Heuristics of the internationalisation of SMEs: a grounded theory method

Abstract

Heuristics can be a useful and applicable tool, utilised in simplified strategies for solving ill-structured and highly uncertain problems, such as internationalisation of Small-and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). International Entrepreneurship (IE) researches suggest that, paying more attention to discovering the valuable individual initiatives used in internationalisation of SMEs. This paper investigates the Iranian internationalised SMEs to provide a set of heuristic principles and guidelines for running a successful internationalisation process. Analyses of the interview data suggest that, heuristics is an instructional tool of internationalisation, which facilitates and subsequently accelerates the process of SMEs’ internationalisation. The model of internationalisation based on heuristics is extracted from the systematic grounded theory (GT). Originally, GT was applied for increasing the chance of discovering the unanticipated happenings as an inductive theory-discovering methodology. From the research, it can be concluded that by applying the heuristics-based model of internationalisation, SMEs can make significant contributions in IE such as position stability in foreign markets, problem-solving tools in internationalisation process, sales growth, profitability, as well as added value generation.