Title: Effects of global networks and the foreign migrant workforce on Thai SMEs' satisfaction with their export performance: the mediating role of international knowledge

Authors: Nareeporn Tanchaitranon; Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Addresses: International College, National Institute of Development Administration, 118 Moo3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok 10240, Thailand ' International College, National Institute of Development Administration, 118 Moo3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok 10240, Thailand

Abstract: This research investigates the interconnections of global networks, the sharing of the foreign migrant workforce and the international knowledge of the entrepreneurs' satisfaction with the export performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The results of our partial least squares analysis using a sample of 170 Thai entrepreneurial SMEs provide significant evidence that the degree of international knowledge is significantly higher in those SMEs that strongly emphasised establishing and maintaining networks with people in foreign markets, as well as in those SMEs that employed a higher share of the foreign migrant workforce. The entrepreneurial SMEs that possessed a higher degree of international knowledge and employed a higher share of the foreign migrant workforce tended to exhibit a greater satisfaction about their export performance.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; export performance; small and medium-sized enterprises; exporting SMEs; workforce diversity; global networks; foreign migrants; Thailand; international knowledge; partial least squares; PLS; foreign markets; migrant workers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSB.2016.080378

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 2016 Vol.8 No.3, pp.251 - 268

Accepted: 04 Jul 2016
Published online: 18 Nov 2016 *

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