Financial planning in exporting SMEs in Antioquia, Colombia Planificación financiera en las pyme exportadoras. Caso de Antioquia, Colombia

SMEs constitute an important basis for economic growth, entrepreneurial network creationand employment generation in any country. From the onset of the twenty-first century, severalinstitutional policy amendments have been consolidated in Colombia to strengthen the SMEssector and to integrate it to the export competitiveness and growth goals.The objective of this research was to determine how exporting SMEs from Antioquia havestructured proper planning and financial management processes that could provide solid basisfor entrepreneurial growth. An empirical approach was applied to study 39 regional enterprises,the results allow concluding that the so analyzed enterprises are still characterized by theirchallenges in financial decision making related to investment, financing sources and profitdistribution.Las pequeñas y medianas empresas (pyme) constituyen una base muy importante para el crecimiento económico, la creación del tejido empresarial y la generación de empleo de cualquier país. En Colombia, desde el inicio del siglo XXI, se han consolidado varias reformas institucionales para fortalecer el sector e integrarlo a las metas de aumento en competitividad y en crecimiento de exportaciones. La investigación que se expone tuvo como objetivo central determinar cómo las pyme exportadoras de Antioquia, Colombia, han estructurado los procesos de planeación y gestión financiera, dada la importancia de éstos para proporcionar bases solidas al crecimiento empresarial. Se realizó un estudio empírico en 39 empresas de la región. Sus resultados permiten concluir que las organizaciones analizadas siguen caracterizándose por su debilidad en la forma como se planean las decisiones financieras correspondientes a la inversión, financiación y reparto de utilidades. ABSTRACT SMEs constitute an important basis for economic growth, entrepreneurial network creation and employment generation in any country. From the onset of the twenty-first century, several institutional policy amendments have been consolidated in Colombia to strengthen the SMEs sector and to integrate it to the export competitiveness and growth goals The objective of this research was to determine how exporting SMEs from Antioquia have structured proper planning and financial management processes that could provide solid basis for entrepreneurial growth. An empirical approach was applied to study 39 regional enterprises, the results allow concluding that the so analyzed enterprises are still characterized by their challenges in financial decision making related to investment, financing sources and profit distribution.