INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SMALL-MEDIUM SIZED FIRMS

This article examines the internationalization process of small firms in order to find the factors that affect of the internationalization of small firms. The stages are Stages, Upsala and new venture model. A review of literature shows that most of the research focused on the internationalization of large firms and the stiidy on small firms is limited Small firms have been becoming more important today, cheaper transportation and lower communication costs encourage them to go international. As the internal variables, to the manager’s expectation concerning profitability, technological advantages of the firms, marketing research, the existence of the export policy and export planniiig are important factors affecting the internationalization of firms. Many studies showed that small-sized firms could be just as successful as larger firms in terms of export intensity (export sales/total sales).