Cooperative internationalization of SMEs: Self-commitment as a success factor for International Entrepreneurship

Matthias Fink, Rainer Harms and Sascha Kraus

European Management Journal, 2008, vol. 26, issue 6, 429-440

Abstract: Summary Self-commitment is the willingness of individuals to commit to cooperation with a partner without the safety net of controls or sanction mechanisms. This article shows the unique performance contribution of self-commitment in the context of cooperative internationalization of SMEs in several ways: First, we use a multiparadigmatic approach to cooperation theory to argue why self-commitment as a coordination mechanism is particularly relevant in the context of cooperative internationalization. Second, we develop a new operationalization of self-commitment which takes the context of international cooperations into account. Third, we show empirically that self-commitment is particularly important in international cooperations by applying a PLS analysis to a sample of 146 Austrian, Czech, and Slovenian cooperating SMEs.

Keywords: Internationalization; SME; Trust; Cooperation; Entrepreneurship; Austria; Czech; Republic; Slovenia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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