Small Businesses and Exporting: A Literature Review

Kurt J. Miesenbock is a lecturer at the University of Economics, Vienna, Austria. The present literature on international business falls into two main categories: the first covers multinational corporations, their development, organisational and marketing problems, and strategies; the second comprises the internationalisation of small and medium-sized businesses. Early publications on this issue appeared in the early 1 960s and since then the issue has gained more and more importance. However, the extensive literature based on empirical studies is full of inconsistencies and a conclusive theory of small business internationalisation is far from available. In addition to this the relevant literature is widely scattered and difficult to obtain with the result that few analysts appear to be aware of more than a proportion of what has been written. The aim of this paper is to compile, systematise and compare all those empirical studies on the export behaviour of small and medium-sized firms to provide a useful basis for further research.