Export patterns of small and medium sized enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide better understanding of the export behaviour of Czech small and medium sized enterprises in certain aspects and to follow the development in this area. The intention of this paper is to provide the topical overview of the patterns and barriers faced by SMEs in their path to internationalization, and to discuss changes in SMEs’ perception of international business doing over time. This article is based on an original research among 500 SMEs active in international business. For comparison, the article uses also the previous studies. Some of the interesting findings were appreciated export support tools and the inessential ones, as well as the changes in obstacles perceived in export. The main contribution of this article is in providing exploitable overview of export patterns of SMEs and in their systematic monitoring based on annual export surveys.