Influences of individual and company level characteristics' on internationalization of Turkish small medium enterprises: From an entrepreneurial perspective

This study examines the relationship of firm-level and individual level characteristics with the internationalization degree of Small Medium Enterprises (SME) in Turkey. With this purpose, the study consists of different factors that are investigated in two parts; 1) Firm level characteristics such as size, age of the company and the employees profile such as education, international experience, age and foreign languages 2) Individual level characteristics (entrepreneurial traits) of the manager or owner of the SME such as proactivity, tolerance for ambiguity and risk perception. The analysis is carried on 159 SMEs that attended international fairs in Turkey, Istanbul. In the light of literature review, hypotheses were formulated. Various types of analysis such as factor, regression, chi-square, Anova, Spearman analysis, Pearson correlations as well as descriptive analysis were applied. The results are given and discussed in detail. Finally, the potential implications of the findings are presented for policy makers, practitioners and researchers in order for SMEs to be more successful in their internationalization process and eliminate risk while penetrating international markets.