ROBO CON LESIONES LEVES EN LA INTEGRIDAD FÍSICA O

This section considers the four groups that resulted from the cluster analysis: the supply, demand, trade competitiveness and regulation groups. The codes in each cluster are also grouped according to the various levels of analysis: i) micro (issues at the firm level, the SMEs)), ii) meso (interactions, issues in the LMT industry in Mexico and competition in the LMT industry in the EU), iii) macro (e.g. weaknesses in the national environment affecting the competitiveness of Mexican LMT-SMEs) and iv) policy (concerning the role of the government at the micro, meso and macro levels). See Appendix Tables 4 to 7.

This taxonomy (the four clusters and the various levels of analyses) enables judgements to be made about the role of the Government and BANCOMEXT in the internationalization of SMEs, the environment for the internationalization of SMEs and issues of knowledge and internal problems of SMEs affecting the competitiveness of Mexican LMT-SMEs.

Of the 220 codes that were identified through the data analysis:

 105 (47.27%) belong to the supply cluster (Appendix Table 4).

This refers to firms’ issues affecting the product output. The codes in this cluster are also grouped according to the micro, meso, macro and policy levels.

 58 (26.36%) belong to the demand cluster (Appendix Table 5).

This involves demand-side concerns such as product matters, the kind of products demanded, the EU market and trade access. The 58 codes of this cluster are also grouped according to the micro, meso, macro and policy levels.

 48 (21.81%) belong to the trade competitiveness cluster (Appendix Table 6). This encompasses foreign trade, the business environment (trade to business environment or business environment to trade) and trade competitiveness issues. The 48 codes that belong to this cluster are grouped according to the micro, meso, macro and policy levels.

 9 (4.09%) belong to the regulation cluster (Appendix Table 7). This refers to regulatory policies for industries, e.g. the lack of policies to deal with certification problems. These codes are grouped according to the meso, macro and policy levels.

Therefore, by paying attention to the supply, demand, trade competitiveness and policy clusters, as well as the micro, meso, macro and policy levels of analysis, it has been possible to identify the factors explaining the scarce participation of Mexican LMT-SMEs in the EU. These include the identification of weaknesses within LMT-SMEs and the system (in Mexico) and problems arising due to differences in the institutional set-ups (between Mexico and the EU) that make it difficult for Mexican LMT-SMEs to access

knowledge from abroad and negatively affect their internationalization and competitiveness in the EU. The analysis has also contributed to uncovering areas for government intervention at the various levels of analysis to improve SMEs’ innovation performance for internationalizing.

The various clusters and dimensions of analysis also shed light on the complexity involved in the internationalization process, as well as the interrelation between the firm (micro level), the interactions (meso) and the environment (macro level) and the role of the Government and BANCOMEXT (policy level). In order to make the outcome of the data analysis more understandable, the next sections present each cluster with its upper categories and its components; the issues identified in the next sections will be related to the theoretical and empirical frameworks in Chapters 7 and 8 in order to answer the research questions of this thesis. In Chapter 7, they will be analysed from the point of view of internal and external barriers hindering the internationalization of LMT-SMEs and the Uppsala model of internationalization. In Chapter 8, the issues identified in this chapter will be related to the role of the Government and public intermediaries in the internationalization of LMT-SMEs and the NSI.

6.3.1.1 The Supply Cluster

The supply cluster (Table 6.3) uncovers issues at the micro, meso, macro and policy levels affecting the SMEs’ supply output to internationalize. At the micro level (the firm level), internal strengths and weaknesses are uncovered. The internal weaknesses refer to problems constraining the competitiveness of Mexican LMT-SMEs in the EU, e.g. low production capacity, lack of brands and marketing, lack of internationalization culture and poor capabilities and AC to operate in the EU. The latter explain why LMT-SMEs encounter problems in accessing knowledge from the EU. It is worth recalling that Chapter 2 explained that poor capabilities and AC mirror poor internal resources (in particular human capital resources), which negatively affect the acquisition and creation of knowledge, impeding firms from improving their products and innovating (Barney, 1991; Bessant et al, 2005; Nelson, 1991; Peteraf, 1993; Penrose, 1959). In addition, from the system failure approach, the lack of capabilities and AC in a system is a capability

failure that deters firms from moving from old to new technologies, learning new

capabilities, benefiting from interactions with other actors and adapting to new markets. Consequently, capability failures contribute to poor innovative performance in the system (Rubalcaba et al, 2010; Smith, 2000).

