Barriers to internationalisation : An investigation of the craft microenterprise

Previous research concerning barriers to internationalisation growth have modelled sets of internal and external factors impinging upon the behaviour of the firm. It is believed that this approach can only ever achieve a general perception of the difficulties encountered and that industry specific studies are needed in order to elicit particular differences encountered by these firms. By examining the internationalisation behaviour of the smaller craft firm, this research uncovers a number of factors not generally modelled in other works which impinge both upon the craft firm in particular and on smaller firms in general. This is done by adopting a pluralistic approach to research, resulting in in‐depth analysis of craft firm microenterprises and their owner/managers.