INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SMEs IN THE KUOPIO REGION : Challenges of international business
Huusko, Anne (2017)
Huusko, Anne
Centria-ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017122122374
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017122122374
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to examine the internationalization of small and medium size enterprises’ (SMEs) in the Kuopio region. The commissioner for this thesis was the Savo region’s Fed-eration of Finnish Enterprises. This thesis was a quantitative research and it followed the general struc-ture of thesis. The theoretical part of this thesis consisted of internationalization and international business theories in the SME environment and based on literature, two research questions were formed. Firstly, what competence deficiencies do the enterprises feel that they have and secondly, how does Kuopio region’s SMEs readiness to internationalize show.
The questionnaire was sent to 2010 enterprises and the response rate was 5.5% while the total number of respondents was 111 (n). The questionnaire was sent primarily to the entrepreneurs, but other mem-bers in the company were able to respond to the questionnaire as well. The collected research data was analysed using Excel spreadsheet and SPSS Statistics statistical software.
This thesis provides results that international business in the Kuopio region is in its infancy and con-siderably more work needs to be done to make international business an essential part of SMEs opera-tions. One possibility to increase the level of international business in the region is to pay attention to the cooperation between companies and the universities since there seems to be a gap in the coopera-tion. The companies need skilled workforce, but they are not aware of their existence in the region, which means that there is employment mismatch. The company size affects how the internationaliza-tion process is implemented and how the role of the financial support and expert services are seen.
In the future, the research could focus particularly on the companies referred to as born globals in the Kuopio region and to find out why these companies are by nature willing to go abroad and how these companies do business in an international environment.
The questionnaire was sent to 2010 enterprises and the response rate was 5.5% while the total number of respondents was 111 (n). The questionnaire was sent primarily to the entrepreneurs, but other mem-bers in the company were able to respond to the questionnaire as well. The collected research data was analysed using Excel spreadsheet and SPSS Statistics statistical software.
This thesis provides results that international business in the Kuopio region is in its infancy and con-siderably more work needs to be done to make international business an essential part of SMEs opera-tions. One possibility to increase the level of international business in the region is to pay attention to the cooperation between companies and the universities since there seems to be a gap in the coopera-tion. The companies need skilled workforce, but they are not aware of their existence in the region, which means that there is employment mismatch. The company size affects how the internationaliza-tion process is implemented and how the role of the financial support and expert services are seen.
In the future, the research could focus particularly on the companies referred to as born globals in the Kuopio region and to find out why these companies are by nature willing to go abroad and how these companies do business in an international environment.