Feasibility Study on SME Internationalisation

07. august, 2014

A feasibility study for Cross Innovation on the internationalisation of SMEs was released by Berlin partners Multiplicities-Berlin and Belius GmbH. The study embodies an empirical analysis that maps internationalisation prospects for different sectors. Read on for a short summary and download the full article below.

In the cross-collaboration, emphasis lies often on partnerships that are cross-sectoral rather than transnational. The knowledge that the Cross Innovation project has gathered throughout the years it’s been active, is rich and lies at the base of this report. Key factors and frameworks are hightlighted as well as an empirical research: policy makers and brokers across Europe have been interviewed about challenges concerning internationalisation and cross innovation.

Individual vs. general challenge
The study reviews the individual challenges faced in the project cities as well as general challenges that seem to emerge everywhere. For example, in Lisbon the regional collaboration and urban projects are a strong basis, but the major challenge is to get companies to the city whilst the socio-economic situation is critical. In Linz, the network with European partners is quite strongand internationalisation strategies are established, but cross-sectoral collaboration should be strengthened.  More general obstacles addressed are for example:

  • Cultural differences and language difficulties can emerge when accessing international markets.
  • SMEs have relatively small financial resources, which causes issues for mobility and the presentation of goods and services abroad.

Download the study
To read on, please download the full study article:
Feasibility Study on SME Internationalisation (pdf)