Abstract

How can your social network be your catalyst to success? How can “who you know” lead to a faster and more successful internationalization into developing countries? The literature suggests that entrepreneurs of SMEs can highly benefit from their social networks when going abroad. Several studies have been developed around different characteristics of the networks, but not many present empirical evidence describing their changes with time.
This study builds on the extant literature to examine the importance of social networks for the internationalization of SMEs in developing and emerging countries. It specifically focuses on two characteristics of networks: strength of ties and density, both with respect to time.
Ten successful entrepreneurs and managers, each pertaining to a specific industry, were interviewed to support the main arguments of this study. The analysis of their success stories allowed for the understanding of the dynamics of social networks throughout the stages of their internationalization process.
Findings suggest that social networks are not more relevant than a market study for SMEs in the earlier stages of going abroad. It is nevertheless very important to utilize and benefit from networks, especially in early stages, in order to boost the process. Results show that, initially, having strong ties is very important, but that they should decrease in strength with time. However, they unexpectedly do not suggest that the same effect happens to the density of networks.