Article Review#2

ARTICLE REVIEW ON INTERNATIONALIZATION SMES OPPORTUNITIES &LIMITATIONS IN THE 2020
AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
University logo
……..University
Department of ….
Course:
Article review entitled with :

Internationalization of SMEs: Opportunities and limitations in the age of
globalization By: Arup Sen and Kushnood haq, USA,
International business & economics research journal
Prepared by
Ashenafi Asfaw
ID……..
Submitted To
Month and.year
1
1. Citation
Author name: Arup Sen and Kushnood Haq, USA, International Business & Economics
Research. Vol 9, 2010
Article title: Internationalization of SMES: Opportunities and Limitations in the age of
globalization
2. Overview of the article
The main goal of the article as stated by the author is to identify the external relationship;
outsourcing activity and export behavior of small scale and medium sized enterprise by
adopting exploratory and descriptive research design.
The research was conducted by taking a mixture of small scale and medium sized enterprise
which are located in two cities of New York, Namely; Erie and Niagara counties. From the
two cities a total of 400 small and medium sized enterprises were taken as a sample and 25%
response rate were gained.
The sampling techniques, which is used is probability – random sampling technique. The
researcher’s didn’t give any justification for using such sampling techniques but they did list out
the total number of small scale and medium sized enterprise which exists in the two New York
cities.
Data which is relevant for the study were collected through telephone survey. As stated above a
total sample of 400 companies were taken and 100 owners of small scale and medium sized
enterprises were surveyed over the telephone. The collected telephone survey was analyzed
using descriptive statistics method mainly percentage and mean.
Comparison of the small scale and medium sized enterprise’s in terms of export characteristics ,
government assistant, outsourcing practice, results in medium scale enterprises are more export
intensive than small scale enterprise (export characteristic’s ), medium sized enterprise are also
2
found to be high level of users of government support finally medium scale enterprises has cost
saving advantages through outsourcing activities than small scale enterprises.
3. Study purpose
The researcher’s claims that the growing competition in the global market place, the
advancement of manufacturing technologies, and product life cycle being shorter have
exerted major impacts on the manufacturing industry. Small and medium sized
manufacturing firms have thus implemented various strategies to reposition their competitive
priorities.
They have support their argument with practical evidences and they have further stated that
Increasing trade deficits and other economic issues have forced United States to develop
strategies and policies to encourage small and medium-sized manufacturing firms to export
their products and services. The U.S. government has developed a variety of export stimuli
to help infrequent exporters increase the value and frequency of their shipments. These
policies have shown that the SMEs have benefited from the government export assistance
program.
The final argument presented by them is ,though Substantial research has been conducted to
identify the key influencing factors and exporting decisions of SMEs. However, small and
medium-sized firms differ in their needs and interest in their export activity, and thus it is
important to understand where on the internationalization process these firms fit.
The primary goal of the paper as stated in the article is to compare the small versus the
medium sized firms regarding external relationships and outsourcing. A further goal is to
compare the export behavior of the SMEs.
3
Research questions
 What is the awareness of government export assistance programs among small and
medium-sized firms?
 What is the level of usage of the export assistance programs among the SMEs?
 How effective are these export assistance program? Reviewed literatures
Variables
 Out sourcing
 Export characteristic’s
 Government support
3.1 Major critics in this part

