Title: The drivers of export in microenterprises

Authors: Matti Muhos; Martti Saarela; Peetu Virkkala; Jukka Majava; Jenni Helander

Addresses: Kerttu Saalasti Institute, University of Oulu, Pajatie 5, FI-85500 Nivala, Finland ' Kerttu Saalasti Institute, University of Oulu, Pajatie 5, FI-85500 Nivala, Finland ' Kerttu Saalasti Institute, University of Oulu, Pajatie 5, FI-85500 Nivala, Finland ' Industrial Engineering and Management Research Group, Faculty of Technology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 8000, FI-90014, Finland ' Industrial Engineering and Management Research Group, Faculty of Technology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 8000, FI-90014, Finland

Abstract: Microenterprises represent most of all businesses and are an essential enabler of any nation's renewal and sustainable growth. Despite its practical and scientific importance, little is known about what drives microenterprise managers to export. This study aims to bridge this gap by elaborating the export drivers from the perspective of microenterprises. The above-described can be condensed to the following research question: What are the drivers for exporting perceived by the managers of microenterprises? This multiple case study answers the research question by analysing export drivers in ten Finnish microenterprises. A framework of export drivers (Leonidou et al., 2007) was devised in this analysis. This study provided an in-depth analysis of the export drivers in a microenterprise context and summarised the findings in a preliminary framework. Based on this analysis, the drivers related to human resources, marketing, domestic market, foreign market, home government and customers are central to microenterprise export.

Keywords: internationalisation; export; drivers; microenterprises; micro-sized enterprises.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2022.125786

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2022 Vol.21 No.3, pp.299 - 321

Received: 12 Feb 2022
Accepted: 05 Mar 2022
Published online: 28 Sep 2022 *

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