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Vol. 11, Nº. 1 (May-October 2020), pp. 77-97
THE IMPORTANCE OF LATIN AMERICAN SPACE
IN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PORTUGUESE SMEs
André Brás-dos-Santos
Bras_dos_santos.a@hotmail.com
PhD student in History at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (UAL, Portugal), Master in
Development and International Cooperation and Graduated in Management. Member of the
Research Center for Historical Sciences (CICH) and the Business History Research Center (CEHE)
of the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (UAL). Has been linked to Portuguese SMEs and to the
internationalization of the Portuguese companies through professional channels and academic
research. He managed a project linked to the “Rede PME Inovação” of COTEC Portugal, was
present in several business missions through the Association of Portugal-China Young
Entrepreneurs, and was a consultant in the agro-industrial sector.
Joaquim Ramos Silva
jrsilva@iseg.ulisboa.pt
Full Professor, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). PhD
in “Analyse et Politique Économiques” by the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales,
Paris. Member of the SOCIUS/CSG – Research in Social Sciences and Management, a FCT Center.
His research has focused on several topics of international economics and has conducted studies
on the global, European, Portuguese and Brazilian economies with an emphasis on the
internationalization process of companies and in the development and foundations of economic
relations between Portugal and Brazil. Author of numerous publications, including books, book
chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals, among others, in Tourism Management, Business
Process Management Journal, Journal of Business Economics and Management, Journal of
Enterprise Information Management, Marine Policy and Technological Forecasting and Social
Change.
Abstract
In the light of the transformation undergone in the last decade by the Portuguese economy,
the internationalization of Portuguese companies through exports had a considerable growth,
reducing the importance of domestic demand as the main variable in the contribution to GDP,
this work addresses the role of SMEs in this process, analyzing the case of their
internationalization to the Latin American space. The study is based on an empirical analysis
of data resulting from a survey conducted in 2014, period where the transformation became
clear, through the responses of 50 internationalized Portuguese SMEs to Latin America, which
have been validated. Also, and with a focus on this research, the process was correlated with
the relevant theories of internationalization, paving the way for more in-depth and
methodologically based studies on this relationship with significant potential, but still little
analyzed in the context of the Portuguese economy.
Keywords
SMEs, Latin America, Portuguese internationalization, Exports, FDI
How to cite this article
Brás-dos-Santos, André; Silva, Joaquim Ramos (2020). "The importance of Latin American
space in the internationalization of Portuguese SMEs". JANUS.NET e-journal of International
Relations, Vol. 11, N.º 1, May-October 2020. Consulted [online] on the date of the last visit,
https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.11.1.6
Article received on August 7, 2019 and accepted for publication on March 10, 2020
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The importance of Latin American space in the internationalization of Portuguese SMEs
André Brás-dos-Santos; Joaquim Ramos Silva
78
THE IMPORTANCE OF LATIN AMERICAN SPACE
IN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PORTUGUESE SMEs
André Brás-dos-Santos
Joaquim Ramos Silva
1. Introduction
The last decade presented a set of profound changes in the Portuguese economy,
especially considering the two most negative milestones of its recent economic history:
the impact of the global economic crisis triggered in 2007-08 and the subsequent rescue
request to the IMF in 2011. It should be noted that the Portuguese gross domestic
product (GDP) showed a recession in the period 2010–2015 with an annual rate close to
-1%
1
. Indeed, the country's economic growth was then in counter-cycle with the recovery
seen in most European countries, which showed a modest but effective average growth
rate of 0.6% in the same period. However, as of 2014, Portuguese GDP gradually
resumed growth, especially for the years 2016-2018 (respectively, 1.9%; 2.8%; 2.2%),
even surpassing, after a long period of non-convergence, the average GDP growth rate
of the European Union
2
.
Although the changes in the Portuguese economy were not confined to the external
sector, the process of the last decade was accompanied by important shifts at this level.
Thus, the country's current account registered a turnaround in its performance insofar
until the end of the first decade of the XXI century it was clearly in deficit (even reaching
10.2% of GDP in 2010), unraveling an economic model based on the expansion of
domestic demand boosted by imports. Just after, as of 2013, the Portuguese economy
showed a surplus in the current account (which represented 1.6% of GDP in 2013)
3
,
showing a shift towards a growth model more supported by an internationalization of
firms and activities. Moreover, from 2013 to 2017, the current account registered 5
consecutive years with a surplus, respectively, as a percentage of GDP, of 1.6%; 0.1%;
0.1%; 0.6%; 0.5%
4
, numerical values with little significance, but striking from the point
of view of the historical trend. It is true that in 2013-14, this surplus may also have
resulted from the fall in imports caused by the recession and the policy measures
associated to overcome it, but its persistence over a wider period and in quite different
economic situations can create conditions for more structural changes.
It is important to note that, in light of the experience of the last decades, and towards
an approximation to the existing model in European economies of comparable size, the
change in the current account (which, incidentally, could be illustrated at other levels of
1
Source: UNCTAD database 2018 (Gross domestic product: Total and per capita, growth rates, annual,
1970-2016).
2
Source: Pordata – 2019.
3
Source: UNCTAD database 2018 (Balance of payments, Current account balance, annual, 1980-2016).
4
Source: Pordata – 2019.
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external accounts, such as the goods and services account that also substantially
improved its balance, or the financial balance; Silva, 2019: 72-3) was one of the main
transformations of the Portuguese economy in the period under analysis. However, only
the future can tell us if this is a strategic turning point leading to a consistent reduction
in the importance of the traditional external constraints of the Portuguese economy. On
the other hand, this process led to an increase in the internationalization of Portuguese
companies induced by cyclical factors such as the lack of internal stimuli, in particular
subsequent to the strong fall in domestic demand in the years 2011-2013, corresponding
to -5.5%, -7.3%, -2.5%
,
respectively in terms of homologous change (Table 1), and the
lack of credit that has lately affected the companies, with emphasis on the Small and
Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
5
. In this regard, it was highlighted how “the estimates
on the extensive and intensive margin suggest that a significant fraction of Portuguese
SMEs was affected by financing restrictions. The results also suggest that smaller and
younger companies were the most affected” (Farinha and Félix, 2014: 16).
