Internationalization of Manufacturing SMEs: The Role of Relational Mechanisms

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attempt to accelerate the internationalization process. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance of relational mechanisms for internationalization process of SMEs. Building on the resource-based view, we propose the mediation effect of foreign market knowledge to explain how relational mechanisms promote internationalization process. Structural equation modelling was performed on a sample of 394 UK based manufacturing SMEs. Our results underscore that relational mechanisms have an indirect, mediated effect on internationalization process through foreign market knowledge. We discuss the contributions and implications of our results and suggest opportunities for future research.