Factores de decisão das PMEs portuguesas em relação às pesquisas de mercados internacionais

Abstract

Internationalization is getting a more important role in the survival of the companies and we are experiencing a boom in the Portuguese exports. In the last few years, we have been living an increase in these exports and internationalization is becoming more important to the market players. The internationalization of Portuguese companies is so relevant that we thought it was a good subject to study the way these companies make their market choices. As presented by Welch & Luostarinen (1988) all internationalization process is based on three dimensions (the “How”, the “Where” and the “What”). So, and being one of the items less studied in the literature, it seemed relevant to focus this study in the “Where”, more specifically trying to understand how the international market researches are made by the Portuguesa SMEs. In order to answer this question, it was used the case study method (multiple), in which were interviewed different companies with the purpose of understanding exactly the way they make their international market researches, and why. The challenge of this work was to understand how the Portuguese companies do their researches, if they use a systematic or an opportunistic approach in their international market research and the factors influencing the approach that was use. The results of this study show that factors such as the small international development of a company, the high international experience of its managers and the company’s and manager’s important networking are factors that have great influence in the choice of an opportunistic company approach in the international market selection. So, companies base their researches in experiences, feelings, perceived psychic distance, contact networks and social relationships of the own company and its managers.

Date of Award	12 Nov 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Silva (Supervisor)