Revista da Academia de Empreendedorismo

1528-2686

Abstrato

The Role of Business Networking to Encourage Internationalization of Small Medium Enterprises

Vania NR Rhommadhonni, Wawan Dhewanto

ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) have enlarged the opportunity for Small Medium Enterprise (SMEs) in ASEAN countries to expand their market. AEC would establish ASEAN as a single market and production base. As a single market and production base, there will be no tariff and barriers among ASEAN countries which simplify SMEs in Indonesia to enter ASEAN market. The simple strategy to enter foreign market is exporting. Indonesian SMEs have to gain their competitive advantages in order to compete with other SMEs in ASEAN countries. One of important factor in doing business is networking. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the role of entrepreneur’s capability in building business network to enter global market based on four types of SMEs in fashion industry. Qualitative approach has been conducted using observation and semi-structured interview with the entrepreneur of SMEs in fashion industry located in Indonesia. Findings from this study are; performance of export SMEs influenced by the business networking capability of entrepreneur and business networking capability of entrepreneur influenced by the entrepreneur’s personality and education background.