SMEs in Age of Globalization

The purpose of this volume is to bring together the leading scholarly papers about how globalization has impacted the role of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In fact, globalization has affected SMEs in two major ways. The first has been to facilitate the transnational activities of SMEs. Transnational activities, ranging from exports to foreign direct investment to participating in global value chains have become easier as a result of globalization. The second impact of globalization has been to shift the source of competitiveness towards knowledge-based economic activity, which has led to an increased role for SMEs. This volume examines: how globalization has affected the role of SMEs in the economy; global strategies by SMEs; the important type of global activity of SMEs, which involves foreign direct investment; the role of clusters and networks in generating SME competitiveness in global markets; SME export strategies and performance; the impact that the international mobility of labour has had on SMEs; the role that SMEs play in trans-national technology transfer; SMEs in the context of developing countries; and policy issues that include identifying how policy needs to address barriers to internationalization confronting SMEs.