 Lack of alignment between research title, purpose, research questions and
variables used
There is no doubt that there should be consistency and great alignment between research
problem/ title, research question, variables used and objective of the research. Thus three
critical problems observed in the article are articulated in the following section.
First, though the researchers provide the above claims the researcher doesn’t provide
concrete evidence to support the initial research problem. At the beginning the research title
was “internationalization of SMES, opportunities and limitations in the age of
globalization” but there were no a single point in the whole research which states the
opportunities and limitation. It clear from the title there is no alignment between the research
title and the whole paper.
Second, despite from the point another problem is also observed between research question
and objective. The objective was to compare small scale and medium sized external
relationship and out sourcing but the research questions states about awareness, usage and
cost saving from government export assistance/ support. In the objective they have state that
4
they will make a comparison among the two categories of business (small scale and medium
sized business) , there were no a single research question which were try to ask about the
comparison of this two categories’ in terms of the three variables.
The third problem observed here is lack of alignment between the research questions and the
variables used in the research. As it can be referred the research questions intended to answer
the usage level, awareness and cost saving related to government assistant. Even though the
researcher’s has three research questions it was linked only with one of the variables
(government support) which were listed in the research. The variables were government
support, export characteristics and outsourcing. The latter two variables were not mentioned
in the research questions. In the previous table
For instance in the article the researcher cite that in the article of Griffn hotel business
organization should need to implement a win back strategy to return their valuable customer
which they have lost due to poorer service. But in order to provide concrete evidence the
researcher were supposed to provide an information gap or reason why the present study is
feasible. In other words statement of the problem was supposed to be supported with
empirical evidence to show the existence of the problem in the hotel industry.
 Lack of justification for the research from practical and theoretical side was not
discussed.
 The research objective lacks clarity and it can be written in short and concrete terms.
5
4. Reviewed literatures
The researcher’s tries to review literature from both theoretical and practical side. The
literatures assessed in the article are presented below and corrections and comments are also
presented below. The good things we observe here in the literature part is most of the sources
used in this part are recent relative to the publication date of this article. This gives a clue
most of recent evidences on the recent topic is covered.
No Author name Year of Remark

publication
1 Ogram 1982 Out dated sources, greater than
2 , Lei et. al. 1992 10 years range
3 Czinkota 1993
4 Julien et.al 1994
5 Terpstra and Sarathy, 1994
6 Tapon and Thong 1999
7 Murray and Kotabe 1999
8 Hitt et al. 2000
9 Gilley and Rasheed 2000
10 Quartey, 2001
11 Alvarez and Barney, 2001 2001
12 Seget, 2002
13 Mahajar, 2005
14 DeJong and Marsili, 2006
15 Lane and Probert 2007
16 Lane and Probert 2007
17 Lane and Probert, 2007) 2007
18 (Howells et al. 2008; 2008
19 MacPherson 2009
20 Sen, 2009
4.1critics on the literature part

 variables ( government support, export chractretics and out sourcing were
not fully covered)
 doses not in line with research question , objective and the problem it self
6
 Does not show result of previous assessment (most of the empirical

literatures cited in the literature as linked with result but it was confined to
definition’s).
 Doesn’t not clearly show gaps of previous research clearly
First in the literature they were supposed to discuss the theoretical and empirical description
of the research and theoretical and empirical foundation of the variables.
Second, literature has to be a theoretical and empirical answer for the research question and
it has to be directly related with the research objective but the paper lacks this quality.
Third, most of the reviewed literatures are related to meaning and definitions and sufficient
efforts have not been exerted to the findings of previous assessment in the field.
Fourth. Since the article doesn’t clearly articulate result and comparison of previous
assessment it doesn’t clearly show major gaps of previous research and justification for
present study is not adequate.
5. Methodology
 The research adopted both exploratory and descriptive research design. Since the
researcher doesn’t try to show any correlation and causation the adopted research designs
are appropriate for the research.
 probability random sampling technique was applied
 The study was confined to small and medium sized enterprises. The researcher’s argue
that the extent of engaging external sources is much greater with SMEs as compared to
its larger counterparts, and , the strong emphasis to develop external relationships is
arguable stronger for SMEs than for their larger counterparts because SMEs contain
limited in-house knowledge and resources.
 A sample size of 400 small and medium sized enterprises were taken from a total of 992
companies. Their claim to take 400 were they justify that since their research budget
7
were limited they were not able to access for a sample more than 400. Their sample size
determination does not follow scientific method.
 Data were collected through telephone survey and response rate were 25%. The
researcher justification for using telephone survey were it was cost efficient, speed of
collecting data, and provide the opportunity of controlling the quality of information
gathered The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics such as
percentage and frequencies. The small and medium companies were taken from two
cities of newyork , Namely Erie and Niagara counties.
5.1 Critics on methodology

