Operationalizing psychic distance International Market Selection based on a knowledge perspective : the case of Miitik, a Portuguese beachwear company

• Autor(a) principal: Melo, Miguel de Albuquerque e
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/23255
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

Back in the days, Internationalization was a process exclusive to companies of great dimension. It requires a rather high amount of resources, reason why it was difficult and expensive for smaller companies to achieve. However, as the years went by, communication channels have improved and the world has become closer as information costs decreased. Given this, nowadays not only big multinationals but also Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) have increased its operations abroad. If in the past internationalizing was considered an option, but some support that it has become a necessity given the high market concentration across many industries. Nevertheless, although it is advantageous to expand operations, it doesn’t mean it has become an easy process. In fact, SME’s still face several obstacles that must be considered and tackled. As an example of the previous lines, I found Miitik. Miitik is a retailing beachwear start-up based in Portugal. The company started its operations 4 years ago and currently operates only in Portugal. Although it has sold some products abroad, it is not representative at all in the total sales. At the moment, the beachwear industry in Portugal is rather saturated both by big multinationals and also by other small actors, as Miitik. Due to this, Miitik has been struggling to achieve its financial goals. One of the options would be to internationalize, however the company is lacking resources and some insights about with countries to chase. This thesis has the aim to support Miitik with its International Market Selection.