Internationalisation of Small Medium Sized Enterprises in Indonesia: Entrepreneur Human and Social Capital

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have played an important role both in developed and developing economies. The research on internationalisation has mainly focused on large companies, especially Multinational Companies (MNCs) and only limited studies have been conducted in internationalisation of SMEs in developing countries. In recent years, the Indonesian government has acknowledged SMEs as a key source of domestic income growth and employment creation. While SMEs have been recognised as a source of domestic income through export activity, Indonesian SMEs only play a small role compared to Large Enterprises (LEs). Indonesian SME exporters represent only 21% of non-oil and gas exports. Policies and programs to assist SMEs to internationalise must be guided by clear understanding of the dynamic nature of SMEs. This paper proposes factors that may influence Indonesian SMEs to internationalise, namely, entrepreneur human and social capital. The study will use qualitative as well as quantitative data analysis. The sample will be drawn from owner-manager manufacturing SMEs (independent, with fewer than 100 employees, and managed by owners) from selected provinces in Indonesia based on a governmental database. It will cover industries such as the garment, furniture, handicraft, leather products and footwear industries. NVivo will be used to analyse the qualitative data while statistical software will be utilised to analyse the quantitative data. This paper argues that financial assistance will be useless for SMEs without an entrepreneurial spirit.