The scale of internationalisation and Europeanisation of SMEs and their functioning in the spatial systems of the European Union

• Main Author: Krzysztof Wach
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie 2014-12-01
• Series: Przedsiębiorczość - Edukacja
• Subjects: European Union (EU); Europeanisation; international trade; internationalization; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Online Access: https://p-e.up.krakow.pl/article/view/1747
• ISSN: 2083-3296; 2449-9048

The article undertakes still quite a rare topic of Europeanisation of businesses, especially SMEs, by using the classic definition of Europeanisation as the special case of internationalisation within Europe, and in particular within the European Union. The article contains the analysis of the available statistic data from all EU countries presenting the scale of Europeanisation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Due to the lack of available data, the analysis was restricted to the years 2003-2009, which is a serious research limitation, nevertheless, this approach allows for accurate inference. The research goal of this study is the analysis of the state and tendencies of Europeanisation and internationalisation of European small and medium-sized enterprises, especially from the spatial (territorial) perspective. The research hypothesis is the statement that the intensification of the level of internationalisation of European SMEs is noticed in the first decade of 21st century. The article uses different analytical methods: literature review, desk research, descriptive statistics and Spring-ED algorithm (software NetMiner v2.6). Based on the available data, the hypothesis that Europeanisation processes of European small and medium-sized enterprises gain intensity in recent years can be certainly confirmed.