The Internationalization of Swedish Smes and Involvement of Immigrants : Why and how Swedish SMEs internationalize? Which role immigrants as social networks play in this process?

Internationalization is a topic of high actuality, and in this paper the spotlights is on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access foreign market opportunities and go international. This paper tends to investigate the internationalization process of Swedish SMEs and the contributions of social networks in the process. Immigrants are introduced as a social network. The results of the paper illustrate that the Swedish SMEs experience several barriers in the internationalization process due to the lack of financial resources and knowledge-related resources. They also gradually start the internationalization process in their neighbour countries. Moreover, the study shows that the immigrants contribute in the process of internationalization by providing the SMEs with market knowledge and through offering experiential learning.