The

Internationalization
of Small to Medium-
Sized Retail
Companies
Diego Rodríguez
Paula Parra
Elizabeth Sanabria
Dilan Andrés Zambrano
The International Retail SME
• number of employees included, number of points of sale, annual
turnover, combination of both employee and billing measures
 Product Market
Factors
• Advantages of a product or brand.
• small and medium-sized retailers
should differentiate themselves from
larger retailers through their product
offering, making their merchandise
exclusive and high class rather than
cheap.
• A strong corporate image and the
competitive advantage that they
create, was very significant to
retailers expanding into international
markets.
Management
Factors
• It is essentially a top-down process,
by which owners develop a
strategic stance and ensure that
their management and employees
understand the strategy and behave
in a manner commensurate with
that strategy.
• Therefore, the owner-manager, as
the key variable in SME
intemationalisation,.
Networking Factors
• The networks have the
potential to act as catalysts
for international business
expansion.
• These international network
groups can be achieved on
two levels: by establishing
and building new
relationships in new
markets and by connecting
to existing networks in
other countries.
External Environment Advantages
External factors such as industry and product sector are also important
influences on firm internationalization
 Internationalization Process
• the firms tend to an evolutionary process, gradually internationalize in
an incremental manner through a series of evolutionary 'stages'

• the retailers pass through phases in their international development that

broadly conform to a pattern of reluctant, cautious and ambitious
intemationalization, furthermore the retailers seek more familiar
environments before moving on to distant markets
International Strategies
Licensing

Exporting
Entry Franchising
Modes

Joint
Ventures
International Retail SME Development
 The International Development of Retail
SMEs
Proposition 1 Proposition 2 Proposition 3 Proposition 4 Proposition 5
• Company • Company • Small to medium- • The market appeal • SME retailer entry
strategies of strategies of sized retailers do and specialist mode choice is
differentiation and differentiation and not necessarily strategy of SME contingent upon
market appeal market appeal follow a retailers key factors,
provide the provide the progressive 'stages' determines the including the
antecedents for antecedents for pattern of market strategy importance placed
retail SME retail SME international employed. upon product
internationalisation internationalisation development. assets and
availability of
resources.
Thank
you