A temporal bracketing perspective on the internationalisation propensity of SMEs from post-communist transition economies
by Alexandra V. Roth; Elitsa R. Banalieva
International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (IJBEM), Vol. 8, No. 3, 2016

Abstract: We develop a temporal bracketing perspective on the internationalisation propensity of incumbent and start-up small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from post-communist transition economies. Prior research has yielded mixed findings on whether SMEs from transition economies are more likely to internationalise with age. We reconcile these mixed results by decomposing the SMEs' age into two adjacent institutional brackets: communist legacy and reform legacy. We propose and find that while a longer communist legacy unlocks entrepreneurial mechanisms of self-help that increase the incumbent SMEs' current competitive aspirations to internationalise, a longer reform legacy raises the costs of financing, monitoring, and information search for both incumbent and start-up SMEs, reducing their current competitive aspirations to internationalise. Using the probit methodology, we find support for our framework on a sample of 388 SMEs from nine post-communist transition economies during 2008-2009. Our findings caution managers to carefully adjust their temporal expectations of competitive aspirations for internationalisation based on their length of communist and reform legacies.

Online publication date: Wed, 06-Jul-2016

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (IJBEM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com