Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Global Markets: A Differential Approach for Services?

Iza Lejárraga, Humberto López Rizzo, Harald Oberhofer, Susan Stone and Ben Shepherd
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Iza Lejárraga: OECD
Humberto López Rizzo: University of Paris I
Susan Stone: OECD

No 165, OECD Trade Policy Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This study empirically investigates key restrictions to the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing and across different types of services. The study explores the extent to which binding constraints faced by SMEs producing goods may differ from small firms operating in services sectors and takes stock of how existing policy initiatives address some of these differences. Our results suggest that while firm size clearly influences the trade performance of SMEs in manufacturing, it is an ambiguous predictor of export performance in the case of small-sized services firms. The findings show that firm size influences the choice of export channel and that small firms rely more on indirect and agglomeration networks. Finally, the results point to a strong degree of firm-level heterogeneity across services activities and enterprise size. It would seem that incorporating sectoral and size heterogeneity into existing policies might be desirable to address key constraints for SMEs.

Keywords: internationalisation; services; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; trade; trade in services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F68 L8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ent, nep-int and nep-sbm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:traaab:165-en

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