic freedom that women entrepreneurs face in the internationalisation of their firms. The findings confirm that the additional barriers that women entrepreneurs face emerge from three dimensions (i.e. socio-interactional patterns, socio-psychological attachment and socio-cultural embeddedness) that influence the internationalisation of women-owned SMEs through the lack of foreign market knowledge and information and lack of international business experience. This study extends internationalisation and women entrepreneurship research by identifying novel dimensions of the barriers to socio-economic freedom landscape. Implications of our findings for theory, methods and practice with limitations and future research directions are discussed critically

Gender-Aware Framework in International Entrepreneurship: How Far Developed? - A Systematic Literature Review

This study seeks to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) of the present state of research on gender and international women entrepreneurship. This SLR critically assesses the existing frameworks offered by literature for measuring women entrepreneurship, including the theoretical frameworks on which they were built, their validation (if any) and their application beyond the original settings. Based on a total of 241 works using the keywords “Entrepreneurship” AND “Framework” AND “Gender”, this review reveals that although research on gender and women entrepreneurship has made considerable progress over the last few years, still there is a lack of an established gender-aware framework, which was urged by the scholars in this field for decade after decade. The findings of this review reveal that a few studies offer a framework for evaluating women entrepreneurship using gender perspective with no conceptual and operational definition of constructs and empirical validation. Additionally, the review unfolds that the suitability in assessing women entrepreneurship in cross-boarder entrepreneurship is insubstantial. Finally, the review points out that the uneven advancement of this prominent paradigm leaves important avenues to explore in future research

Revisiting feminism, entrepreneurship, and internationalization foundations to examine institutional factors affecting women-owned SMEs’ entry in foreign market

Participation of women-owned SMEs in the international trade is getting more importance in the transformation of institutional changes. Although women entrepreneurs are contributing to the social and economic development, the role of social, cultural and legal institutions of any given economy is still debatable. This argument remains controversial, as there is no single theory that has explained the phenomenon of women-owned firms in international trade so far. Because of the missing link between gender sensitivity with the existing theories of entrepreneurship and internationalization, there is a serious research gap. To fill up this research gap, this study revisits existing theories from three research domains: feminism, entrepreneurship and internationalization. Factors derived from revisiting theories of entrepreneurship and internationalization has been evaluated based on findings of review of feminist theories. Finally, key parameters have been selected to assess internationalization of women-owned SMEs, which need empirical investigation. This study discusses the need for incorporating feminism, entrepreneurship, and internationalization foundations to assess institutional factors in international women entrepreneurship. This discussion addressed two major questions: How do we use evaluation method to examine international women entrepreneurship? How do we incorporate feminism and entrepreneurship to study internationalization of women owned SMEs. As social action is significant, this study advances an integrative view of internationalization of women-owned SMEs as a meaningful action by incorporating feminist and entrepreneurship concepts in the interplay of choice, rationality and interpretation. This study presents evidence sufficient to show scales regarding the criteria and parameters for assessing growth and expansion of women-owned SMEs. Hence, the findings of this research will contribute at theory developing and at policymaking level and in practice at managerial level

Examining Economic and Technology Related Barriers of Internationalisation for SMEs: A Hierarchical Reflective Model on an Emerging Economy Context

In today's global marketplace, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly looking at internationalisation strategies to boost growth, profitability and competitiveness. However, challenges such as socio-cultural differences, political institutions, limited resources, competitive challenges, market threats, economic and technological barriers all hinders SMEs from entering and competing favourably in the international markets. Considering the important link between lack of resources and internationalisation of SMEs, this study examined economic and technology related barriers of SMEs internationalisation from an emerging market context. The key objectives of this research are to identify key economic and technology related barriers of internationalisation and compare relative importance of these two particular categories. To compare the relative importance of these two particular categories of barriers, this study developed a Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The factors or items of the model were identified from extant literature review. For the purpose of validation, this paper has employed primary data gathered from questionnaires from 212 Bangladeshi SMEs. Area wise cluster sampling was used for the purpose of country representation and due to absence of complete data base on the Bangladeshi SMEs. The findings of the paper suggest that, technology related barriers seems to more influential than economic barriers. As the difference is very low, importance should be given to both types of barriers where possible. Conceptually, this study extends this area of research by re framing economic and technology related barriers of internationalisation as a hierarchical reflective model. Empirically, it confirms that PLS-SEM can be used to compare the relative importance of these two types of barriers. Practically, policy makers can give slightly more priorities on the technology related barriers where it is not possible to give equal importance to both because of limited resource in developing economies

