Intellectual capital as a driving force of internationalization: a case of Lithuanian SMEs

Renata Korsakienė (), Aušra Liučvaitienė (), Aušra Liučvaitienė (), Monika Bužavaitė () and Agnė Šimelytė ()
Additional contact information
Renata Korsakienė: Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH), Lithuania
Aušra Liučvaitienė: Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH), Lithuania
Aušra Liučvaitienė: Vilniaus kolegija / Higher Education Institution, Lithuania
Monika Bužavaitė: Valuetech, Italy
Agnė Šimelytė: Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH), Lithuania

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 2017, vol. 4, issue 4, 502-515

Abstract: Constantly changing technologies, increasing competition, unstable demand of consumers, economic and political changes encourage managers to seek new opportunities abroad and thus, expand their firms’ activities. Considering the importance of knowledge in a number of industries, competition is shaped by the firms’ intellectual capital. Referring to the intellectual capital theory, the assumption about the importance of intellectual resources in internationalization process is suggested. Grounded on intellectual capital theory and the main aspects of SMEs internationalization the paper aims to reveal the significance of some important factors in internationalization of Lithuanian SMEs. The study is based on expert evaluation method and reports the findings from questioning the representatives of science and business. The internationalization of SMEs is driven by work experience of employees, ability to transmit experience and international orientation of managers. These factors contribute to the development of technical knowledge and strategy development processes. Consequently, obtained technical expertise and strategies lead to the higher reputation of managers in international context. The findings are significant for entrepreneurs having strong intentions to expand their businesses and policy makers, concerning about promotion and support of internationalization processes. The insights into the development of future investigations are suggested.

Keywords: intellectual capital; human capital; structural capital; relational capital; internationalization; Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M13 M16 M19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/16/Korsa ... _Lithuanian_SMEs.pdf (application/pdf)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/121 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:4:y:2017:i:4:p:502-515

DOI: 10.9770/jesi.2017.4.4(8)

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is currently edited by Manuela Tvaronaviciene

More articles in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues from VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Manuela Tvaronaviciene ().