In the recent couple of years, African countries have conducted a free tradeagreement which will affect the whole African continent. Providing the largestfree trade agreement in history so far in terms of participating countries.AfCFTA provides new conditions and enhancement, aiming for Africa tobecome one single market and boosting intra-African trade. Countries such asKenya, has during recent years made changes and reforms which has enhancedits business environment for companies operating there. In addition, this thesisaims to investigate how the new free trade agreement is affecting KenyanSMEs in the manufacturing sector today, and how it will affect them in thefuture when the free trade agreement is fully implemented. To receive a deeperunderstanding about the subject, a qualitative method and an abductiveapproach have been conducted. Moreover, the theoretical framework derivesfrom internationalization theories commonly used and which benefits from theterms that the free trade agreement holds. The conceptual framework assumesthat international marketers experience different market prerequisites, thus theview of the internationalization process differs from one market to another.Therefore, our empirical findings derive from a multi-case study, whichinvestigate Kenyan manufacturing SMEs possibilities and difficulties tointernationalize on the African continent. The analysis presents the theoreticalframework and the empirical findings in the contrast and relation to each other.Finally, the conclusion chapter provides insights in opportunities anddifficulties still remaining for the AfCFTA to be fully implemented and forKenyan manufacturing SMEs to fully utilize the agreement. Also, limitationsand suggestions for future research is conducted in the chapter. The result ofthis research stipulates that there are still difficulties for Kenyanmanufacturing SMEs to utilize the agreement and that the agreement requirestime to provide a fully functional single market for Africa.

The internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has become vital as it enables them to enhance their business prospects and achieve organizational objectives. This is of utmost significance for the future growth of nations, regions, and the global economy, given the progressively significant role played by SMEs in contributing to economic development. However, SMEs face numerous challenges when it comes to internationalization, primarily due to their limited capabilities. As a result, only a minimal percentage of SMEs are able to expand their business into the international market. Despite the numerous barriers faced by SMEs, this research specifically focuses on three main barriers: lack of market knowledge, limited business networks, and challenges related to new product development. These factors are crucial when expanding a business into the international market. Therefore, this study aims to explore how SMEs can expand their business to the international market by overcoming these barriers through the effective utilization of social media. This empirical study adopts an exploratory approach and employs qualitative methodology with an inductive research approach. To gather data, this research conducted interviews with technology-based companies in Luleå. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted using an interview guide, and the collected data were analysed using the thematic method. The findings of the study highlight that social media can indeed be a successful influencer in the internationalization process of SMEs, particularly by utilizing business networking opportunities. Additionally, SMEs utilize social media as a secondary source for obtaining market information and engaging in new product development activities. However, the research also identifies hesitancy among technology-based SMEs when it comes to trusting the information obtained from social media platforms. Based on the findings of this study, several recommendations have been developed, primarily focusing on technology-based SMEs. These recommendations were derived from interviews conducted with companies located in Luleå and are intended to benefit SMEs operating in the tech industry as a whole.

Yes / This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of Cloud Computing Utilization (CCU) in the mitigation of informational and marketing barriers for SMEs from the Emerging Market-Countries (EM-SMEs). A quantitative-research methodology was applied to collect data by using self-administered questionnaires from top managers of 227 SMEs based in Iran and Turkey. The study contributes theoretically to both small business and international business literature by developing a new classification of the internationalization barriers that EM-SMEs face, and proposing a series of cloud computing (CC) solutions for mitigating these barriers, resulting in the creation and testing of a new model. The empirical findings confirm that CCU can help EM-SMEs to mitigate a series of informational and marketing barriers. The key practical contributions of the study offer insights to both EM-SMEs and Cloud-Service-Providers (CSPs) on the extent to which CCU is effective in mitigating the internationalization barriers faced by EM-SMEs.

Due to strong growth in the virtual business environment, online internationalization has become a topic of high interest. This makes it necessary for firms providing software online to carefully investigate and understand barriers and differences in countries before entering them. Further, companies expanding abroad face a variety of differences compared to their home market, which has to be carefully understood in order to succeed internationally and to avoid misinterpretations. This thesis took a qualitative approach and was based on six semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions, all performed with CEOs, founders or managers with explicit knowledge in the online internationalization phase of their firms. The insights from the interviews acknowledge which differences and barriers the firms faced and how they perceived them. The outline and result of the study were based on the four dimensions of cultural, administrative, geographic and economic challenges. The result showed that the cultural and geographic dimensions were barely perceived as barriers by the firms, the administrative dimensions moderately, whereas the companies clearly perceived the economic dimensions as barriers in their internationalization processes. Additional findings of the study were the importance of cultural leadership, hierarchies & decision-making processes, high-density clusters and pricing strategies.

[pt] Economia Criativa é um conceito relativamente recente, que ainda dá margem a diferentes interpretações, mas que vem ganhando crescente atenção e apoio por parte de governos de diversos países e organismos internacionais, tendo se tornado parte importante do comércio global, na qual a participação de países em desenvolvimento vem crescendo aceleradamente: em 2015, o valor das exportações de bens e serviços criativos desse conjunto de países superou o de países desenvolvidos. No entanto, o Brasil não vem aproveitando esse crescimento, estando ausente da lista de maiores exportadores de tais itens, mesmo se considerarmos apenas países em desenvolvimento, o que sinaliza a existência de barreiras relevantes à internacionalização das empresas brasileiras integrantes da Economia Criativa. Assim, o objetivo geral do presente estudo é explorar como stakeholders de empresas brasileiras da Economia Criativa percebem as barreiras à internacionalização de seus produtos e serviços. Para isto, utilizou-se um estudo de casos múltiplos, envolvendo três empresas de pequeno e médio porte (PME) do estado do Rio de Janeiro, produtoras e exportadoras de bens criativos (joias, semijoias, bijuterias, acessórios e objetos de decoração). A pesquisa indica que, de modo geral, as barreiras internas à firma são percebidas como as mais relevantes pelas empresas analisadas, principalmente barreiras funcionais (derivadas de limitações de recursos humanos e de capacidade produtiva) e de preço. Dentre as barreiras externas à firma, além das econômicas destacam-se as governamentais, indicando a necessidade de aperfeiçoamento em regulações e programas de incentivo à exportação vigentes no país. / [en] Creative Economy is a relatively recent concept, which still gives rise to different interpretations, but has been gaining increasing attention and support from governments of several countries and international organizations, having become an important part of global trade, in which the participation of developing countries has been growing rapidly: since 2015, value of exports of creative goods and services from this group of countries exceed that from developed ones. However, Brazil has not been taking advantage of this growth, being absent from the list of major exporters of such items, even if we consider only developing countries, which indicates the existence of relevant barriers to the internationalization of Brazilian firms of the Creative Economy. Thus, general objective of this study is to explore how stakeholders of Brazilian firms of the Creative Economy perceive barriers to the internationalization of their products and services. To reach this objective, it was done a multiple case study involving three small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, which produce and export creative goods (jewelry, accessories and decorative objects). Results indicate that, overall, internal barriers are perceived as the most relevant by the analyzed firms, mainly functional barriers (derived from their constraints of human resources and productive capacity), as also as price barriers. Among the external barriers, in addition to the economic ones, the governmental ones stand out, indicating the need for improvement in Brazilian current export incentive programs and regulations.