Bariery w eksporcie małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw z województwa łódzkiego
Export Barriers for SMEs: The Case of the Lodz Province

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, globalization, trade liberalization and regional integration processes strongly facilitate international expansion of companies. However, it seems that only big enterprises can benefit those favorable conditions widely. As for small and micro companies, only about 1/3 of them sell their product internationally and the scale of it remains very limited. Small firmsface a variety of barriers that inhibit or even prevent exports which is the simplest and often the first form of internationalisation. It seems crucial to indicate and eliminate them, as the economic growth and development of a country strongly depend on exports. The mail goal of the paper is to identify the export barriers of SMEs. We have analyzed the theoretical determinants of trade and the research conducted among exporters. In addition, we have used the results of authors’ questionnaire survey of manufacturing enterprises operating in the Lodz Province. Both exporters and entities that have notbegun to operate internationally yet, pointed out that the main barriers to their expansion are: difficulties (and related costs) in finding a reliable foreign partners and building distribution networks, administrative barriers and bureaucracy as well as high transport costs. Therefore, public support instruments should focus in these areas.

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