Differentiation In Foreign Business Relationships: A Study On Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises After Their Initial Foreign Market Entry

This article critically evaluates the notion that strategic flexibility related to products, business relationships and networks is critical for international small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attempting to differentiate their firms in foreign business relationships. A model is developed to investigate the interrelatedness of these types of flexibility and their discrete effects on business differentiation in foreign business relationships. It is used to analyse a dataset covering 314 Swedish SMEs; the types of flexibility investigated were found to have positive effects (direct and indirect) on differentiation in foreign business relationships.