New Perspectives on the Internationalisation of Micro-Businesses

Abstract

Micro businesses are increasingly playing a significant role in the economic growth of most developed and developing countries. Despite this increasing trend, not much attention has been given to such businesses in the management literature. Policymakers have given little attention to their growth and internationalisations. Consequently, the increasing trend of the micro business internationalisation has also failed to receive deserved attention. The chapter uses qualitative data from two micro businesses in the UK to explicate the reasons and challenges of internationalisation. Findings reveal that reasons and challenges of internationalisation of micro and larger firms may be similar, but resource constraints shape the approaches and scale. In particular, growth and internationalisation of micro firms are often inhibited by the embeddedness of firm-specific knowledge in individuals. Significantly, micro firms with explicit knowledge can exploit international expansion via franchising/licencing, compared with those with tacit knowledge who export.