The internationalization of Bulgarian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is mostly seen as... more The internationalization of Bulgarian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is mostly seen as predetermined by external factors, such as the country’s participation in economic unions, lowering barriers to international trade, technology development, etc. Less attention is paid by researchers to the entrepreneurs’ characteristics as a determinant of internationalization. One of the study’s objectives presented here is to analyze the impact of these characteristics on SMEs’ internationalization success. To achieve this objective, applied methods involve review and analysis of available research and information sources, an empirical survey of 468 Bulgarian SMEs, statistical processing, analysis, and synthesis of results. The empirical results prove the importance of entrepreneurs’ characteristics for the internationalization and competitive performance of Bulgarian SMEs. The findings show that the length of overall professional experience gained by entrepreneurs is a significant d...
How to make internationalization meaningful is a practical issue of particular importance for sma... more How to make internationalization meaningful is a practical issue of particular importance for smaller family enterprises operating on the global market. Among main challenges these enterprises face is limited resources and experience to compete successfully on a global scale. This challenge can hinder efforts to make their internationalization process meaningful. The meaningfulness of family enterprises as a form of business organization can be expressed in two ways. First, family enterprises can create meaning to society in general with their contribution to employment and economic development. This is related to their predominant share in many economies. And second, family enterprises can create meaning to the family and business in particular, by improving international performance as a mean to transfer a more competitive business to the next generations. These two ways of creating a meaning are interrelated. This paper concentrates on international performance of family SMEs as ...
This paper aims to study the influence of key actors’ personal characteristics on preferred inter... more This paper aims to study the influence of key actors’ personal characteristics on preferred internationalization mode by family SMEs. It is known that the entrepreneur plays a key role both in the family and non-family businesses, along with managers. In family businesses, their role is mediated by the interference and key role of successors and the intertwining family and business relationships. The study is based on a sample of 357 enterprises from Bulgaria. Besides traditional key actors’ characteristics – age, education, and acquired experience, other complementary characteristics such as international experience, education, and training abroad also play an important role in the development of international activities. Findings show that key actor’s characteristics, such as education abroad of entrepreneurs and key employees, lasting experience in an international environment, experience in other business and top management are positively associated with the sales from internati...
Knowledge, skills, and experience of entrepreneurs are crucial to better meet challenges of the e... more Knowledge, skills, and experience of entrepreneurs are crucial to better meet challenges of the external environment that enterprises face nowadays. This is especially valid for enterprises operating internationally and facing intense competition and various obstacles and uncertainties. This study is targeted at exploring the role of individual characteristics, such as training and experience of entrepreneurs in the internationalization process. Experience and training can be regarded as basic prerequisites for management and development of businesses able to break through and compete internationally. More specifically, the paper aims to justify the link between management training and experience as essential elements of entrepreneur's personality and the choice of internationalization approach with a focus on import and export as preferred internationalization modes by SMEs. To achieve this objective, the authors draw from a broad overview of available research in different con...
This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal ar... more This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of family business internationalization for a period of 15 years. A total number of 103 articles were reviewed, published in 40 international journals, among which are Family Business Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and etc. Our review indicates some important features of the evolution of the family business internationalization literature. First, studies become more interdisciplinary and they are dispersed in a wide range of journals. Second, internationalization of family small and medium-sized enterprises was arguably underexplored in the past, and yet studies on this topic experience a rapid growth in the new millennium (the peak is observed mostly in the last few years). Third, theories that are frequently used in the reviewed articles include international entrepreneurship; stage theory of internationalization; r...
The objective of this paper is to develop a basic insight of main concepts and trends in existing... more The objective of this paper is to develop a basic insight of main concepts and trends in existing research of firm’s internationalization, while taking a glimpse at the entrepreneurship and strategic management aspects of family business internationalization. A big share of European SMEs are family enterprises, but research on family SMEs internationalization is not abundant. Therefore, it is useful to know more about the application of concepts and theories in the context of internationalization of family firms.
This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal ar... more This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of family business internationalization for a period of 15 years. A total number of 103 articles were reviewed, published in 40 international journals, among which are Family Business Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and etc. Our review indicates some important features of the evolution of the family business internationalization literature. First, studies become more interdisciplinary and they are dispersed in a wide range of journals. Second, internationalization of family small and medium-sized enterprises was arguably underexplored in the past, and yet studies on this topic experience a rapid growth in the new millennium (the peak is observed mostly in the last few years). Third, theories that are frequently used in the reviewed articles include international entrepreneurship; stage theory of internationalization; resources and capabilities; stewardship theory; agency theory, and etc. Fourth, reviewed articles, based on contradictory findings contribute to an on-going lively debate. In general, non-family enterprises outperform family enterprises and factors as family involvement in ownership and management are found to be rather restrictive than enabling internationalization. Yet, other factors such as external involvement in ownership and management are positively related to internationalization of family small and medium-sized enterprises.
