Psykiska avståndets påverkan på internationell handel
Psychic DistanceExport PerformanceInternationalizationExport Marketing StrategyMarket Specific Experience
The global market is becoming increasingly integrated and to keep up with growing competition and to achieve even greater success, companies expand to foreign markets. Previous studies have shown that the concept of psychic distance has an important impact on international performance regarding small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The aim of our study is to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of how psychic distance influences export performance regarding Swedish SMEs. Through a single case study of a Swedish SME, we chose to research three different markets in three different continents. Our findings show that psychic distance influences export performance through export marketing strategy and active learning. Also, our study suggests that market specific experience is vital to SMEs because it reduces risk and it gives SMEs the chance to witness how the market operates. However, market specific experience seems only to be relevant if SMEs continuously obtain active learning. Finally, our research shows the importance of obtaining a small psychic distance for SMEs, and that a large psychic distance can be difficult to handle and lead to undesirable results.