Conference Agenda

Although researchers have been showing a keen interest in SME internationalisation, we still know little about how innovation facilitates internationalisation, particularly relating to the northeast of England. Thus, a better understanding is needed of how innovation facilitates SMEs' internationalisation. This thesis focuses on examining the factors that facilitate or hinder SMEs in the northeast of England in their internationalisation and innovation process. A systematic literature review (SLR) was undertaken. Considering the outcome of the SLR process, the research design used is a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, which involves qualitative data collection first, followed by quantitative research. The primary reason for choosing an exploratory sequential research design is to collect qualitative data and provide new insight into the research context, followed by quantitative research to test the outcome of qualitative research. FAME database was used to identify SMEs for this study. The final list of SMEs samples was categorized into two categories - information technology-based companies and engineering-based companies. Collecting 24 interviews, including 21 from SMEs representative and 3 expert interviews, set a basis for quantitative survey data which is currently being collected. But initial analysis has revealed several key themes facilitating or hindering SMEs innovation and internationalisation process.

The globalization of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the disaggregation of their value chains have pushed forward the importance of research on subsidiary strategy and subsidiary innovation from micro-processes and their driving mechanism, i.e., the activities of subsidiary managers. By building on the MNE middle managers framework and its line of research (e.g., Boyett & Currie, 2004; Delany, 2000; Dutton & Ashford, 1993; Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill, Hayes & Wierba, 1997; Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill & Lawrence, 2001; Wooldrige, Schmid & Floyd, 2008; O’Brien, 2014), this doctoral project studies subsidiary management and behaviour and investigates how subsidiary managers take actions after receiving an R&D mandate to contribute to subsidiary’s performance in terms of innovation, financial, and strategical influence MNE. This dissertation argues and emphasizes that the activities of subsidiary managers are the mechanism and cause of subsidiary performance and are an explanation for the macro-level MNE performance.

In the context of digital technology and infrastructure development that integrates information and communication to facilitate network building, both local and global, and opportunity exploring, from domestic to international (Neubert, 2018), there is a rapidly growing interest in the internationalization of SMEs as they are of huge potential for pushing economic growth and promoting employment. However, it is still not yet clear what are the antecedents and drivers to facilitate SMEs’ exporting. Therefore, this dissertation aims to untangle the process of transition from indigenous SMEsto MNEs. Based on three paper structure, this study aims to investigates the role of state- the home country institution, innovation- the internal powerhouse of growth, and export strategy- diversification or intensity, in SMEs’ internationalization. By doing so, we contribute to the internationalization process model by conceptualizing a two-stage export development process: export decision and export expansion in products and markets. Furtherly, by conceptualing the role of innovation, export strategy, and institutional factors in SMEs' performance and growth, this study offers significant practical implications for SMEs to allocate limited resources better and match export strategies with the firm’s capabilities to obtain competitive advantages and achieve firm growth.