Table 1 – Portuguese Economic Indicators 2010-2018: annual change in domestic demand and
exports
Source: Banco de Portugal Spring Economic Bulletin, years 2010-2018 and Pordata, handled by
the authors themselves.
Bearing in mind the objectives of this article, starting from what was previously
mentioned, it is necessary to go further in the study of the internationalization of the
Portuguese economy and firms, focusing on the case of SMEs, which are a fundamental
pillar of the Portuguese enterprise structure (Table 2). Without wishing to underestimate
the role and potential of large companies or the diversity within SMEs, it is important to
emphasize that internationalization has a great impact on the economic performance of
these companies, namely in the introduction of new products and services in the sectors
where they operate, as well as internationalized SMEs are more likely to internalize active
innovation processes, compared to those that only operate in the domestic market
(European Commission, 2010).
Table 2 – Structure of SMEs and Large Companies in the Portuguese Non-financial Sector
Source: INE - Business statistics 2016 and treated by the authors themselves.
This work also aims to enlarge the research that has been carried out on the
internationalization of Portuguese companies. In particular, we analyze here its
orientation towards Latin American countries (focusing on the case of Ibero-American
5
We consider SMEs according to the European definition included in the Commission's recommendation
2003/361, which considers companies with less than 250 employees, a turnover of less than 50 million
euros, a total balance sheet of less than 43 million euros; for a more detailed overview of the importance
of SMEs in Portugal, see Silva and Simões, 2012: 824.
Number of Enterprises % Workers (Nr.) % GVA (millions €) %
SME 1 195 064 99.9% 2 957 309 79.8% 54 265 63.5%
Big Enterprises 1 038 0.1% 747 431 20.2% 31 145 36.5%
Total 1 196 102 3 704 740 85 410
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countries),
6
not only because it is a close space in linguistic and historical terms to
Portugal, but also because there was an increase in the economic potential of this region
since the beginning of the century, opening up new opportunities for business.
Consequently, and although Latin American countries are far from homogeneous (Graph
1), these markets may be important for Portuguese companies, especially SMEs, and in
general for the Portuguese economy in search for a greater diversification of its external
relations.
Graph 1- Latin American Countries: Growth trends, 2009-2017 (Rate of
year-on-year change in quarterly GDP between the 1st trimester 2009 and the 1st trimester 2017)
Source: CEPAL – Panorama Económico y Social de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y
Caribeños, 2017.
We thus seek to bring a new angle to the research on the internationalization of
Portuguese SMEs, knowing that there is a scarcity of studies aiming at the analysis of the
external economic relations of Portugal with the Latin American space (Silva, 2008),
especially if we exclude Brazil, as well as its results are still little known. For the
construction and validation of this study, we started from a set of questions: What are
the main difficulties and requirements faced by companies when entering these markets?
What internationalization process did they follow? What types of support did they have
and how do they evaluate them? In terms of methodology, our work is based on the
analysis of statistical series, but above all it is based on a direct survey carried out in
2014 to a significant group of Portuguese SMEs that have internationalized to Latin
American markets, thus reinforcing the study of the transition process towards greater
internationalization of the Portuguese economy through a relevant empirical basis.
Taking into account the features of the Portuguese economy up to the mid-2010s that
we have presented above, particularly in terms of its external relations, and the
objectives of this research, related to the internationalization of Portuguese companies,
more accurately of SMEs to Latin America, several sections compose the article. In
Section 2, we present a brief theoretical framework, exposing the main theories related
to international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), which are relevant in our
context. In Section 3, we address the issue of the Ibero-American Space, considering
these nations as a whole, and the integration frameworks in which they are involved, in
6
The issue will be detailed below, in Section 3. Considering that the problems related to the economic
relations between Portugal and Spain have a very different context compared to that of American
counterparts, accordingly, Spain will not be considered for the purposes of the central theme of this work,
therefore, we will only address its case, in the context of the Iberian integration process in the European
Community, and within the subsequent steps that were taken with a view to Ibero-American integration,
insofar as these processes (economic integration) are relevant in the context of relations between Portugal
and Latin American countries.
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particular that of the European Union for Portugal and Spain, an important vector, since
it regulates a large part of the transactions under study. Section 4 is essential within the
scope of this article, as it presents the survey carried out on Portuguese SMEs in their
internationalization to Latin America, refers to the methodology that was followed, shows
the results that were achieved, commenting on them and extracting a first set of
conclusions about the process. Finally, Section 5 summarizes the main conclusions and
raises some issues for further research.
2. Theoretical Framework
Considering the importance that internationalization processes have assumed in recent
decades for most economies, it is necessary to present the theories that explain them,
in particular with regard to its most significant flows and of greatest impact: international
trade and foreign direct investment. This is what we do now, in an abbreviated manner
and focusing on the essential.
Basically, according to the main theories on trade, the internationalization of economies
goes through a process that leads to their specialization in certain products, based on
the advantages that the country has, creating conditions for the exchange between
commercial partners, through a greater efficiency that leads to an increase in output
(with the same level of resources) to be shared. This approach was central to the classical
authors of economic science, namely Adam Smith in his work Wealth of Nations (1776)
whose lens used what would become known as the Theory of Absolute Advantages.
According to Smith, countries should specialize according to their lower cost production
(measured by labor cost, the only factor of production considered by these authors).
However, considering two countries, this theory states that if one of them had lower costs
in all relevant productions, it would have no interest in doing trade with the other and
there would be no international specialization. David Ricardo will overcome this limitation
in his reference work Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), through the
Theory of Comparative Advantages, which reformulates the question in other terms
justifying trade even if one of the countries had all the absolute cost advantages in the
production of goods. Rather, countries should specialize in products that have the lowest
relative (and not absolute) cost, focusing on what they did most efficiently and opening
up a wider space for international trade based on specialization with mutual benefits for
the parties involved. Later, John Stuart Mill completed the contribution of the classical
authors, drawing attention to the Law of Reciprocal Demand, that is, the exchange ratio
is dependent on the reciprocal strength of the demands of each country in each product.
