THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

The article analyses the role knowledge plays in the internationalization process of small and medium enterprises. Small and medium enterprises are considered from a knowledge-based view, an extension of the resource-based view of the firm, with knowledge as the most strategically significant resource of a firm and the basis for building and sustaining competitive advantage in nowadays complex, dynamic environment. Knowledge may be thus viewed as an essential determinant of small and medium enterprises internationalization processes. The assigned models of small and medium enterprises internationalization refer to this role, and an examination of the different approaches allows for an integrated view of the ways in which knowledge may determine, influence and support small and medium enterprises internationalization. Small and medium enterprises internationalization strategy development implies several specific phases which are analyzed in order to identify the knowledge necessities for internationalizing small and medium enterprises. Knowledge is then object of certain knowledge processes which include knowledge acquirement, through creation or acquisition, use, handling and development, and revaluation, that are further analyzed according to their specificity related to small and medium enterprises internationalization. A special focus is placed on the process of knowledge acquirement, as the main premise of the internationalization process. These considerations are applied in the case of Romanian small and medium enterprises, providing proposals regarding possible ways of integrating knowledge in the process of internationalization and facilitating their access to knowledge.