The growing internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) raises issues for traditional theories

The growing internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) raises issues for traditional theories
of why firms go abroad. In these explanations (e.g., the OLI paradigm, the resource-based view) strong firm
specific advantages are needed to overcome the costs of doing business abroad, including the liability of
foreignness. SMEs, however, suffer from liabilities of newness and smallness, lacking the firm specific
resources (financial, tangible and intangible) needed to compete in foreign markets. In our paper, we provide an
alternative explanation for this conundrum. We argue that successful internationalizing SMEs have developed a
different kind of resource – an international business competence (IBC) – that explains their success at
internationalization. This IBC is based on intangible capabilities in four areas: international orientation,
international marketing skills, international innovativeness and international market orientation. These four skills
emerged from exploratory case studies with interviews of senior managers at 16 internationalized SMEs, and a
follow-up survey of 354 managers and CEOs of successful SMEs. (157 words)
Little has been written about consumer perceptions of foreign products during an international crisis. Our paper
investigates the concept of consumer animosity as applied to brands from a particular country; that is, products
that suffer from a negative country-of-origin effect. We argue that consumer animosity has two characteristics:
situational (episodic) and enduring (stable) animosity. External control and external attribution are psychological
antecedents that strengthen situational animosity. To test these arguments, adult consumers from five Asian
countries were surveyed during the Asian currency crisis about their animosity to Japanese and US products. The
survey results provide evidence that both situational and enduring animosity can significantly and negatively
affect brands from particular countries, making it difficult to sell these products in local markets. We conclude
that firms may need to lessen country of origin impacts by localizing their brands (moving production onshore)
or disassociating themselves from home country policies. (147 words)