Export of SMEs after the crisis in three European peripheral regions – stimulating factors and effects on firms
5. Concluding remarks
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are important economic actors and exporters in the three peripheral regions. Their weight is somewhat smaller in the Visegrád countries in employment and value added than in the Iberian and Baltic countries, but remains above 50%. With increased export activity SMEs contributed to the recovery after the international crisis. In this short study I provided an overview of those factors that contributed to successful exports based on surveys made in the three regions. These factors are both external and internal, but the internal ones seem more important: the qualification of management, workers, product and technology development, innovation. These results were confirmed by the questionnaire survey we conducted among exporting Hungarian SMEs. No significant difference could be detected, however, in this respect between those firms who are suppliers in a kind of network and those who does not supply multinationals. This can stem from the relatively small sample size and from the fact that the influencing factors affect all exporters more or less independently of their supplier status.
Responses to our questionnaire confirmed that exporting has positive effects on the SMEs. This proves the learning by exporting theory that is widely discussed in the relevant literature. Large majority of the firms could widen their knowledge on foreign markets and increase profits.
Those firms where export-intensity is high, improved the quality of their products further, introduced new technologies, employed more workers and sometimes reorganised the company management.
Two Hungarian company-cases demonstrated the factors of successful internationalization.
Both firms are SMEs, Adu Alba is a family firm delivering to several multinationals and building contacts on its own. The firm has to deliver precisely and fulfil quality requirements. Speaking foreign languages, devoted management and working moral are important factors of success.
Apart from that, Adu Alba constantly innovates and creatively finds out new kinds of products meeting the needs of buyers. The firm deliberately builds a brand, wins prizes and looks for media contacts, thus invests strong effort into marketing. They have not used (or only scarcely) national state help or financing but they acquired for EU funds. The other firm Meditop utilized state help and also EU funds for its development and internationalization. They increased the number of employees constantly, extended capacities during the past twenty years. Product quality, research and development are important also in this case. In both companies the managers had previous experiences either abroad or working at a multinational company, which they could utilize in their activity.
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