A pilot study on the internationalization of Taiwanese agri-biotech SMEs: A Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) perspective

Biotechnology will play a vital role in the overall technological development of the 21st century. Given the rapid speed of globalization coupled with the continuous development of communication technology, small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a variety of high-tech industries in many countries, such as the agriculture biotechnology (agri-biotech) industry in Taiwan, now have a clear path to internationalization. This work is a preliminary attempt to identify key drivers and their relationships in order for Taiwanese agri-biotech SMEs to better understand their internationalization prospects. To do so, the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework was used as a theoretical basis to, first specify the key drivers, and second to assess the factors that compose the value of internationalization. This study utilized a survey approach to collect data from Taiwanese agri-biotech SMEs. To test hypothesized relationships a Partial Least Squaring (PLS) tool was employed. The results of the analyzed data show that organizational factors have the biggest impact on the value of internationalization, followed by technology, and environmental factors which surprisingly had an insignificant influence. These results indicate that by placing a priority on having a Global Scope, developing adequate Financial Resources, and improving Marketing Capability SMEs can improve their readiness for internationalization. This study contributes in a more practical sense to an understanding by SMEs of where their efforts should be put in order to be more effective in their international endeavors, and to the government in developing policies that promote the organizational growth and development of its agri-biotech SMEs.