Riassunto analitico
Abstract ABBREVIATIONS SME: Small and Medium Enterprises MNE: Multi National Enterpise NAWI: Non-Automatic Weighing Instruments AWI: Automatic Weighing Instruments B2B: Business to Business The main purpose behind this master thesis is to analyse the modes of entry in foreign markets for SMEs which want to expand in other countries, becoming small multinationals. There will be a case study about Soc. Coop. Bilanciai, with a focus on a B2B context in the Spanish NAWI market. Furthermore, the study will include the analysis of the best fitting entry mode for SMEs in the NAWI Spanish market. Moreover, there will be an interest about the factors that SMEs take into consideration while deciding the entry mode to operate, together with additional factors which resulted to be industry specific. SME represent a very important part of each country’s economy; in fact, they represent the majority of business worldwide and they have an active role in job creation and economic development. Thanks to globalization and the new chances it offers they are trying to expand their markets across countries. This represents a growth possibility for them, though, the process is not straightforward. It involves a wide range of decisions according with the differences between each market and sector the company operates. Nowadays, SMEs can use multinationalization strategy to enter in markets and to grow. The term multinationalization is used to the define the process through which a firm expands to become MNE through the establishment of foreign branches (FDI). Multinationalization can be a crucial strategy because it gives access to factors that could not be accessible being present in domestic market or using other internationalization strategies. Nonetheless, is also known that SME face some issues while expanding internationally, and this could be due to lack of experience, information or other factors. It can be possible to choose different mode of entry that help the company to avoid or reduce bad and unexpected results, for example through exporting, but this can also reduce the opportunities for the company to increase the knowledge and information. However, the literature’s majority regarding multinationalization and modes of entry is related to large multinationals, which of course have different resources and more possibilities to enter. The information about SME multinationalization and modes of entry is still not complete and also, the analysis about B2B market is not so deep and related to the NAWI market it is not possible to find literature that can help SME in the decision process. A case study will be presented and it will be related to the internship I personally did in an industrial weighing instruments producer Soc. Coop. Bilanciai. The company operates in the NAWI and AWI market in Italy and during the last decades is trying to expand his business in other countries with positive results. Although, it has to be denoted that each sector and each country needs adaptation of techniques, since in the past has been tried to use a common mode of entry for different countries and this produced not always the results expected. I noticed that there is a lack of information about the real size and opportunity of the Spanish market due to the dimension of the company and the mode of entry operated, which of course can be translated in financial risk but also missed opportunities. The internship gives me the possibility to analyse the situation from inside the company, having an both an internal and external point of view. Additionally, in order to have a more expert and practical point of view I will conduct some interview/surveys to the staff in charge of the NAWI line and the Spanish market so that I can integrate their point of view and information to my work. Wishing a good reading,
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