Although it is not the aim of this article to analyze the issue in depth, naturally, the
positions of the classical authors have been subject to much criticism over the past two
centuries; for example, specializing in one or another type of goods can have completely
different consequences in the long run (for illustrative purposes, see that certain products
correspond to a logic of increasing returns while others are in a decreasing returns drive,
that is, in the long run the specialization process led to its ultimate consequences, may
produce completely different results, i.e., unequal, as it was stressed by many authors,
such as Reinert, 2007). In any case, classical theories remained a major benchmark for
the internationalization process, both in terms of analysis and economic policy, although
many of its initial assumptions have also been relaxed and/or changed.
On the path opened by the classical authors, one of the main developments was the
emergence of the neoclassical theory of international trade during the first half of the XX
century, well exemplified by the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem, which later had several
extensions. These authors gave up one of the basic classical hypotheses, considering two
factors of production, capital and labor, explaining the international specialization by the
endowment of each country in these factors. In the case of a greater abundance of one
factor (for example labor) relative to the other, the country should specialize in goods
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intensive in that factor, insofar as, having a cost advantage determined by its abundance,
it was competitive (Santos, 2014).
Obviously, it is not our intention to present here in detail the development of these
theories and all the reformulations and critiques they have originated (which still prevail
in most international economics textbooks), but to show how the theories of
internationalization of economies and companies follow certain rules and principles,
which are essential for their good understanding. The same is also true for the case of
foreign direct investment, which has gained much prominence in recent decades.
Theories about capital movements, including FDI, developed later, as the classical
authors postulated the international immobility of this factor. This premise was accepted
for a long time, although this did not correspond entirely to the observed facts, even in
the most remote times. Thus, it was only since the 60s and 70s of the last century that
the theories on international capital movements emerged in a clear and autonomous way
and proved to be adherent to the flows actually registered (which are in fact very diverse
in nature from the financial ones to loans and direct investment). Within the scope of our
research and given its importance for a sustainable internationalization process of
companies, we will focus on two theories about FDI: the OLI (or Eclectic) Paradigm
formulated by John Dunning and the contribution of the Nordic School of Business.
The OLI Paradigm is a model developed by John Dunning during the 1970s, having been
the subject of constant reflection by the author between the 1970s and the beginning of
the XXI century (Dunning, 2000, 2001), which led to important adjustments and
clarifications. The term Eclectic comes from the fact that this Paradigm is based in a
combined manner on the three main areas in which FDI can be envisaged: the ownership
advantages (Ownership Advantages - O) that already exist in companies, or that may be
enhanced in their international expansion; the localization advantages (Localization
Advantages - L) that countries or international markets can offer with respect to moving
assets (for example, advantages arising from human or natural resources they have);
and the internalization advantages (Internalization Advantages - I), that correspond to a
trend of companies that have specific ownership advantages with the possibility of
combining the assets they have in different foreign markets, without going directly
through the market. Despite its eclecticism, in the author's view, this paradigm has some
limitations, firstly its focus is on multinational companies, and secondly because the
paradigm is limited to the interdependence of its OLI variables (Santos, 2014).
In this sense, there is another theoretical approach relevant to our study, especially with
regard to the internationalization of SMEs. The Nordic School of Business or Uppsala
School that sought to model the internationalization process of Swedish companies in the
1970s, concluding that it is based more on a gradual sequence (Johanson and Vahlne,
1977, 1990; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975). Thus, the internationalization
strategy of companies may have more or less steps, including “leaps” in their more likely
sequence during the internationalization process (Silva, 2002a: 61), recognizing,
however, that the main phases are: export, export agents, sales subsidiary, and
production subsidiary (Johanson and Vahlne 1990; Santos, 2014). According to this
model, in the initial stage of the internationalization process, basically characterized by
exports, companies tend to do business with countries or markets with a shorter "psychic
distance”
7
. In the most advanced stages of the internationalization process, especially in
the installation of a production branch, psychic distance is no longer such a determining
factor in companies' FDI strategy, rather, factors such as the size of the market, or its
specificities, with regard to the perceived attractiveness for FDI, which may be associated
7
The concept of psychic distance was developed by Vahlne and Wiedersheim-Paul in 1973, in a work in their
original language and later developed in other works such as in Hállen and Wiedersheim-Paul (1979). It is
the sum of all factors (language, culture, qualifications, political systems, history, corporate culture) that
can cause entropy in the communication, circulation and analysis of information between countries, markets
and companies, as there are deeper differences between the country of origin and the country receiving the
FDI.
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with factors such as customs tariffs, insertion in large economic areas, transportation
costs, or domestic purchasing power (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, 1990; Johanson and
Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975).
Regarding SMEs, and in contrast to the critique that was previously addressed to the OLI
Paradigm (designed with big companies in mind, with vast resources, for example, with
property advantages that allow important gains in imperfect competition, or with
internalization advantages through their many branches around the world), the model of
the Nordic Business School is based on a theory that supports an explanatory model,
which takes into account the size and resources of SMEs, especially in the initial process
of their internationalization (Johanson and Vahlne, 1990).
More recently Johanson and Vahlne (2009) reflecting on the Uppsala School model,
highlighted the role of the Networks in the internationalization process, where companies
within the network benefit from a privileged context of communication and
interconnection, creating relationships in which learning and knowledge, business
opportunities, and synergies in the internationalization process, are shared (Raposo et
al., 2004). Taken as a whole, Johanson and Vahlne (2009) point us to yet another gap
to be filled in the initial model:
When we built our original model, we were not aware of the
importance of mutual commitment for internationalization. Now, our
vision is that successful internationalization requires a reciprocal
commitment between the company and its counterparts (Johanson
& Vahlne, 1990; Vahlne & Johanson, 2002) (Johanson and Vahlne,
2009: 1414).
