Internationalising into an unfriendly environment: designing a new framework for Western Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

The sometimes unfriendly business environment in transition countries challenges Western Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) internationalising into these markets. The present paper contributes to the understanding of barriers faced by Western SMEs in transition countries by clustering these into a new comprehensive theoretical framework including financial factors, formal rules and informal constraints, as well as task related issues. This can serve as valuable guide for further analysis and is also used for specific barrier-related advices. First empirical results indicate the subjective character of barriers and the importance of financial factors.