Attitude Toward Internationalization And Early Internationalization: Comparison of Indian and French SMEs' Decision Makers

This research has two objectives. The first is to study the link between SMEs internationalizing at an early stage and the attitudes of their decision makers toward internationalization. The second is to analyze this relationship in an international context (India and France). We thus propose to contribute to a better understanding of the factors behind internationalization. To meet these objectives, we used an original methodology: decision makers’ practices were studied using the scenario method. The assessment of attitudes toward internationalization was carried out using a new multidimensional scale of measurement. The measurement tool was distributed to decision makers in French and Indian SMEs. A database of 234 respondents was used. This research presents three main results: we found that the decision makers of SMEs with a very positive attitude towards internationalization are more conducive to internationalizing early than others but that the opposite is not always true. Contrary to our expectations, we observed that French decision makers are more favorable to internationalization than Indians. Finally, we identified that Indian decision makers are more likely to internationalize early than the French. ! In the 1990s, a surge in investment flows from emerging countries to developed markets (North-South) and to other emerging markets (South-South) followed the opening of economies such as China and India. This phenomenon is very pronounced today and opens up interesting opportunities for research into international expansion strategies, especially the internationalization trials of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Filling this gap would help to understand the internationalization process more accurately. Furthermore, as noted by Federico Federico, Kantis, Rialp & Rialp (2009), there is a lack of research into international entrepreneurship (IE) in emerging countries. ! One of the first research topics to emerge in IE was focused on Born Globals and International New Ventures (INVs), firms that internationalize early and fast. Rennie (1993) and Oviatt & McDougall (1994) did pioneering work on INVs twenty years ago. A burgeoning literature has emerged since, reflecting the growing number of firms in the last thirty years that started to internationalize as soon as they came into being (Zucchella, Palamara & Denicolai, 2007). The temporal dimension is one of three key dimensions of INV theory, along with scope and extent (Madsen, 2013). Seen by some as essential in the internationalization process (Jones & Coviello, 2005), the temporal dimension is “one of the most important concepts for gaining a true understanding of how the internationalization processes develop” (Casillas & Acedo, 2013: 16). It should be M@n@gement 2015, vol. 18(1): 54-77