E-business utlilization of smes in exporting process: A case study of Dikkaya group

The significant contribution of SMEs to the world economy implies the importance of SMEs' growth and survival. In this context, Turkish SMEs have been witnessing noticeable firm size growth, product and services diversity, and an increasing level of internationalization. On the other hand, SMEs are characterized by having limited resources, making exporting riskier and more challenging. Yet, technology has emerged as a key tool for improving business processes not only for large firms, but for SMEs as well. This study examines ways that SMEs can utilize e-business in their internationalization processes. Moreover, this study aims to study the SMEs' utilization of e-business to improve export performance, by identifying and describing types of e-business tools that contribute to the improvement of export performance. The case study method has been followed for this study about a Turkish SME, Dikkaya Group, which is a manufacturer of water control valves, and a distributor of national and international water control systems products. Dikkaya Group has been exporting various types of water control valves for an increasing number of foreign markets, mainly in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and is aiming to fortify its presence in its foreign markets. For this case study, in-depth interviews with the exporting manager at Dikkaya Group and the export department staff have been conducted concerning the firm's export markets and the followed business processes. In addition, observation over a period of 7 months within the firm has been considered for supporting the findings of the interviews. The results of this study show that SMEs in general still lag behind large firms in e-business adoption, mainly due to their poor perception about e-business usefulness and ways of utilization. However, the increasing availability of affordable and customizable e-business tools within the firm can encourage its adoption by SMEs. E-business provides SMEs with efficient collection of relevant intelligence and transforming it to useful data for internal operations and for meeting their clients' needs on time through better communications, especially when applying an export-market orientation strategy. Thus, SMEs can gain competitive advantages over local competitors in foreign markets. Dikkaya Group needs to be flexible and open for emergent decisions where business opportunities or requests arise. Thus, suggestions have been proposed for Dikkaya Group for improving its export performance through e-business tools, such as establishing an Open Source CRM system, benefiting from e-markets, and creating internal system for training staff. Keywords: Exporting, E-Business, Small- and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs.