The Antecedents of internationalisation of manufacturing SMEs: The case of Indonesia

Research on firm internationalisation has tended to focus on Large Enterprises(LEs), with relatively less focus on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), despite the importance of SMEs in generating national employment and economic development. In many countries the government has acknowledged SMEs as a key source of domestic income growth and employment creation, most particularly from export activities. Studies on internationalisation of SMEs, however, have been predominantly focused on developed countries. This study therefore is focused on the internationalisation of SMEs from Indonesia, which represents developing countries. Most studies of exporting SMEs focus on macroeconomic factors such as regulation, infrastructure and programs which assist SME development. On the other hand, management literature has recognised the important roles of senior managers in terms of their management know‐how and international business skills as human capital which can influence the export activity of the firm. At the same time, social capital is also recognised a further resource needed for SME internationalisation. Therefore this research will address this gap in order to examine the role of entrepreneur’s human and social capital in internationalisation of the firm. Further to this, findings on the relationship between firm internationalisation and firm performance are mixed. More specifically, the effect of internationalisation of SMEs on business performance has not been seriously investigated. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by examining the unique effect of different dimensions of internationalisation on business performance. Overall, this study has three purposes: the first is to measure company resources (Human and Social Capital) influencing Indonesia’s manufacturing exporting SMEs in their internationalisation process; the second is to examine the effect of human and social capital in relation to three dimensions of internationalisation (international performance, number of markets and time to internationalise); and the third is to assess the effect of the aforementioned internationalisation dimensions on firm financial performance. This study used a mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative data was drawn from 241 SMEs’ managers and/or owners who have exporting activities from a total of approximately 3 million SMEs based on the Indonesian government database. The qualitative data was collected through interviews with ten SMEs owner‐managers who were participating in the survey. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique, the findings suggest that Management Know‐How have no positive relationship with any dimension of internationalisation, but, interestingly, it has a negative relationship with time for internationalisation; suggesting that it delays the internationalisation of the firms. The findings also show that both International Business Skills and Social Capital skills have a positive relationship with international performance and number of exporting markets, but not with time for internationalisation. With regard to the effect of internationalisation on business performance, the findings show that international performance has no effect on business performance, but the number of export market has a positive relationship with business performance. On the other hand, the time for internalisation has a negative effect on business performance, meaning that the later the SMEs internationalise, the better their performance. Qualitative findings indicate that good networks with competitors, suppliers and government will help a firm to serve the international market successfully. From theoretical perspectives, the findings support the Resource‐Based View theory as international business skills have positive relationships with two dimensions of internationalisation. The findings of this study also support the traditional view of incremental internationalisation advanced by Stage Theory. Consequently, the findings imply that International New Venture Theory, which supports born‐global or leap‐frog approach in internationalising SMEs, is not appropriate for Indonesian context. Finally, this study also supports the Network Perspective which suggests that the relationships built by firms with other businesses, community leaders, and government have significant effect on internationalisation of SMEs. Overall, this study demonstrates the unique effect of different organisational capitals (i.e. human and social) as key resources for facilitating internationalisation.

企业国际化研究往往聚焦于大型企业（Large Enterprises, LEs），尽管中小企业（Small Medium Enterprises, SMEs）在创造国内就业与推动经济发展中扮演着重要角色，但相关研究对其关注相对不足。
诸多国家的政府已将中小企业视作国内收入增长与就业创造的核心来源，其中出口活动的贡献尤为突出。不过，现有关于中小企业国际化的研究大多聚焦于发达国家。因此，本研究聚焦于来自印度尼西亚的制造业出口型中小企业——印度尼西亚作为发展中国家的典型代表。
过往针对出口型中小企业的研究多关注监管、基础设施与扶持计划等宏观经济因素，助力中小企业发展。另一方面，管理学界已认识到，高层管理者的管理知识与国际商务技能作为人力资本（Human Capital），能够对企业的出口活动产生影响。与此同时，社会资本（Social Capital）也被视作中小企业国际化所需的另一项关键资源。有鉴于此，本研究旨在填补这一研究空白，探讨创业者的人力资本与社会资本在企业国际化进程中的作用。
此外，关于企业国际化与企业绩效之间关系的研究结论莫衷一是。更具体而言，中小企业国际化对经营绩效的影响尚未得到充分深入的探讨。因此，本研究旨在通过检验国际化不同维度对企业经营绩效的独特影响来填补这一空白。
总体而言，本研究包含三大目标：其一，测算影响印度尼西亚制造业出口型中小企业国际化进程的企业资源（人力资本与社会资本）；其二，探讨人力资本与社会资本对国际化三大维度——国际化绩效、出口市场数量与国际化耗时——的影响；其三，评估前述国际化维度对企业财务绩效的作用。
本研究采用定量与定性相结合的混合研究方法。定量数据取自印度尼西亚政府数据库中约300万家中小企业里，241名拥有出口业务的中小企业管理者及/或所有者。定性数据则通过对参与本次调查的10名中小企业所有者兼管理者进行访谈收集而来。
借助结构方程模型（Structural Equation Modelling, SEM）技术，研究结果显示：管理知识与国际化的任一维度均无正向关联，但有趣的是，其与国际化耗时呈负相关关系，表明管理知识会延缓企业的国际化进程。研究结果还表明，国际商务技能与社会资本技能均与国际化绩效及出口市场数量呈正向关联，但与国际化耗时无显著关联。
关于国际化对企业经营绩效的影响，研究结果显示，国际化绩效对经营绩效并无显著影响，但出口市场数量与经营绩效呈正向关联。另一方面，国际化耗时对经营绩效存在负向影响，即中小企业国际化起步越晚，其经营绩效越好。
定性研究结果表明，与竞争对手、供应商及政府建立良好的网络关系，能够帮助企业成功开拓国际市场。
从理论视角来看，本研究结果支持资源基础观（Resource‐Based View theory），因为国际商务技能与国际化的两大维度呈正向关联。本研究结果同时支持由阶段理论（Stage Theory）提出的渐进式国际化传统观点。由此可见，支持中小企业国际化采用天生全球化或跨越式发展路径的国际新创企业理论（International New Venture Theory），并不适用于印度尼西亚的场景。最后，本研究还支持网络视角（Network Perspective），该理论认为企业与其他企业、社区领袖及政府建立的关系，会对中小企业的国际化产生显著影响。
总体而言，本研究证实了不同组织资本（Organizational Capitals，即人力资本与社会资本）作为推动国际化的核心资源所具备的独特作用。