ABSTRACT

Taking the perspective from Northern Europe, and more specifically from the Northern Sparsely Populated Areas it is often a necessity that an expanding small business needs to set sights to larger, often international, markets. This chapter focuses on growth ambitions of small and particularly new ventures in a two-stage process. First the entrepreneur’s general ambitions to expand the firm’s operations. In the second stage of the internationalization process, the internal ability to adapt to new circumstances seems more important than opportunity. Internationalization opens doors that may turn the small business into a large and multinational enterprise, but it can also lead to the eventual demise of the entire operation. The alternative “entrepreneurial orientation” has been described as a strategic choice but small business orientation is also a choice. Entrepreneurial orientation is, however, dependent on the managerial qualities in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and management skills have been considered a strong prognosticator for success.