Abstract
This study explores whether there are differences between established “rural” and “urban” SMEs with regard to the decision to sell goods or services abroad. Several hypotheses were formulated and tested. In 1990/1991, survey responses were gathered from 621 independent businesses located in the UK. In 1997, a follow‐on telephone survey was conducted with 150 surviving firms. Urban exporting SMEs reported superior performance to urban non‐exporting SMEs in 1997. Rural and urban SMEs, however, did not significantly differ from each other with regard to the reasons cited for not exporting, the reasons cited for exporting, and the modes of entry into the largest current foreign market selected by exporters. Nevertheless, some rural SMEs had circumvented local resource constraints and entered foreign markets by engaging in networking. Implications for policy‐makers, practitioners and researchers are highlighted.
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