Exporting, technological collaboration, and SME growth: an empirical analysis

This chapter investigates the effects of exporting and technological collaboration on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth. Our approach is to consider four different situations: firms that neither export nor collaborate, firms that only export, firms that only collaborate, and firms that both export and collaborate. We argue that those SMEs that combine both strategies at the same time will grow faster because they will have access to key resources through leveraging their external relationships and foreign market expansion. A firm-level panel of data that covers a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing SMEs is used. Results show that firms involved only in export activities are more likely to have stronger sales growth outcomes. We also find that participating only in technological cooperation agreements does not necessarily favor growth. However, SMEs that are simultaneously engaged in both exporting and technological collaboration achieve higher sales and employment growth. Relevant implications are derived from these findings.