Internationalization process of Iranian SMEs with a special focus on e-commerce

As barriers to globalization continue to fade, competing globally is not an option, but an economic imperative. While internet allow even the smallest firm’s access to customers, suppliers, and collaborators around the world, it is also believed that e-commerce capabilities are likely to become influential to determining developing country producers' export success. The purpose of this study is "To gain better understanding on internationalization processes of Iranian SMEs with a special focus on the e-commerce”. It has been done through a quantitative study by performing a survey containing 120 questionnaires. Categorization of firms based on their age and export involvement have yield to describe the internationalization process of Iranian SMEs in a clearer sense in terms of some attributes. The findings show the great emergent of Born Globals among Iranian SMEs although their internationalization processes are more likely same as predictions of traditional models. Also the results of this study conforms the contribution between e-commerce and some of the internationalization process attributes.Validerat; 20101217 (root