To conclude this section, it should also be noted that recent empirical work has
contributed to clarify important theoretical issues related to the substance of our
research, i.e., international economic relations between countries with some degree of
cultural proximity in the broad sense. For example, gravitational models that initially
sought to explain international trade and investment by factors of a physical nature such
as geographical distance or else by the value of production, measured by the size of GDP
(Cechella et al., 2009: Cechella et al., 2012), showed limitations leading to the conclusion
that this type of influences is not as important today as it was in the past or was thought
to be (Eichengreen and Irwin, 1998), while factors such as language and historical and
institutional proximity have been gaining relevance having a role that should not be
underestimated in any way (Silva, 2005; Costa, 2005, Cechella et al., 2014). In addition
to other aspects, these considerations imply that the explanation of international flows
must also take into account the contribution of other scientific areas, such as history,
political science and international relations that study facts and dimensions that influence
many economic ties and partnerships that are established on a global scale.
3. The Ibero-American Market
3.1. The Socioeconomic nature
The Ibero-American Space is an important cultural and economic space that brings
together twenty-two states, nineteen on the American continent, being: Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay,
and Venezuela, plus the three states that make up the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Spain,
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and Portugal, with two languages of Latin origin - Portuguese and Castilian
8
. The
population of this space corresponds to about 9% of the world population, with an
expected increase of approximately 90% in the period from 1990 to 2030, from 477
million inhabitants to 748 million inhabitants. Being that it is subdivided into a ratio of
33.33% of the population of Portuguese-speaking countries, and 66.67% of the
population of Spanish-speaking countries, with a trend towards a slight increase in the
weight of the population of this language, because it has grown at a higher rate (Table
3).
Table 3 - Ibero-American Population *
* It includes all the countries in this space, located on the Iberian Peninsula or on the American
continent.
Source: UNCTADSTAT and handled by the authors themselves.
With regard to the economy of the Ibero-American Space, we can divide it into three
economic regions: Iberian countries, South American countries, and Central American
and Caribbean countries. The economic space as a whole showed a constant growth in
GDP and GDPpc in the two decades of 1990 and 2000, with the respective global GDP
growth of 34% and 33%. In the decade that started in 2010, however, there was a
slowdown of GDP within this space, with a similar impact on GDPpc as well as a reduction
of its share in terms of world output (Table 4).
Table 4 - Macroeconomic Data for the Ibero-American Space (GDP and GDPpc at constant 2010
prices)*
* Data include all the countries in this space, located in the Iberian Peninsula or the American
continent.
Source: UNCTADSTAT and handled by the authors themselves.
3.2. Ibero-American market analysis
The nature of the market in the three regions that make up the area is somewhat
different, especially between the American countries and the states that make up the
Iberian Peninsula. For the former, we can identify that there is a greater emphasis on
primary and extraction activities, as well as on construction, which reveals the relative
gap in the development of these regions, where the need to build infrastructure to
support economic activities is evident. Comparing with Portugal, we also note that in the
American Regions there is a much lower weight of manufacturing industries. These are
some of the conclusions that we can draw through a careful reading of Graphs 2 to 4.
8
As stated on the website of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, https://mandatos.segib.org/pt-br
[Consulted on 18/02/2019].
Years 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
Total Ibero-American population (thousands) 477305 517790 556790 595009 632762 666003 697079 724788 748964
Percentage of the total population 8.95% 9.0% 9.06% 9.09% 9.09% 9.02% 8.94% 8.85% 8.75%
Portuguese-speaking countries as% of population 33.37% 33.30% 33.34% 33.19% 32.78% 32.49% 32.15% 31.79% 31.42%
Castilian-speaking countries in% of population 66.63% 66.70% 66.66% 66.81% 67.22% 67.51% 67.85% 68.21% 68.58%
Years 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Total GDP of the Ibero-American space (Thousands of dollars) 3827668 4392883 5132076 5863994 6831409 7043932 7147801 7280569 7359376 7386739 7339087 7433036
Growth rate (%) 14.77% 16.83% 14.26% 16.50% 3.11% 1.47% 1.86% 1.08% 0.37% -0.65% 1.28%
Percentage in relation to World GDP 10.06% 10.40% 10.25% 10.07% 10.33% 10.32% 10.22% 10.15% 9.98% 9.74% 9.45% 9.29%
GDP pc of the Ibero-American space (dollars) 7238 7631 8614 8907 9508 9690 9809 9948 10109 10274 10403 10604
GDP pc ratio of Ibero-American / World 1.014 1.039 1.057 1.070 1.049 1.043 1.039 1.043 1.044 1.042 1.032 1.024
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Graph 2 - Distribution of Portuguese Economy Activities by Product - Year 2016
Source: PORDATA - 2019. Edited by the authors.
Graph 3 - Distribution of Economic Activities in Latin American countries by Product - Year 2017
Source: ECLAC - Latin American and Caribbean Yearbook, 2018. Edited by the authors.
Graph 4 - Distribution of Economic Activities in Caribbean Countries by Product - Year 2018
Source: ECLAC - Latin American and Caribbean Yearbook, 2018. Edited by the authors.
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According to what we referred to in the theoretical part, and analyzing the distribution of
production in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean it can be concluded that
they have a strong endowment in natural resources, so it is not surprising that their
exports have a significant weight of products associated with raw materials, which makes
them very sensitive to fluctuations in their prices in international markets. For example,
the fall in the price of commodities in the mid-2010s was one of the factors that most
contributed to the poor economic performance in several countries in the region,
compared to the first decade of the XXI century.
3.3. International Cooperation in the Ibero-American Space
The integration process of the Ibero-American Space has several levels, since it is
subdivided by the set of international cooperation relations between states. Portugal and
Spain are on a higher level of integration, since they belong to the European Community
(since 1986), the European Union (since 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty), and the
Monetary Union (since 1999), making them partners for excellence with regard to most
of the international community policies, constituting in particular an important factor for
the development of the process of rapprochement between the European Union and the
Latin American countries (Trein and Guerra Cavalcanti, 2007). Indeed, the strong links
of the two Iberian countries to Latin America are one of the aspects that most value their
position in the European context. It is not surprising that the I Ibero-American Summit
9
was held in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1991, taking the first step in the process of integrating
the Ibero-American Space in its entirety, just a few years after Portugal and Spain joined
the European Community.
