Le comportement d’internationalisation des PME suisses : Born global et internationalisation progressive

L’objectif de cette étude est de mettre en évidence les facteurs qui incitent une entreprise à adopter une trajectoire d’expansion traditionnelle ou plutôt de type « born global », facteurs généralement présentés comme contradictoires par les chercheurs. Pour ce faire, un modèle destiné à prédire le mode d’expansion a été testé empiriquement.L’analyse de 215 PME en Suisse permet de tirer des conclusions intéressantes pour les praticiens. Parmi celles-ci, relevons que la majorité des entreprises exportent au plus dans cinq pays, et que, de ce point de vue, l’Allemagne est le partenaire le plus important des PME suisses, le marché allemand servant de marché test.L’étude fait ressortir clairement le fait que plus les entreprises sont jeunes, plus le temps qu’elles prennent pour s’internationaliser est court. Cela implique que les entreprises établies de longue date doivent s’attendre à une concurrence féroce de la part d’entreprises nouvellement créées.The objective of this study is to investigate those factors that potentially compel firms into a traditional mode of internationalization or into a “born global” mode of internationalization, factors which have traditionally been viewed as contradictory by researchers. For this purpose a model was empirically tested that was devised to anticipate the expansion mode of a venture.The analysis of data collected from 215 Swiss SMEs provides interesting conclusions for practitioners. Among other facts, the data revealed that the majority of companies only export to five different countries and that Germany is the most important export destination, because Germany regularly serves as a test market for Swiss firms.The study further revealed that young ventures have a tendency to internationalize very soon after inception. This allows the conclusion that incumbent firms will face an increasingly fierce competition from newly established firms.El objetivo de este estudio es averiguar qué factores tienen el potencial de forzar a las empresas a adoptar un modelo de internacionalización tradicional o un modelo « innatamente global », factores que los investigadores tradicionalmente han considerado opuestos. Con esta finalidad se analizó empíricamente un modelo con el que se pretendía anticipar el modelo de expansión de una empresa.El análisis de los datos recogidos de 215 PyMEs suizas arroja interesantes conclusiones para los profesionales. Entre otras cosas, los datos muestran que la mayoría de las compañías sólo exportan a cinco países diferentes y que Alemania es el principal destino de exportación, ya que este país sirve habitualmente de mercado de prueba para las compañías suizas.El estudio también pone de manifiesto que las empresas jóvenes tienen tendencia a internacionalizarse poco después de su creación. Esto permite concluir que las empresas más veteranas se enfrentarán cada vez más a una feroz competencia por parte de las firmas más jóvenes.Das Ziel dieser Studie besteht darin, Faktoren zu identifizieren, die ein Unternehmen veranlassen, eher eine stufenweise, traditionelle Internationalisierung oder eher einen Ansatz ‘born global’ zu wählen. Diese Faktoren wurden in der Vergangenheit von Forschern oft als sich widersprechend dargestellt. Ein Modell wurde empirisch getestet um den Internationalisierungsansatz vorherzusagen.Die Analyse der Daten von 250 schweizerischen KMU verdeutlicht interessante Ergebnisse für Praktiker. Neben anderen Ergebnissen zeigen die Daten, dass die Mehrheit der Unternehmen nur in fünf verschiedene Länder exportieren und Deutschland als wichtigstes Exportland gilt und regelmässig als Testdestination für schweizerische Unternehmen eingesetzt wird.Die Studie zeigt weiterhin, dass junge Unternehmen eine Tendenz haben unmittelbar nach der Gründung zu internationalisieren. Dies erlaubt die Synthese, dass etablierte Unternehmen immer mehr von jungen Firmen Konkurrenz erhalten

The effects of entrepreneurial orientation in a digital and international setting

Today, newly founded businesses are inevitably driven to start in a digital form from day 1. Moreover, most existing businesses conceive digitalization as an important part of their strategic orientation by developing and improving their digital assets and digitalizing their processes. By taking account of this development, this chapter investigates how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) affects a small firm’s proclivity to both digitization and internationalization and their performance that comes from it. Internationalization has been a key topic for many small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) over the past decades. As digitization is currently taking over the helm from internationalization as the most pressing topic affecting business, we carried out research among SMEs to understand the interplay of these factors influencing business performance. The focus of the research was on the precursory factors inducing firm performance as well as on their interrelationships. Using a sample of 357 SMEs, EO is found to be significantly closely associated with an SME’s degree of digitization as well as with its overall performance. In contrast, EO does not affect the SME’s level of internationalization. This result is surprising considering that proactive and risk-taking firms tend to be more inclined to enter foreign and distant markets

The crypto encyclopedia ::coins, tokens and digital assets from A to Z

What is the blockchain? What is a distributed ledger? What do people mean when they talk about ERC-20? What ist he difference between a hard and soft fork? And between hot and cold storage? Containing over 300 entries on all aspects of crypto, tokens and digital assets, this encyclopedia incorporates the latest information available from academia and practice on these topics. Loaded with clear, concise, and authoritative information, it is the most comprehensive single-volume A-Z reference work of its kind. Our aim in preparing this dictionary is to share the vocabulary of a newly emerging field of business and resarch endeavour. We are convinced that this will make a major contribution to our mutual understanding. It thus is essential for all practitioners, students and educators in the field of crypto who want to ensure that we use a common language throughout the ecosystem

Impact of internationalization speed on financial and non-financial performance ::quantitative evidence from Swiss SMEs

Internationalization speed currently receives once again substantial attention in the internationalization literature. Internationalization speed already formed an integral part of the incremental approach to internationalization 40 years ago. It received center stage position in the more recent born global and international new venture debate. However, there are new developments in its conceptualization and operationalization approach. Our understanding of the multidimensional construct of internationalization speed is currently being detailed. Speed is not only explored as a byproduct of strategy or a dependent variable. It is turning into an independent variable. This quantitative study explores the financial and non-financial performance implications of internationalization speed based on the sample of Swiss SMEs and data gathered in 2016 with end of 2015 as the reference point for reporting. The results clarify that speed has indeed positive performance implications based on ROA figures, while no such significant positive impact was found for EBITDA. This paper also outlines how internationalization speed impacts seven non-financial, organizational performance based on multidimensional perceptions of CEOs. Statistical analysis showed that only some of these dimensions are positively affected, while overall no negative effect of a swift internationalization approach could be traced. In light of the absence of negative performance implications, companies should explore faster internationalization strategies