Edited
by David B. Audretsch, Ameritech Chair of Economic Development and
Director, Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University, US
‘Today, SMEs need to think about global
dimensions of their business earlier than ever, often even before the start
of the actual venture. This is a timely book on SMEs that provides a wealth
of information about the global context that SMEs are faced with and about
the economic dimensions that matter.’
– Walter Kuemmerle, Harvard Business
School, US
The purpose of this volume is to bring
together the leading scholarly papers about how globalization has impacted
the role of SMEs. In fact, globalization has affected SMEs in two major
ways. The first has been to facilitate the transnational activities of SMEs.
Transnational activities, ranging from exports to foreign direct investment
to participating in global value chains have become easier as a result of
globalization. The second impact of globalization has been to shift the
source of competitiveness towards knowledge-based economic activity, which
has led to an increased role for SMEs. The first section of this volume
examines how globalization has affected the role of SMEs in the economy. The
second section of the volume is devoted to global strategies by SMEs The
third section focuses on an important type of global activity of SMEs, which
involves foreign direct investment. The fourth section focuses on the role
of clusters and networks in generating SME competitiveness in global
markets. SME export strategies and performance is analyzed in Section Five.
Section Six examines the impact that the international mobility of labour
has had on SMEs. The seventh section focuses on the role that SMEs play in
trans-national technology transfer. Section Eight is devoted to SMEs in the
context of developing countries. In the final section of the volume policy
issues are raised. This includes identifying how policy needs to address
barriers to internationalization confronting SMEs.