At the meso level, the analysis revealed problems related to the lack of participation in international events and lack of cooperation and linkages among LMT-SMEs to internationalize. These problems shed light on interaction failures (poor interaction). Poor interaction between actors prevents innovation and learning as it inhibits the flow and creation of knowledge (Woolthuis et al, 2005). This level of analysis also sheds light on the kinds of products offered by the LMT-SMEs serviced by BANCOMEXT (jewellery, textiles, agricultural and furniture products). At this level, it is also apparent that SMEs mainly supply the American market rather than the EU market, due to the familiarity with the American market and the lack of knowledge to operate in the EU. This is explained by the Uppsala model of internationalization. According to this model, due to the difficulty in accessing information and knowledge from abroad, the internationalization of SMEs in distant countries is seen as a difficult and slow process. For this reason, SMEs start internationalizing in neighbouring countries (e.g. the US) that are more familiar to SMEs (e.g. Mexican LMT-SMEs) (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977; Johanson and Vahlne, 1990; Pedersen and Petersen, 2004; Stottinger and Schlegelmilch, 1998).

The analysis at the macro level uncovers problems at the national level affecting firms’ output, such as uncompetitive energy costs and problems of infrastructure at the country level. According to the system failures, these problems are infrastructural failures that block the national innovation performance (Rubalcaba et al, 2010; Smith, 2000; Woolthuis et al, 2005). The analysis at this level also uncovers issues about the positive and negative impacts of globalization on LMT SMEs. In addition, the perception of the Mexican economy in the EU and the differences in economic development levels among the trading countries affecting the internationalization of LMT-SMEs from developing countries (Mexico) in developed countries (the EU) are uncovered. As explained in

Chapter 2, differences among trading countries make the transfer of knowledge and knowledge sharing difficult because of the differences in AC among the actors of different systems (Lundvall and Borrás, 1997; Lundvall et al, 2002; Metcalfe and Georghiou, 1997; Nauwelaers and Wintjes, 2003) and because knowledge sharing (which mainly occurs through interactions) is extremely sensitive to environmental differences (i.e. differences in formal and informal institutions). In addition, differences in economic development among countries result in differences between the supplied products (the products supplied by Mexican LMT-SMEs) and the demanded products (the characteristics of the products required by demanding customers like the European customers). These issues need to be considered when analysing the participation and performance of Mexican LMT-SMEs in the EU.

The analysis at the policy level identifies the lack of government policies and support for the internationalization of SMEs. From the viewpoint of the system failures, the lack of government policies could be seen as institutional failures (Rubalcaba et al, 2010; Woolthuis et al, 2005), i.e. an obstacle in the formal set-up that inhibits innovation and learning within the system (Mexico) and also affects the Mexican LMT-SMEs’ internationalization. Thus, this cluster also sheds light on some recommendations made by BANCOMEXT-Europe to the Mexican Government with the aim of improving the performance of LMT-SMEs in the EU.

Table 6.3: Summary of the Outcome of the Data Analysis: The Supply Cluster

MICRO MESO MACRO POLICY TOTAL

SUPPLY 1.1 Strengths

Skilled labour, quality of products, original products. 1.2 Weaknesses

Lack of brands, lack of marketing, lack of post-sales services, small volume of production, ICT problems, lack of technical

specialization, little

experience in exporting, lack of vision to internationalize, lack of programme awareness, lack of involvement with globalization, lack of knowledge of BANCOMEXT, slow response, lack of knowledge of other cultures.

1.3 Lack of