A Conceptual Framework of the Relationship Between Values and Small and Medium Entrepreneurs' Export Intentions

Globalization coupled with advancement in technology and communication present growth and opportunities for many businesses, including Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to operate internationally. The current trend of increased international involvement of SMEs on one hand and lack of academic research concerning their intentions to internationalize is a strong motivation for investigating International Entrepreneurship (IE). Scholars in different disciplines had shown much interest in understanding IE through variety of perspectives and theories. Each discipline mostly focuses only on its own theories and models, which has limitations in terms of analyzing and understanding entrepreneur from a bigger picture. Furthermore, there are conflicting results on the influence of cultural values on entrepreneurship due to the indirect effects of values on intentions and behavior. Although existing literature on international business and culture suggests the integration of values and intention, there was no empirical study conducted to prove the relationships to the best of our knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to study the motivation behind international and domestic small and medium entrepreneurs' intentions to export to new markets as the intersection of international marketing, sociology and psychology of entrepreneur, i.e. a multi-disciplinary approach, which is the essence of entrepreneurship. This paper aims to contribute to the body of knowledge through the integrative conceptual framework of values (Schwartz et al., 2001), beliefs and intentions in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) for a broader understanding of individual entrepreneur's motivation to internationalize their businesses. This cross-sectional study will include 400 Small and Medium sized entrepreneurs from a nationally representative sample of SMEs in Malaysia. Data will be collected in the form of multiple-item questionnaire answered by individual entrepreneur defined as owner cum manager of small and medium enterprises drawn from food, beverages and agriculture industries. Structural equation modeling (SEM) will be employed in this study to test the hypothesized model consisting of latent and observed variables. If empirical support is found, this conceptual framework will be useful in designing entrepreneurship programmes and policies at the national level. It is also valuable to form the necessary basis for encouraging and developing entrepreneurial internationalization activities carried out within the context of SMEs.