Networks, Serendipity and SME Entry into Eastern Europe

Going alone on an adventure tour can be hazardous. This holds for individuals as well as for small and medium size firms aiming for major international markets. Business communities therefore follow a joint path of gradual internationalization that resembles the internationalization process of firms. However, the co-evolution of the firm and its networks implies that firms can plan and control their internationalization path only to a limited extent. Our survey evidence shows the importance of partner-country-specific knowledge in the case of Russia. Our case evidence sheds more light on the dynamics of entry, as events in the network, and expansion of the network, motivate increased commitment. In particular, we find international entry to be driven by a high degree of serendipity.

[1]  K. Meyer.  Direct Investment in Economies in Transition , 1998 .

[2]  Håkan Håkansson,et al.  Industrial technological development : a network approach , 1987 .

[3]  M. Porter.  The Competitive Advantage Of Nations , 1990 .

[4]  M. Porter,et al.  The Competitive Advantage of Nations. , 1990 .

[5]  D. Deo Sharma,et al.  TECHNICAL CONSULTANCY IN INTERNATIONALISATION , 1987 .

[6]  David Stark,et al.  Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism , 1996, American Journal of Sociology.

[7]  Stan Reid,et al.  Information acquisition and export entry decisions in small firms , 1984 .

[8]  Poul Houman Andersen,et al.  Mobilizing Resources and Generating Competencies: The remarkable success of small and medium-sized Enterprises in the Danish Business System , 1999 .

[9]  K. Meyer,et al.  Managing deep restructuring: Danish experiences in Eastern Germany , 1998 .

[10]  Asta Salmi,et al.  Entry into turbulent business networks ‐ The case of a Western company on the Estonian market , 2000 .

[11]  J. Johanson,et al.  The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments , 1977 .

[12]  B. Kogut.  THE NETWORK AS KNOWLEDGE , 1999 .

[13]  Anne-Wil Harzing,et al.  Response rates in international mail surveys: Results of a 22-country study , 1997 .

[14]  H. Barkema,et al.  FOREIGN ENTRY, CULTURAL BARRIERS, AND LEARNING , 1996 .

[15]  J. Johanson,et al.  Foreign Market Entry - The Textbook vs. the Network View , 1992 .

[16]  B. Kogut.  The network as knowledge : Generative rules and the emergence of structure , 2000 .

[17]  David P. McCaffrey,et al.  Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy. , 1995 .

[18]  Denice Welch,et al.  Language: The forgotten factor in multinational management , 1997 .

[19]  Charalambos Viachoutsicos,et al.  Russian Communitarianism: An Invisible Fist in the Transformation Process of Russia , 1998 .

[20]  Geoff Easton,et al.  Industrial Networks: A New View of Reality , 1992 .

[21]  Andrew McAuley,et al.  Internationalisation and the Smaller Firm: A Review of Contemporary Empirical Research1 , 1999 .

[22]  J. Johanson,et al.  The Mechanism of Internationalisation , 1990 .

[23]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage , 1998 .

[24]  Thomas A. Carey.  Dealing with the New Russia: Management Cultures in Collision , 1999 .

[25]  P. Ellis,et al.  Social Ties and Foreign Market Entry , 2000 .

[26]  Maria Holmlund,et al.  Relationships and the Internationalisation of Finnish Small and Medium-Sized Companies , 1998 .

[27]  Edith Penrose.  Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy . By John H. Dunning · Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1993. xvi + 687 pp. Illustrations, tables, figures, notes, bibliography, and index. $58.50. ISBN 0-201-17530-4. , 1994 .

[28]  A. Hunter,et al.  Multimethod Research: A Synthesis of Styles , 1989 .

[29]  J. Johanson,et al.  Interorganizational relations in industrial systems: a network approach compared with the transaction cost approach , 1987 .

[30]  Snejina Michailova.  Contrasts in culture: Russian and Western perspectives on organizational change , 2000 .