For its part, the Latin American Market is distinct from the point of view of the cooperation
and integration of the Regions of Central America and the Caribbean, and of South
America. We will now highlight the two most relevant cases from this point of view. In
1991, the Mercosur Treaty was signed, originally by four countries in South America:
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and later in 2012 Venezuela also joined,
appearing with the objective of promoting an integration logic, aiming at an enlarged and
deeper common market, that serves as a platform for the participation of these states in
the global market under more favorable conditions (Diz and Luquini, 2011; Kegel e Amal,
2013). More recently in 2012, the Pacific Alliance was created, “composed by Colombia,
Peru, Chile and Mexico, which brings together countries with very close international
patterns, guided by trade liberalization and the signing of free trade agreements with
developed and developing countries” (Bressan and Luciano, 2018: 74).
Regarding institutional relations between the European Union and Latin America,
reference should also be made to the “signing of the Interregional Agreement between
the EU and Mercosur, with the aim of covering trade and economic issues, cooperation
on integration and other areas of mutual interest, in order to strengthen relations
between the two regions” (Santos, 2014: 24)
10
. However, and according to Diz and
Luquini (2011), there has not been a great evolution in the integration of these two
spaces, and over the past two decades there were some advances, but numerous
obstacles to the process were also raised. However, and more recently, the European
Union and Mercosur signed a new agreement on 28 June 2019, which could lead to deeper
economic integration between these two spaces, that is, as reported, “today they reached
a political agreement with a view to an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive trade
9
XXVI Summits (Cumbres) have been held so far, and the Ibero-American Cooperation Secretariat was
established at the IX Summit in Havana, Cuba in 1999 (SECIB). Organ that stipulates the true institutionality
of the Ibero-American system (Freres, 2005).
10
Interregional Agreement signed in 1995, however, it was only approved by the Council of European Ministers
in 1999.
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agreement. The new commercial framework — which is part of a wider association
agreement between the two regions — will consolidate a strategic partnership at the
political and economic level and create important sustainable growth opportunities for
both parties”
11
. Regardless of this step forward, it should be remembered that the process
leading to a greater degree of free trade between the EU and Mercosur was launched in
the 1990s and the results to date have been scant,
12
so the new agreement must be
monitored with caution, especially since important doubts persist about its
implementation from both sides.
3.4. Portugal and the Latin American market
It is also necessary to make a brief analysis of the economic relations between Portugal
and the Latin American countries.
As we have already mentioned, exports have recently been determinant for the
development of the Portuguese economy, the country has been experiencing a
consolidated growth where we can see that the weight of exports in relation to Portuguese
GDP grew significantly. Table 1 showed that in 2010, the weight of exports (goods and
services) in GDP was 30.1%, and that, in 2018, it was expected to reach a value of
43.3% of GDP, which corresponds to an effective transformation of the Portuguese
tradable economy. With regard to the exports of goods (those that have the greatest
weight in the group), they present some diversification of the products supplied by the
industry, since there is not an excessive concentration in one or two main products. Thus,
we can identify the main products exported by Portugal in 2017, as a percentage of total
exports: Refined Petroleum Products (4.7%), Motor Vehicles (4.2%), Automotive
Components (4.1%), Leather Shoes (3.5%), Uncoated Paper (1.9%), Tire Rubber
(1.8%), Packaged Medicines (1.7%), Seats (1.7%), Knitted Sweaters (1.4%), Wine
(1.4%). These ten products are equivalent to about 26.4% of total Portuguese exports.
13
Looking now at exports to the Latin American market, we find that this space does not
have a large weight in the total of Portuguese exports, having varied between 3.1% and
4% in the last decade (Graph 5). On the other hand, and according to Table 5, in the
region, the main destination countries for Portuguese exports are: Brazil with a weight
between 1.26% and 1.73%; Mexico between 0.65% and 0.97%; Argentina between
0.15% and 0.36%; Chile between 0.18% and 0.27%; Colombia, which grew in this
decade from 0.06% in 2010 to 0.18% in 2016; finally, Venezuela, a country where a vast
community of the Portuguese diaspora lives, but that, in recent years, has been going
through a deep economic crisis, with direct repercussions on Portuguese exports. Indeed,
we can see that Venezuela absorbed 0.64% of national exports in 2013, and that it does
not go beyond 0.02% in 2017. Despite the fact that the Ibero-American market does not
have a very significant weight in Portuguese exports, it should not be neglected, quite
the opposite, as it is a market that allows an expansion of Portuguese foreign trade. Due
to its Latin linguistic and cultural proximity, including migration movements, whose
influence we have referred to in the theoretical part, but also to the size and potential of
the market itself, both factors put Latin American countries as an important space in
future Portuguese internationalization strategies.
11
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/pt/ip_19_3396 [Consulted on 12/07/2019]
12
For an analysis of the initial phase of this process and the main problems that arose since its very beginning,
as well as its permanence and difficult resolution, see for a broader development chap. 3 of Silva, 2002b:
161-202.
13
According to the data collected from Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) -
https://atlas.media.mit.edu/pt/profile/country/prt/ [Consulted on 08/04/2019].
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Graph 5 – Weight of the Ibero-American Space in Total Portuguese Exports from 2010 to 2017
Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) – 2019. Edited by the authors.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning the example of Spain, which is currently the main
foreign market of Portugal with a share from 1/4 to 1/5 of national exports (Graph 5)
because in the last 50 years this bilateral trade witnessed a radical transformation. In
1968, Spain represented no more than 1.5% of Portuguese exports, only having a
significant weight after the EEC membership, in 1986, in the year of 1988 the neighboring
country reached a weight of 11.2% and in 1991 of 14.9% (Silva, 1993: 182). This
example demonstrates that economic relations between states are not static, and that
often depend on internationalization strategies and institutional relations between
countries, hence we consider that just like the Spanish case in the last half century, the
Ibero-American market may come to play an important role in future Portuguese
internationalization strategies, with important effects in terms of the orientation of
companies and their preparation.
Table 5 – Portuguese Exports to the Latin American Space (as a percentage of total Portuguese
exports).
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Spain
23%
23%
20%
21%
21%
22%
22%
21%
Latin-America
3.5%
3.4%
3.9%
4%
4%
3.7%
3.1%
3.7%
Argentina
0.20%
0.15%
0.19%
0.36%
0.18%
0.32%
0.16%
0.23%
Bolivia
0.004%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.02%
0.03%
0.01%
0.02%
Brazil
1.26%
1.46%
1.7%
1.69%
1.73%
1.45%
1.18%
1.68%
Chile
0.29%
0.21%
0.22%
0.18%
0.23%
0.23%
0.25%
0.26%
Colombia
0.06%
0.09%
0.13%
0.10%
0.16%
0.16%
0.18%
0.12%
Costa Rica
0.03%
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
0.03%
0.03%
0.01%
Cuba
0.05%
0.05%
0.10%
0.07%
0.07%
0.09%
0.09%
0.08%
Dominican Republic
0.02%
0.02%
0.03%
0.03%
0.03%
0.04%
0.04%
0.05%
Ecuador
0.03%
0.03%
0.03%
0.07%
0.05%
0.1%
0.07%
0.04%
El Salvador
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
0.03%
0.03%
0.02%
0.03%
Guatemala
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.02%
0.02%
0.04%
0.03%
0.03%
Honduras
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
Mexico
0.97%
0.88%
0.64%
0.61%
0.75%
0.70%
0.71%
0.94%
Nicaragua
0.002%
0.002%
0.005%
0.004%
0.004%
0.005%
0.004%
0.01%
Panama
0.018%
0.02%
0.04%
0.03%
0.04%
0.04%
0.04%
0.04%
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Paraguay
0.005%
0.04%
0.05%
0.06%
0.046%
0.03%
0.03%
0.04%
Peru
0.06%
0.06%
0.08%
0.08%
0.08%
0.1%
0.08%
0.08%
Uruguay
0.02%
0.02%
0.03%
0.04%
0.09%
0.03%
0.02%
0.02%
Venezuela
0.44%
0.30%
0.59%
0.64%
0.44%
0.27%
0.15%
0.02%
Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) – 2019. Edited by the authors.
4. Analysis of the Internationalization of Portuguese SMEs to the Latin
American Space
4.1. The empirical survey and its methodology
As part of this work, in June 2014, a survey was carried out on Portuguese SMEs, in order
to characterize their internationalization process for Latin America, which results are
presented and analyzed in this section. We started from a database of SMEs and
exporters to Latin American countries of 5872 companies as the universe of the study.
This total was reached by joining a list of excellence SMEs in the year 2013 from IAPMEI
with 3920 companies, and a database of companies exporting to the Central and South
American markets of AICEP with 1952 companies. In the development of the research,
we also counted on the precious help of business associations that participated in the
survey and disclosed it to their associates.
We obtained responses from 107 companies, corresponding to 1.8% of the universe's
population, of which 50 questionnaires were validated within the parameters of the study
(0.85% of the population), for being SMEs according to the criteria mentioned above and
for being internationalized to Latin America.
The survey was divided into four categories of questions: I - Company data, II - Export
profile of the SME, III - Outline of the international investment profile of the SME, IV-
Outline of the internationalization process and assessment of the institutional role. In
preparing the inquiry, we took as a base the survey prepared by Simões (2010), and
adapted to the study of SMEs by Silva and Simões (2012), which was complemented with
new questions, aimed at obtaining data on the assessment of organizations, following
the methodologies of Hill and Hill (2008) and Manheim et al. (2007). SPSS (version 22)
was also used to perform tabulation, coding and analysis of information, based on a
descriptive analysis of frequencies.
4.2. Outline of the profile of SMEs and their internationalization
Most of the companies that compose the sample come from 5 districts of the coast of
Portugal (Porto, Aveiro, Lisbon, Leiria and Setúbal), which correspond to 76% of the
total. Most of these companies are connected to the manufacturing industries, 64%, and
most companies have an equity capital over 100 thousand euros, 69.4%. From the point
of view of jobs, we identified that 88% of the SMEs surveyed have more than 10 workers.
We could also observe that in the international activity, 70% of the companies are
orientated to export, 16% export and make direct investment, and that 14% maintain
another type of international activity, such as partnerships.
From the point of view of consolidating the internationalization of companies, the results
of the survey show that two thirds have had international activity for more than ten
years, i.e., 66%. Regarding the importance of international activity in the invoicing of
companies, we found that the weight was greater than 50% of the total in 40% of the
sample, and between 25 to 50% of the total in 23% of the sample. Regarding the type
of presence in the countries to which they export, through Table 6, we can see that the
most frequent way is the "direct approach to the customer" (28%), followed by 'no
presence' (8%), the existence of an 'agent' (8%), and a 'network of distributors” (8%).
Table 6 – Types of External Presence
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Types of Presence
Frequency
Percentage
Cumulative
percentage
Direct Customer Approach
14
28%
28%
No presence
4
8%
36%
Agent
4
8%
44%
Distributor Network
4
8%
52%
Agent and Direct Customer Approach
3
6%
58%
Agent Network, Direct Customer Approach
3
6%
64%
Distributor Network, Direct Customer Approach
3
6%
70%
Agent, Agent Network, Distributor Network
2
4%
74%
Subsidiary / Branch
2
4%
78%
Agent, Agent Network, Direct Customer Approach
1
2%
80%
Agent, Agent Network, Distributor Network, Direct Customer
Approach
1
2%
82%
Agent, Distributor Network
1
2%
84%
Agent, Distributor Network, Direct Customer Approach
1
2%
86%
Agent, Distributor Network, Subsidiary / Branch
1
2%
88%
Agent, Distributor Network, Subsidiary / Branch, Direct
Customer Approach
1
2%
90%
Subsidiary / Branch, Direct Customer Approach
1
2%
92%
Displaced service provision
1
2%
94%
Agent Network
1
2%
96%
Agent Network, Distributor Network, Direct Customer
Approach
1
2%
98%
Tourism
1
2%
100%
Total
50
100%
Respecting the (export) activities that have already been carried out, it was found that
the country most mentioned by companies was Brazil (31% of the mentions), followed
by Colombia (16%), Mexico (12%), Chile (10%), Argentina (7%), and Uruguay (7%),
and they still export irregularly to ten other countries and seven others are not even
mentioned (Table 7). However, we found that 47% of the companies expressed interest
in exporting in the future to Latin America, with special relevance to Colombia (13%),
Brazil (10%) and Mexico (8%) (Table 8).
Table 7 - Latin American Countries to which they Export?
Country
Total Mentions
1st Position
2nd Position
3rd Position
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Brasil
18
31%
16
57%
1
5%
1
8%
Colombia
9
16%
2
7%
4
18%
3
23%
Mexico
7
12%
4
14%
2
9%
1
8%
Chile
6
10%
4
14%
1
5%
1
8%
Argentina
4
7%
1
4%
2
9%
1
8%
Uruguay
4
7%
0
0%
2
9%
2
15%
Honduras
2
3%
0
0%
2
9%
0
0%
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Country
Total Mentions
1st Position
2nd Position
3rd Position
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Peru
2
3%
0
0%
1
5%
1
8%
Venezuela
2
3%
0
0%
1
5%
1
8%
Costa Rica
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
1
8%
El Salvador
1
2%
1
4%
0
0%
0
0%
Panama
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
Paraguay
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
1
8%
Bolivia
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Cuba
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Ecuador
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Guatemala
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Haiti
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Nicaragua
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Dominican Republic
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
Total Validated
58
100%
28
100%
17
77%
13
100%
Others without indication
15
5
15%
5
23%
5
28%
Total
73
33
22
18
Jamaica
1
0
Guyana
1
From the point of view of FDI, we note that its importance is reduced when compared to
exports. In this sense, only 46% companies of the sample responded to the survey, but
we were still able to identify the following: 65% of these companies hold FDI in Latin
America for less than 2 years. The weight of these investments is still low as for 44% of
respondents it is less than 5% of the billing, and with an accumulated value of 88% of
companies where the weight is less than 25% of the billing. In terms of the countries
receiving FDI, out of the 20 possible, it appears that only 8 countries attracted direct
investment by the companies surveyed, where Brazil stands out (22%), Argentina
(11%), Chile (11%), Colombia (11%), Costa Rica (11%), Mexico (11%), Panama (11%),
and Peru (11%). In answering the question about the interest in future FDI movements,
only 18% of possibilities for investments in Latin America were considered, with the
remaining 82% in several countries on other continents.
Table 8 - Future Exports for Countries in the General Context
Country
Total Mentions
1st Position
2nd Position
3rd Position
Frequenc
y
Percentag
e
Frequenc
y
Percentag
e
Frequenc
y
Percentag
e
Percentag
e
Frequenc
y
Colombia
8
13%
3
13%
3
14%
2
12%
Brazil
6
10%
5
21%
1
5%
0
0%
EUA
5
8%
3
13%
1
5%
1
6%
Mexico
5
8%
0
0%
3
14%
2
12%
Germany
4
6%
1
4%
1
5%
2
12%
France
3
5%
0
0%
3
14%
0
0%
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Country
Total Mentions
1st Position
2nd Position
3rd Position
Frequenc
y
Percentag
e
Frequenc
y
Percentag
e
Frequenc
y
Percentag
e
Percentag
e
Frequenc
y
Russia
3
5%
2
8%
0
0%
1
6%
Angola
2
3%
1
4%
1
5%
0
0%
Argentina
2
3%
1
4%
0
0%
1
6%
Spain
2
3%
1
4%
0
0%
1
6%
Panama
2
3%
1
4%
1
5%
0
0%
Peru
2
3%
2
8%
0
0%
0
0%
Poland
2
3%
0
0%
1
5%
1
6%
Uruguay
2
3%
0
0%
0
0%
2
12%
Saudi Arabia
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
1
6%
Belgium
1
2%
1
4%
0
0%
0
0%
Belize
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
Cape Verde
1
2%
1
4%
0
0%
0
0%
Chile
1
2%
1
4%
0
0%
0
0%
China
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
South Korea
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
Holand
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
Indonesia
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
1
6%
Mozambique
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
Norway
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
1
6%
Paraguay
1
2%
0
0%
1
5%
0
0%
United
Kingdom
1
2%
0
0%
0
0%
1
6%
Trinidad and
Tobago
1
2%
1
4%
0
0%
0
0%
Total
62
100%
24
100%
21
100%
17
100%
Latin
America
29
47%
13
54%
9
43%
7
41%
Other
Regions
33
53%
11
46%
12
57%
10
59%
4.3. Evaluation of the internationalization process and of the Portuguese
Institutions that provide support
Other relevant aspects for the internationalization process were also inquired, namely,
what are the preferential forms of approach? What are their motives? What are the main
obstacles to the process?
In terms of the preferential forms of approach, we identified that the main were
«Displacement and direct contact » (74%), and “Participation in fairs" (68%). Regarding
the motives, the most mentioned was “Increase in market share” (82%), followed by
“Notoriety and recognition in the national market” (30%) and “Proximity to customers »
(28%) (Table 9). As for the obstacles identified in the process, the most relevant were
the “Bureaucratic aspects" (64%), as the second most frequent reason is the “Lack of
incentives” (34%), following in third position, simultaneously, the “Difficulty to obtain
financing” and the “Lack of information" (22%). A still relevant reason is the "Difficulty
of access to institutions" (18%).
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Table 9 - Main Motives for Internationalization?
Yes
No
Motives for internationalization
Frequency
Percentage
Frequency
Percentage
Total
Increased market share
41
82%
9
18%
50
Notoriety and recognition in the national market
15
30%
35
70%
50
Resource search
7
14%
43
86%
50
Proximity to customers
14
28%
36
72%
50
Fairer product valuation
1
2%
49
98%
50
Presence of a foreign community in the company's
region
1
2%
49
98%
50
The companies also carried out an evaluation of the main institutions that, in Portugal,
give support to the internationalization process, from Bad (score 1) to Very Good (score
5), reserving a score of 3 for cases in which the company does not know or does not
respond (position of indifference). The results are showed in Table 10: the
Business/Commercial Associations are the highest scored (165 points), followed by
Chambers of Commerce (152 points), IAPMEI (151 points), AICEP and
Embassies/Consulates (140 points) and finally the Government (122 points). It is
interesting to note that the responding firms value professional organizations such as
business associations and chambers of commerce more than government bodies like
AICEP, embassies/consulates (or the government), the latter being specifically formed
or dedicated to the purpose.
Table 10 – Assessment of Institutions
AICEP
Business/Trade
Associations
Chambers of
Commerce
Embassies/
Consulates
Government
IAPMEI
Bad (1)
16
5
8
15
16
5
Reasonable
(2)
9
14
7
4
3
13
Good (4)
13
11
7
4
3
12
Very Good
(5)
9
14
9
10
2
6
NS/NR (3)
3
6
19
17
26
14
Score
140
165
152
140
122
151
Companies were also asked to suggest improvements to institutions. Of the 50
companies, 24% presented suggestions, which were summarized in Table 11.
Table 11 – Companies' Suggestions for Improving the process
Summary of Suggestions
• Have an organized and credible dossier by markets with potential buyers so that
companies can make the contacts
• Simplification of processes
• Create representations manager, hold meetings with commercial attachés of
embassies who do not want only the prestige of the name of the position, look for the
main purchasing managers in companies with placement capacity, etc. Anyway,
anything that is not passive, reactionary and lethargic
• In some markets, more human and financial resources are needed for the local
support of companies
• Ability to streamline processes and facilitate financing for SME projects
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The importance of Latin American space in the internationalization of Portuguese SMEs
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94
Finally, it was important to know what is the assessment that companies have of their
own internationalization process, with only 6% of companies considering their experience
as unsatisfactory (Table 12). The remaining companies, with the exception of 6% who
have no opinion, considered the experience as positive, albeit to varying degrees. It
should be noted that 42% rate the experience as good and 16% as very good.
Table 12 - How do you Evaluate your Internationalization Experience?
Frequency
Percentage
Cumulative percentage
Unsatisfactory
3
6%
6%
Satisfactory
15
30%
36%
No opinion
3
6%
42%
Good
21
42%
84%
Very good
8
16%
100%
Total
50
100%
5. Conclusions
This work aimed to carry out a political and economic analysis of the internationalization
of the Portuguese economy to Latin America, focusing on the role of SMEs. We first saw
how SMEs are a major driver of the Portuguese economy, both in terms of their number
and the weight they have on gross added value and employment. The recessionary
climate of the Portuguese economy in the early 2010s made the need for going
international imperative. It is in this context that we intend to assess how Latin America,
an area where there is linguistic and historical proximity (just remember the great
migration currents of the past) prove to be an international destination of significance for
Portuguese SMEs.
In the light of the internationalization theories that we focused on the theoretical section,
we tried to identify the contours of this process, for example, testing the relevance of
some concepts such as Psychic Distance. In this sense, it was possible to confirm that
the Ibero-American market is not very expressive in the Portuguese exports as it did not
correspond, on average of the years 2010-2017, to more than 3.7% of the total. Even
so, and from the responses to the survey, we found that the Latin American space should
be taken seriously into consideration in the further steps towards internationalization of
Portuguese SMEs, insofar it corresponds to 47% of the companies' intentions of
exportation.
In an evaluation of the internationalization process of the SMEs that were surveyed, we
can identify that they present a behavior somewhat similar to the process suggested by
the Theory of the Nordic School of Business, i.e., a “gradual process of
internationalization”. Since most companies (about 70%) are only dedicated to exports,
and directly looking for the customer, we note a residual number of companies that have
an "agent" or a "distribution network". With regard to FDI, we confirmed that few
companies in the sample invested in Latin America, which for the case of SMEs should
not be surprising given what we referred to above regarding their access to resources,
namely financial and human resources. Considering another recent survey (Return on
Ideas, 2018), it corroborates the analysis we presented earlier with regard to the
internationalization of Portuguese SMEs into the world market. Actually, it states that
direct exports to international customers (61%), occasional exports (25%), and exports
through international agents (16%) are the main forms of internationalization for
Portuguese SMEs, while the use of FDI by these companies is residual, taking the form
of its own branch and/or subsidiary (9%) and the presence abroad is rarely translated
into production/manufacturing units (1%).
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
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The importance of Latin American space in the internationalization of Portuguese SMEs
André Brás-dos-Santos; Joaquim Ramos Silva
95
Despite the profile that has just been traced, it must be underlined that the importance
of the international component in the turnover is quite significant for the companies that
responded to the inquiry, showing that SMEs are in a process of gradual growth towards
internationalization, eventually in the future making even medium and long term
investments abroad, thus providing a continuous learning process. This will require the
existence of international strategies and operations, which are necessary and correspond
to needs, not even excluding investments. Taking into account this analysis, the self-
assessment carried out by the companies seems consistent.
This work is far from being the end of the research carried out, it is rather another step
in the investigation on the internationalization of the Portuguese economy and firms, to
an important world region, where they can benefit from advantages, if their action is
adequate and they know well the ground (of course, presumed cultural proximity is not
enough per se). Thus, we have in mind the pursuit of this research, developing the theme
of the internationalization of SMEs to Latin America, expanding the sample, and
complementing it with case studies, which would allow to go beyond the limits that a
survey carried out in a given year, although recent, necessarily has. Such an approach
would lead to a more longitudinal view of the analyzed process, allowing stronger
conclusions. Another issue raised by this research is that of an empirical study comparing
in depth the Portuguese case, with the process of Spanish SMEs for the same economic
space, assessing similarities and differences and their causes and implications.
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