The Uppsala Process Theory of Internationalization (PTI) and the International New Venture Theory of Internationalization (INV) are two of the most influential and well researched behavioural theories of internationalization to have emerged from the internationalization literature stream. They offer alternative descriptions of the path that enterprises take to internationalization and have both led to streams of literature focusing on different aspects of the internationalization process. Both models explain how an enterprise moves from an initial ‘low’ domestic starting point and progresses to become an international enterprise. The two models both explain the behaviours and attributes that are necessary in order to successfully develop along their respective predicted international trajectories. These behaviours and attributes highlighted within each model are said to be highly influential in helping to overcome and/or mitigate the barriers on the predicted trajectory to internationalization. However, the impact that these behaviours/attributes have on the perception of barriers to export has rarely been tested directly. This research is designed to investigate the relationship between experiential knowledge (a fundamental concept within the PTI model) and entrepreneurial input (a fundamental concept within the INV theory), on the perception of a range of selected barriers to manufacturing export, from the Chinese province of Ningxia. This research developed a conceptual framework and testable models based on experiential knowledge and entrepreneurial input. It then identified a selection of barriers to manufacturing export from the Chinese province of Ningxia. These were selected from the export barrier literature stream. This research took a positivist view and quantitative data was obtained from the use of structured self-administered questionnaires administered through judgement sampling techniques at business seminars and consultancy sessions. A total of ninety-eight valid responses were used for quantitative analysis. Correlation and regression techniques were used to analyse the data and new combined models from the experiential knowledge and entrepreneurial input model variables were developed using Stepwise Regression. The study found, in the majority of cases, that as the individual experiential knowledge and entrepreneurial input model variables increased, the perception of difficulty of the individual selected barriers to export decreased. The experiential knowledge model could best explain the reduction in the perception of twelve of the barriers to export, whereas the entrepreneurial input model could best explain the reduction in the perception of six different barriers. Of the eighteen selected barriers to export, the constructed combined models better explained the reduction in the perception of the individual barriers to export in thirteen cases. Other findings of this research include; the ‘export intensity’ variable best explained the reduction in the perception of nine of the eighteen barriers to export; the ‘attitude to risk’ variable best explained the reduction in the perception of four barriers; the ‘years of international involvement’ best explained the reduction in the perception of two barriers, and finally the ‘level of education of the decision maker’ variable best explained the reduction in the perception of two barriers, which included the ‘identification of new markets’ and ‘overcoming unfamiliar documents and procedures’ barriers. The research ends with a discussion of SME development policy in the light of the research findings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:634013 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Bell, Robin Stuart |
| Contributors | Hu, Xiaoling ; Wang, Lily |
| Publisher | University of Gloucestershire |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/1221/ |
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