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International entrepreneurship in SMEs: a study of influencing factors in the textile industry

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Abstract

International entrepreneurship is an incipient research area with a rapidly increasing body of knowledge and contributions. An important part of this literature has focused on the analysis of the contributing factors to IE development. From these studies, this work attempts to analyse and validate through an integrative model the effect on this construct in SME of some of the main factors proposed by the literature such as Skills and Competences, Attitude and Proactiveness, Creativity and Innovation, Networking, Employees and Activity. To proceed with this aim, we conducted an empirical research focused on 174 textile SME in Spain. The results obtained confirm a positive relationship between the studied factors and the IE development. In consequence, this work agrees with previous literature that point out the need to use multi-theoretical perspectives, combining multiple factors.

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Notes

  1. SABI is a directory of Spanish and Portuguese companies that collects general information and financial data. In the case of Spain, it has collected more than 95 % of the companies in the 17 Spanish regions with total yearly revenues of over €360,000–€420,000.

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Correspondence to Ignacio Gil-Pechuan.

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Gil-Pechuan, I., Exposito-Langa, M. & Tomas-Miquel, JV. International entrepreneurship in SMEs: a study of influencing factors in the textile industry. Int Entrep Manag J 9, 45–57 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-012-0242-3

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