Evaluation Models of the Success of SMEs in the Internationalization Process

Abstract

The paper deals with evaluating the success of small and medium-sized enterprises in the international process. The process of internationalization of small and medium-sized businesses is frequently discussed topic. In this article is discussed a simple evaluation model that could be used by SMEs to determine not only how strong are they compared to competitors, but also at what level are their success factors in the process of internationalization. A lot of SMEs have problems to identify the key success factors in the process of internationalization, as well as to determine in what areas, that success in foreign markets determine, have their strengths and weaknesses, therefore we decided to focus on this problem and there is presented a proposal of a simple model of performance evaluation of small and medium-sized enterprises in this paper. The key success factors of internationalization process are identified according to a survey of 40 small and medium engineering companies and also the use of the knowledge of literature and similar surveys conducted abroad. The key success factors of internationalization process were grouped into 4 categories: 1) Key employee, 2) Internationalization rate, 3) International marketing, 4) Efficiency of foreign trade. The proposed rating system because of its graphical output simply shows what the area has a rated entity weaknesses and where its strengths has. The model was applied to data obtained from a above mentioned survey and in the paper there are presented specific examples of graphical output of the model for selected companies. For SMEs it is often difficult to succeed and then to maintain the position in the foreign markets than for large multinational companies. Large enterprises have more opportunities to detailed analysis and evaluation of factors that have to determine their success in the field of internationalization. In the current literature there are not many models which SMEs have shown how easily assess their situation in internationalization process. The authors followed up on previous efforts to design assessment method of evaluating the international success of small and medium sized enterprises (Peprný, Kubickova and Rovný, 2010), however they tried to simplify the previously presented method to be applicable to SMEs in practice and they have tried to adapt the evaluation model to the needs of small and medium sized companies. The proposed rating system could be further adjusted in practice. It is possible to modify the weight of individual blocks as needed for particular businesses.