Trends in international business of the Slovak small and medium food enterprises

Small and medium enterprises today create an organic part of the market economy. Their importance for the national economy, but also from microeconomic perspective is unquestionable. At present the trends in small and medium food enterprises activities contain operation not only in the domestic environment, they are increasingly drawn into international business. The internationalization of business creates new market opportunities, the possibility of organic growth and strengthening the market position. Aim of submitted article is to introduce current trends in international business of Slovak food SMEs and to examine motivation, or factors that lead them to this activity. According to our findings in business practice the Slovak food SMEs are economically active predominantly in Central European economic area and there are only simpler forms of expansion into foreign markets. Analysis was made via quantitative methods using SAS statistical software. (c) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.