How firms collaborate to compete internationally : An ethnographic understanding.

This thesis seeks to develop insights into the nature of inter-organisational collaborations in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as a means to expand into foreign markets and improve their international competitiveness. Its interest is in internationalisation as a growth and development process as experienced by these SMEs and in the ways in which they developed inter-organisational relationships as a way to overcome the challenges of competing internationally. The central proposition of this thesis is that it is through the dynamic processes of forming inter-organisational relationships and acquiring new knowledge through inter-organisational learning that SMEs build the capability to create a sustainable 'step change' in the internationalisation process. This thesis follows a naturalistic paradigm with the aim to provide meaningful insights and acknowledge the possibility of multiple answers to SME internationalisation problems. It is an ethnographic account of the managerial behaviours of the participating firms.Analysis of the findings reveals an emergent process that is dependent upon the comparative achievements in negotiation, commitment and execution. The focus of this process incorporates the formal, legal, and informal socio-psychological dimensions by which organisational partners jointly negotiate, commit to, and execute their relationship in ways that achieve efficient and equitable outcomes and internal solutions to conflicts when they arise. Inter-organisational learning which is acquired through inter-organisational relationships can serve as an enabling mechanism for internationalisation for SMEs. Collaborative relationships can produce a win-win learning payoff through inter-organisational learning for the participating partners. Valuable learning opportunities can emerge when different firms with differentiated, unique skills and knowledge bases are brought together. If properly managed, inter-organisational learning can produce tangible learning and performance improvements for all partners.