What Are The Factors Influencing Sme's Internationalization?

The type of thesis to be conducted is a merge between a desk base study and an internal-company project because of the combination of a systematic research of relevant literature and a final investigation and development of alternative solutions to a company’s situation.

The authors will discuss the different factors that are influencing SME’s internationalization, as this will provide the readers with the challenges that are faced by SME’s when going global while at the same time a market analysis can be made by using these factors. Generally this will lead on to the general trends of efforts undertaken by multinationals and organizations towards SME’s.

The primary data about SME’s will be collected by quantitative databases provided by

SME´s in the 21st century: A general overview on SME´s current situation in global trade including the challenges they are facing and what are the opportunities for corporations and international organizations. It is important to understand where SME´s stand, in a generic context, in order to come up with feasible solutions at the end. It´should be taken into account that even though all SME´s are not the same, they do share some similarities and in some cases “the common trait (of these similarities) gets to the very core of what brings their success”.

2. Global entities and SME´s: We will use one global corporation, Allianz, and one global organization, ICC World Chambers Federation, to explain the efforts and challenges that they have faced that exist toward integrating SME´s in global trade.

3. Strategic marketing solution: The last chapter will integrate the information found in the previous chapters, in order to create three strategic solutions, based on a strategic marketing assessment, that can be implemented by the studied entities – and others- to integrate SME´s in the global economy, hence, increase their economic presence by 10% in global trade, within 5 years time.

The changing nature of world trade will impact how businesses operate successfully in global value chains, and thanks to our approach, both companies and international/global entities will benefit of this economic

Non-tariff barriers have become a major issue for SME´s and this has affected global trade as a whole. This aspect includes the lack of services and trade facilitation tools and support institutions addressed specially to SMEs. Non-tariff measures involving regulatory, administrative and procedural requirements have become the major source of trade restrictions for companies. Private standards to protect consumer health and the environment are also on the rise, creating a web of regulations that developing country firms find challenging to address . This factor includes rules of origin, labelling requirements and certification, for