Importance of International Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the driving force for innovation and economic growth. International entrepreneurship is the process by which entrepreneurs conduct business activities across national boundaries. It is through international entrepreneurship that new products, transactions, services, approaches, technologies, resources and markets are created which greatly contribute value to the global community. It is through this driving force that value is created when the entrepreneur fashions something useful and worthwhile. The importance of international entrepreneurship has of late become increasingly important to businesses of all sizes. It is the force that enables them to showcase, compete and advance profoundly in various capacities (Oviatt 112).
Entrepreneurship offers the much-needed solutions to the economic and social challenges that are facing many emerging nations. In addition to that, it enriches lives and presents avenues for young individuals to engage their energies, creates new opportunities and jobs and advances growth and innovation. Through entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs are in a position to nurture democratic values of fair self reliance, competition, freedom of association and respect of property. It is of paramount importance for businesses of all sizes in the global economy which is today very hypercompetitive. It has created a platform where entrepreneurs choose the kind of opportunity they need to run their businesses (Keupp 212).
There are a number of different attitudes that businesses could display and become perceptible especially when deciding on marketing internationally. Policies such as ethnocentric, geocentric and polycentric are used in international companies that have international strategic orientation. Each of these models has a unique characteristic that could break or break a business. For instance, ethnocentric policy which serves as a staffing policy is used specifically for international strategic orientation. It is often associated with assumptions of national superiority or national arrogance. Essentially, the general feelings of operations of an ethnocentrism company depict that practices and products that do well in their country will most definitely do well internationally. In addition to that, such companies take a consistent approach to marketing, assuming that goods that do well locally will also do the same anywhere else without any alteration. Therefore, in order to be effective global competitors, companies must be able to adapt to international environments (Levy 16).
Polycentric is a distinct model from the ethnocentric model. This idea allows a business to develop and adopt unique marketing and business strategies to the cultures of that particular country. Polycentric businesses often use adaptation approaches. These adaptations assume that products must be adapted in response to various market conditions. As a world view, polycentric has a dominant assumption that hosts cultures of countries that make one-size-fits-all approach unfeasible. Geocentric on the other hand does not equate superiority with nationality. Within political and legal limits, executives tend to ask for the best men in spite of nationality in order to solve problems associated with a company. This attitude makes use of human resources which helps in building informal management networks and a strong culture. It basically tends to balance integration responsiveness.
Globalization has of late become very important to small businesses. Going global can provide numerous benefits to small firms particularly those that are involved in enterprises that are technology-intensive. Arguably, the main driver of international marketing is expanding markets and customer base, as numerous domestic markets are very large and in many cases fade in comparison with a global market. Today, big and emerging markets are greatly capturing the attention of businesses, the small and the big. In addition, promotion of products for small businesses is changing attitudes especially regarding globalization as the need to deal with increasingly specialized products increases. Gaining access to resources is also a driver for small business internationalization. Unlike in the past when businesses could go abroad to search for materials, a new trend has been adopted where businesses are today looking for the labor they need. Exporting and importing of goods is only a starting place for making internationalization a reality for small businesses.
Barriers to internationalization for small businesses are political risks, economic risks and managerial limitations. Political risk for small businesses is the particular risk that will hinder and negatively affect businesses that operate within the borders. Economic risks could hinder firms’ performance operating within their borders by changing of the business environment and mismanagement of the economy. Limiting management of small business could greatly hinder their internationalization in many ways (Winch 56). Limiting going global could also complicate things to an extent of blocking planning and marketing.
Works Cited
Keupp, Marcus Matthias, and Oliver Gassmann. "The past and the future of international entrepreneurship: a review and suggestions for developing the field." Journal of Management 35.3 (2009): 600-633.
Levy, Orly, et al. "What we talk about when we talk about ‘global mindset’: Managerial cognition in multinational corporations." Journal of International Business Studies 38.2 (2007): 231-258.
Oviatt, Benjamin M., and Patricia P. McDougall. "Defining international entrepreneurship and modeling the speed of internationalization." Entrepreneurship theory and practice 29.5 (2005): 537-554.
Tzschentke, Nadia A., David Kirk, and Paul A. Lynch. "Going green: Decisional factors in small hospitality operations." International Journal of Hospitality Management 27.1 (2008): 126-133.
Winch, Graham W., and Carmine Bianchi. "Drivers and dynamic processes for SMEs going global." Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 13.1 (2006): 73-88.