The internationalization of Bulgarian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is mostly seen as... more The internationalization of Bulgarian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is mostly seen as predetermined by external factors, such as the country’s participation in economic unions, lowering barriers to international trade, technology development, etc. Less attention is paid by researchers to the entrepreneurs’ characteristics as a determinant of internationalization. One of the study’s objectives presented here is to analyze the impact of these characteristics on SMEs’ internationalization success. To achieve this objective, applied methods involve review and analysis of available research and information sources, an empirical survey of 468 Bulgarian SMEs, statistical processing, analysis, and synthesis of results. The empirical results prove the importance of entrepreneurs’ characteristics for the internationalization and competitive performance of Bulgarian SMEs. The findings show that the length of overall professional experience gained by entrepreneurs is a significant d...
How to make internationalization meaningful is a practical issue of particular importance for sma... more How to make internationalization meaningful is a practical issue of particular importance for smaller family enterprises operating on the global market. Among main challenges these enterprises face is limited resources and experience to compete successfully on a global scale. This challenge can hinder efforts to make their internationalization process meaningful. The meaningfulness of family enterprises as a form of business organization can be expressed in two ways. First, family enterprises can create meaning to society in general with their contribution to employment and economic development. This is related to their predominant share in many economies. And second, family enterprises can create meaning to the family and business in particular, by improving international performance as a mean to transfer a more competitive business to the next generations. These two ways of creating a meaning are interrelated. This paper concentrates on international performance of family SMEs as ...
This paper aims to study the influence of key actors’ personal characteristics on preferred inter... more This paper aims to study the influence of key actors’ personal characteristics on preferred internationalization mode by family SMEs. It is known that the entrepreneur plays a key role both in the family and non-family businesses, along with managers. In family businesses, their role is mediated by the interference and key role of successors and the intertwining family and business relationships. The study is based on a sample of 357 enterprises from Bulgaria. Besides traditional key actors’ characteristics – age, education, and acquired experience, other complementary characteristics such as international experience, education, and training abroad also play an important role in the development of international activities. Findings show that key actor’s characteristics, such as education abroad of entrepreneurs and key employees, lasting experience in an international environment, experience in other business and top management are positively associated with the sales from internati...
Knowledge, skills, and experience of entrepreneurs are crucial to better meet challenges of the e... more Knowledge, skills, and experience of entrepreneurs are crucial to better meet challenges of the external environment that enterprises face nowadays. This is especially valid for enterprises operating internationally and facing intense competition and various obstacles and uncertainties. This study is targeted at exploring the role of individual characteristics, such as training and experience of entrepreneurs in the internationalization process. Experience and training can be regarded as basic prerequisites for management and development of businesses able to break through and compete internationally. More specifically, the paper aims to justify the link between management training and experience as essential elements of entrepreneur's personality and the choice of internationalization approach with a focus on import and export as preferred internationalization modes by SMEs. To achieve this objective, the authors draw from a broad overview of available research in different con...
This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal ar... more This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of family business internationalization for a period of 15 years. A total number of 103 articles were reviewed, published in 40 international journals, among which are Family Business Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and etc. Our review indicates some important features of the evolution of the family business internationalization literature. First, studies become more interdisciplinary and they are dispersed in a wide range of journals. Second, internationalization of family small and medium-sized enterprises was arguably underexplored in the past, and yet studies on this topic experience a rapid growth in the new millennium (the peak is observed mostly in the last few years). Third, theories that are frequently used in the reviewed articles include international entrepreneurship; stage theory of internationalization; r...
The objective of this paper is to develop a basic insight of main concepts and trends in existing... more The objective of this paper is to develop a basic insight of main concepts and trends in existing research of firm’s internationalization, while taking a glimpse at the entrepreneurship and strategic management aspects of family business internationalization. A big share of European SMEs are family enterprises, but research on family SMEs internationalization is not abundant. Therefore, it is useful to know more about the application of concepts and theories in the context of internationalization of family firms.
This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal ar... more This paper focuses on a comprehensive systematic review of international peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of family business internationalization for a period of 15 years. A total number of 103 articles were reviewed, published in 40 international journals, among which are Family Business Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, and etc. Our review indicates some important features of the evolution of the family business internationalization literature. First, studies become more interdisciplinary and they are dispersed in a wide range of journals. Second, internationalization of family small and medium-sized enterprises was arguably underexplored in the past, and yet studies on this topic experience a rapid growth in the new millennium (the peak is observed mostly in the last few years). Third, theories that are frequently used in the reviewed articles include international entrepreneurship; stage theory of internationalization; resources and capabilities; stewardship theory; agency theory, and etc. Fourth, reviewed articles, based on contradictory findings contribute to an on-going lively debate. In general, non-family enterprises outperform family enterprises and factors as family involvement in ownership and management are found to be rather restrictive than enabling internationalization. Yet, other factors such as external involvement in ownership and management are positively related to internationalization of family small and medium-sized enterprises.
Uploads
Papers by Yordanka Ivanova