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Unit 11 – International Niche Strategies for small to medium enterprises (SME’s)

International Niche Strategies for SME’s
11

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

• Appreciate how niche market strategies for smaller firms are
developed

• Compare the different strategic approaches to international marketing
adopted by small to medium enterprises (SME’s)

• Understand the factors affecting the internationalisation of SME’s

• Identify the different stages of international development of SME’s.

11.1 Introduction

The European Union define SME’s as organisations with less than 250
employees. This can range from the sole trader to the more sophisticated
medium sized company. It is not a particularly good definition as 99% of

all organisations have less than 250 employees (Doole and Lowe, 2008).
What is apparent is that SME’s contribute significantly to the global

economy and realise that globalisation, liberalisation of trade policies, the
role of the WHO in reducing protectionism and the emergence of trading
blocs provide many opportunities for growth. Many SME’s in developed

countries take advantage of this new opportunity but for some small
businesses in developing countries, large organisations have manipulated

their relatively small supplier power; for example farmers. However, the
emergence of fair-trade (www.fairtrade.org) is helping smaller businesses
in developing countries to secure a fair price for their products such as

coffee, bananas, sugar and cereals. Nicholas and Opal (2005) point out
the advantages of fair-trade between large organisations and smaller

suppliers. These include:

• Direct purchasing from producers
• Long-term trading partnerships

• Cooperation not competition