The internationalization challenge - Enabling and constraining factors in the medical-technology sector

• SMEs in high-technology industries, such as life-sciences, face a fundamental challenge. On theone hand, high product development costs push companies into early internationalization to increaseturnover and recover investments. On the other hand, internationalization is constrained, e.g. by financialand managerial resource limitations or the demand to follow local regulations. To date, little isknown about how high-tech SMEs actually manage this challenge. This paper presents an in-depthcase study of the internationalization process of a Swedish high-tech SME, to develop a better understandingof how the trade-offs related to internationalization are handled in practice. Combining insightsfrom the process theory of internationalization with international new venture theory, our findingsoutline factors affecting the internationalization process specific to the medical-technology industry,the company and the founding team.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Internationalization

Medical Technology

Born Globals

Networks

Strategic Entrepreneurship

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)