Examining economic and technology-related barriers of small- and medium-sized enterprises internationalisation: An emerging economy context

In today’s global marketplace, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly looking at internationalisation strategies to boost growth, profitability and competitiveness. However, challenges, such as, socio cultural differences, political institutions, limited resources, competitive challenges, market threats, economic and technological barriers all hinder SMEs from entering and competing favourably in the international markets. Considering the important link between lack of resources and internationalisation of SMEs, this study examined economic and technology related barriers of SMEs internationalisation from a neglected yet emerging market context in Bangladesh. To compare the relative importance of these two particular categories of barriers, this study developed and validated a Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) with primary data gathered from questionnaires from 212 Bangladeshi SMEs. The findings of the paper suggest that, technology related barriers seem slightly more influential than economic barriers. As the difference is very low, importance should be given to both types of barriers as found. Conceptually, this study extends this area of research by re framing economic and technology related barriers of internationalisation as a hierarchical reflective model within an emerging economy context. Empirically, it confirms that PLS-SEM can be used to compare the relative importance of these two types of barriers. Practically, policy makers can give slightly more priorities on the technology related barriers where it is not possible to give equal importance to both because of limited resource and research neglect on developing economies

Women Entrepreneurship in International Trade: Bridging the Gap by Bringing Feminist Theories into Entrepreneurship and Internationalization Theories

Participation of women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in international trade is gaining more importance in the transformation of institutional changes. Although women entrepreneurs contribute to the social and economic development, the role of social, cultural, and legal institutions in fostering women entrepreneurship is still debatable. This argument remains controversial as there is no single theory that has explained the phenomenon of women-owned firms in international trade. Because of the missing link between gender sensitivity and the existing theories of entrepreneurship and internationalization, there is a significant research gap. To fill up this research gap, this study revisited existing theories from three research domains: feminism, entrepreneurship, and internationalization. Factors derived from revisiting theories of entrepreneurship and internationalization were evaluated based on findings from the review of the feminist theories. Finally, key parameters were selected to assess the internationalization of women-owned SMEs, which require future empirical investigation

Attitude Toward Plastic Money Usage: A Leap of Faith Toward Green Banking and Sustainable Development

With the advancement of technology, banking sector in Bangladesh has witnessed a dramatic shift in financial sector especially in the form of transactions. Cashless transactions, through Plastic money are growing rapidly from its inception in 1997. The purpose of this particular study is to unearth the moderating influence of the perceptions about the plastic money (Perceived advantages, Perceived disadvantages, Psychological factors) on the perceived future growth of plastic money market of Bangladesh. This study used 159 replies, with a response rate of 78 percent, which was collected through a self-administered survey using Mall intercept technique, judgmental technique and snowball technique. The results, derived from Step-wise multiple linear regression analysis by the usage of AMOS 2O showed that perceived advantages, perceived disadvantages and psychological factors-all three significantly modify customers’ attitude toward growth. Moreover, the study attempts to link how the growth of plastic money market leads to green banking practices, which in turn will accelerate sustainable development. Plastic money marketers (Banks and Financial institutions) will have a great implication from this study regarding how to utilize the growth potential and become a sustainable development agent. Keywords: Plastic Money, Green Banking, Sustainable Development, Growth DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-18-06 Publication date:September 30th 202

Internationalization of Rural SMEs from Nigeria: Examining Social and Organizational Impact

Drawing on Behavioural Theory of the Firm (BTF), this study examines internationalisation of rural SMEs in Nigeria and its impacts on social and organizational development. To examine how SME internationalisation affects societal and organizational development, the study collects cross-sectional data using a structured questionnaire from 304 rural SMEs drawn from several sectors in Nigeria. Applying a partial least square based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), we tested the social and organizational impact of rural SMEs internationalization. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between societal and organizational performances and internationalization of SMEs. Both scores were significantly positively correlated with the internationalization of SMEs in rural Nigeria. The study argues that internationalisation of rural SMEs’ reflects on organizational progress and societal progress in terms of improving rural people’s life. The findings of the study will act as the reference point to academicians and policymakers by which they could assess how internationalisation of rural SMEs matters for rural people’s life and can strive to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth