Relation Network Of The Internationalization Of Chinese SMEs

Small Medium Enterprises(SMEs) become increasingly active in international markets and thereby promote economic growth. However, the existing internationalization theories mainly focus on large transnational enterprises of developed countries, and rarely refer to internationalization of enterprises (especially SMEs) of developing countries.Comparing with large transnational enterprises, SMEs are obviously in inferior positions.SMEs have to rely on themselves to promote external development, and their internationalized operations are restricted seriously. The rise of relationship network theory provides a different perspective for our understanding of the internationalization of SMEs.The markets and industries where enterprises located just exist in the form of network, accordingly, as a more preferable path, the internationalization process of enterprises may be researched from the perspective of the relationship networks among enterprises, rather than a single enterprise emphasized by traditional theories. Therefore, enterprises'internationalization process is actually a process of graduallyinvolving the international commercial relationship network (Johanson & Vahlne,1990).The relationship network theory regarding enterprises'internationalization develops rapidly currently. The paper tries to combine the relationship network theory and the internationalization practices of China's SMEs via a series of theoretical analysis and positive analysis.The paper first analyzed the relationship among enterprises' relationship network, social capital and network capacity upon the basis of related works. The paper holds that the relationship network, a long-term and interactive link system with directionality, is linked upon the basis of various relationships by enterprises or organizations of certain scale. As a kind of resource favorable for realization of enterprises'aims, the enterprises'social capital potentially embeds in enterprises'relationship networks, and an inactive relationship network will not provide individual actors needed recourses.The enterprises' relationship networks, as the carriers of enterprises'social capital,are the necessary mediums for realization of social capital."The network structure" just implies the possibility for obtaining resources by actors, and actors will make sense only when the crunodes of network structure involve resources.The network capacity, as a kind of capacity for developing and managing enterprises'relationship networks, make the most of it by the development, management and application of enterprises'social capital.This explains why enterprises in the same network gain diverse interest, and also points out the interaction mechanisms of relationship network. Basing on the above analysis and using SMEs as object of study, the paper tries to construct a theoretical model regarding the influence of a relationship network upon social capital and performance of enterprises'internationalization. The above theoretical model is composed of four kinds of variables and corresponding routes, namely explanatory variable (dimension of involvement of relationship network),intervening variable (obtaining of enterprises'social capital), moderator variable (network capacity) and explanatory variable (performance of SMEs'internationalization).By the statistical analysis of 573 valid questionnaires and corresponding theoretical analysis, the paper concludes as follows:1.The paper reviewed the development course of network theory, systematically and comprehensively summarized the research results of social capital,pointed out the international network theory is the frontier of theoretical research of enterprise internationalization.2.The paper constructs and verifies a theoretical model regarding the relationship network's influence upon the performance of SMEs' internationalization via the intermediation function of social capital.The paper first verifies the intermediation function upon the basis of variance analysis,correlation analysis and partial-correlation analysis.The paper then analyzes and compares the conceptual model,and verifies the dimension of involvement of relationship network and obtainment of enterprises'social capital,and the obtainment of enterprises'social capital and the performance of SMEs'internationalization by structural equation modeling. The analysis result of data reveals that:the theoretical model has rational fitting degree, and the scale of relationship network has positive influence upon the obtainment of social capital for enterprises;the heterogeneity of relationship network has significant positive influence upon the obtainment of social capital for enterprises; the position of relationship network has significant positive influence upon the obtainment of social capital for enterprises; the hypothesis that there is positive correlation between the strength of ties among enterprises and clients and the obtainment of social capital for enterprises has been verified; the duration of the relationship between enterprises and clients has significant positive influence upon obtainment of social capital for enterprises; the obtainment of social capital by enterprises has significant positive influence upon the performance of SMEs' internationalization. In sum, the paper in general verifies the rationality of the relationship between the construction of theoretical model and variables.3.Through analyzing the second-order confirmatory factor analysis of relationship network via structural equation, the paper verifies the relationship between the 2 second order factors and 5 first order factors of the relationship network based upon the specific situation among enterprises, and proves that the second order model has satisfying validity and reliability. The paper also tests the hypothetical relationship between the 2 second order factors of relationship network (namely the 2 dimensions of the embeddedness of relationship network) and the obtainment of enterprises'social capital via structural equation modeling. The analysis results of the structural equation reveals that the second order model is of high fitting degree, the structural embeddedness of enterprises'relationship network has positive influence upon the obtainment of social capital for enterprises, and the relational embeddedness of enterprises'relationship network has positive influence upon the enterprises'gaining knowledge.4.Through analyzing the second-order confirmatory factor analysis of relationship network via structural equation, the paper verifies the relationship between the 2 second order factors and 5 first order factors of the relationship network based upon the specific situation among enterprises, and proves that the second order model has satisfying validity and reliability. The paper also tests the hypothetical relationship between the 2 second order factors of relationship network (namely the 2 dimensions of the embeddedness of relationship network) and the obtainment of enterprises'social capital via structural equation modeling. The analysis results of the structural equation reveals that the second order model is of high fitting degree, the structural embeddedness of enterprises'relationship network has positive influence upon the obtainment of social capital for enterprises, and the relational embeddedness of enterprises'relationship network has positive influence upon the enterprises'gaining knowledge.