 Wrong sample size determination: - the researcher took 400 samples from a total of
992population, and their justifications were confined to budgetary constraint. According
to Yamane (1967) sample size determination for finite population is calculated
considering some degree of confidence and precision level. They were supposed to
follow scientific methods of sample determination to get UN biased result. The
researcher doesn’t show the necessary sampling procedure followed in order to reach the
target market.
 Un clear sampling procedures:- the sampling procedures followed to reach the

respondent have not been stated. The researcher used random sampling to select
organization but didn’t show the procedure followed to get the respondents in each
organization.
 Unacceptable response rate: - from a total of 400 respondents’ only 25% were surveyed
over the telephone, this limit the generalization of the result. They were supposed to go
on a second telephone survey to get a full response from the entire sample.
8
 Due to the variable nature of the small and medium scale enterprise, degree of variability
in export activities the researcher didn’t clearly show the background or the industry they
belong to.
6. Results and discussion

The author’s present a descriptive statistics result for comparison of small scale and medium
scale enterprises on export characteristics, government export assistance, Outsourcing.
Result for the first variable shows that medium-sized firms are significantly more export-
oriented than their smaller counterparts, analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics
(percentage).
The second analysis part shows government export assistance program (familiarity, usage
rate and effectiveness were the three factor under this variable. Accordingly medium sized
enterprise was found to have a higher percentage for the three factors.
For the third variable out sourcing the authors compares two size classes of firms with
respect to five dimensions of outsourcing. These dimensions are identifies by the
researcher’s as R&D, product development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution.
Third, outsourcing of non-core activities has increased at an accelerating pace from 10 years
ago primarily to constrain costs. The authors also state that those medium-sized firms
achieve a higher cost savings than the smaller firm probably because they have more control
and appear to manage their outsourcing relationships more efficiently.
9
6.1critics on result and discussion

 doesn’t show comparison of result with previous researches :- the author’s
doesn’t discuss major argument or similarities between the finding of present
study and findings of previous study in similar or other sectors to show
confirmation or major areas of difference.
 doesn’t achieve all the research objective /goal:- at the beginning the authors
state set after completing the paper the want to achieve export behavior, out
sourcing and export behavior. The author achieve the two objective but didn’t
achieve its goal of identifying the external relations.
 Some analysis doesn’t included in the research question:- At the beginning they
have stated three research question to answer and all the three questions are
related with government assistant ( familiarity, usage , effective ness), but in the
finding section they also assess other factors which were nor related with the
three research questions.
7. Suggestion for future study

The researcher provides the limitation from three directions. The three major limitations
pointed out by the author are: 1) sample size 2) low response rate, 3) limited geographic
scope. As we have stated the major critics in previous pages the authors are also aware of
the three limitations of the paper.
The first limitation concerns the small sample size used in this study. Data was collected
utilizing a subsample instead of the total population; the researcher justification for this is
limited budget. They claim that they could not they could not afford to survey more than
40% of the population.
10
A second weakness of the study is the low response rate of 25% which is insufficient to
provide conclusive findings. Finally, the sample was selected from two countries in Upstate
New York and thus limited in geographic scope.
Thus future researches are recommended in the area to overcome the limitation of current
study.
8. General comment on the paper
Stiff competition in domestic market, pressure from competitors and advantage gained from
internationalization are some of the drivers that push companies to go global. And mostly
large scale and giant companies like Apple are some of the few companies which market
globally, thus conducting the present study on small and large scale companies were
appropriate. However to make the generalization and to implement the result the paper hasn’t
been conducted in depth and there are some methodological limitation which limit the
accuracy of the paper.
As we discussed above though the proplem is burning issue and conducted on timely base
the research missing points. Detail of each problems of the article is pointed out in each part
of the previous pages but summery of the major critics are cleared out as follows:
 Methodological problem
 Lack of sufficient empirical review
 Lack of alignment between the research title, research objective, research question
 Lack of comparison of research findings with previous research
 Research questions does not cover all the variables
11

Article Review#2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Article Review#2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ARTICLE REVIEW ON INTERNATIONALIZATION SMES OPPORTUNITIES &LIMITATIONS IN THE 2020

Article review entitled with :

3.1 Major critics in this part

No Author name Year of Remark

4.1critics on the literature part

 Does not show result of previous assessment (most of the empirical

5.1 Critics on methodology

 Un clear sampling procedures:- the sampling procedures followed to reach the

6. Results and discussion

6.1critics on result and discussion

7. Suggestion for future study

You might also like