Can they do it all? : A multiple case study of how clusters can support the process of internationalizations for small- and medium sized organizations in Gävleborg.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to find out how clusters can assist small- and medium sized organizations to expand to the international market. Method: A qualitative approach was used in this study where the primary data was collected with the help of semi structured interviews. The data was collected from a total of ten participants ranging from five different organizations in the region of Gävleborg in Sweden. The analysis was done with the help of concepts identified in the literature as well as new themes that was found in the empirical investigation. Result & Conclusions: The findings in this research have shown that the clusters combined can help the SMEs to overcome obstacles related to capital, learning, innovation, networking, sales, and strategy. The clusters can also help the SMEs in terms of sustainability. The weakest link is to help the SMEs to gain social capital where the clusters abilities are low. The clusters have their niche competence and collaborate between clusters to help the SMEs in their international journey. We could also find that there are other themes emerging in the empirical findings which is related to the mindset of the SMEs and the limitations the SMEs face may be dependent of this mindset, mainly due to the manager in the organizations. Suggestions for future research: Future studies can focus on longitudinal research in this area to be able to follow the journey of the SMEs between the clusters but also to be able to capture and compare if the SMEs and cluster are experiencing the same pros and cons of the support system. We also suggest replicate this study in another region of Sweden to see if the results can be generalized or if it is a very local context regarding the help the SMEs can gain as well as to see if the theme of mindset occur. Contribution of the thesis: The theoretical contribution is that we have extended the knowledge around the support system known as clustering by showing that the weaker areas in the clusters was the ability to help in the barrier of social capital and that cluster can help in a good matter when it comes to capital, creating environments for innovation and organizational strategy. The theoretical contribution also showed that one cluster are not able to help in all the given areas but together the clusters are able to help the SMEs to overcome most of the barriers towards internationalization. Another theoretical contribution is the addition of the new barrier to internationalization that we named as mindset. The managerial contribution is that we have shown what areas clusters can assist the SMEs with and thereby shown that managers need to realize the opportunities that comes when they are a part of a cluster as well as they need to be able to trust in the clusters who have a great knowledge in those areas