Barriers to the process of the internationalisation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Enterprises entering foreign markets are confronted with many barriers of a different nature, depending on the industry sector, offered products, the target market and other factors. The level of difficulty in overcoming a given barrier may also vary. The aim of the study was to identify and discuss the internal and external barriers experienced by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Podkarpackie Voivodship in their process of internationalisation and to assess the perceived level of the related difficulties. The article provides a synthetic review of domestic and foreign scientific publications on the subject. The Kruskal- Wallis test was used and a multiple comparison analysis was performed to evaluate the significance of the differences in the perceived level of difficulties relating to the occurrence of barriers. The authors’ research of 194 SMEs with foreign capital, carried out in Podkarpackie Voivodship in the second half of 2019, demonstrated that among the most serious barriers to internationalisation are limitations and difficulties arising from the external environment which the enterprises operate in. SMEs also recognised some internal barriers, although their negative impact on the process of internationalisation seemed to be of less importance than that resulting from external constraints.