REPORT FOR NORDIC INDUSTRIAL FUND NORDIC PRE- STUDY ON SME INTERNATIONALIZATION

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1 REPORT FOR NORDIC INDUSTRIAL FUND NORDIC PRE- STUDY ON SME INTERNATIONALIZATION Study performed by: The Norwegian Trade Council, Technology Department, January-June, 2001

2 FOREWORD We would like to thank the Nordic Industrial Fund and the SMB-Forum for the support of making this pre-study a reality. We further hope that the research findings, although not representing but a select few of the SMEs and public/private service network representatives in each of the countries, can serve as a practical basis for Nordic cooperation projects in the internationalization of their SMEs. We would also express a special thanks to Mette Holst, Jon Thorgaard and Jacob Warburg of the the Danish Trade Council; Seppo Laine and Jarmo Karesto of Finpro; Haukur Bjørnsson and Jon Åsbergsson of the Trade Council of Iceland; Tomas Carlson of the Swedish Trade Council and Thomas Rønstrøm of NUTEK- Almi; and last but not least, to Oddur Gunnarsson, Susanne Gustavsson and Reinhold Enquist of the Nordic Industrial Fund together with Geir S, Kuvås of HSH. In the same round of thanks we would like to include our work team: Heidi Myrberg, Anne-Liv Eriksen and Helene Mørne of NTC. However, the main Thank You goes to all of you that offered your time and your experience to support the information collection. We thank you sincerely and hope that the insights gained will benefit you and the Nordic countries in meeting the challenges of the global economy. With best regards Jon Strømberg, Torleif M. Hauge and Jan Dahler Nilsson Norwegian Trade Council, Oslo 31 st of May,

3 FOREWORD 2 LIST OF CONTENT 3 1. INTRODUCTION The main objectives of the pre-study Research partners for the pre-study Definitions 5 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 3. THE SIX RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations to the SMB-Forum of the Nordic Industrial Fund Recommendations to the five Nordic Trade Council Organizations on Nordic SME cooperation Recommendations for common actions by both the Nordic Industrial Fund and the five Nordic Trade Council Organizations NORDIC RESEARCH SUMMARY Key areas of focus for the Nordic public and private service networks Nordic differences on SME internationalization Major Nordic points from the pre-study research NORDIC STATISTICAL SUMMARY General comments The weighing of the answers Nordic summary of the statistics SME-questionnaire summary Public and private SME service network Summary INDIVIDUAL COUNTRY REPORTS Denmark Finland Iceland Norway Sweden APPENDIX Research participants grouped by country Reference sources on SME and internationalization 110 3

4 1. INTRODUCTION The Nordic Industrial Fund s SMB-Forum recommended in November 2000, a prestudy with the title: Nordic SME-internationalization support for SMEs with high growth potential. The Board of Directors approved the proposal in December. The proposal was submitted by the Norwegian Trade Council s Technology Department as a follow up of a Nordic Industrial Fund (NI) initiative in March A NI work seminar in Stockholm with representatives from the five Nordic public technology support organizations, focused on main challenges faced by the typical new high tech SMEs operating in the global marketplace. The framework of the new global economy of free trade coupled with the telecommunication revolution, required a possible revision of how the Nordic countries supported their SMEs to obtain optimal results of their entrepreneurship. The focus was on the effectiveness of the support structure in the Nordic countries and especially on the support to SMEs in their efforts to internationalize and acquire new markets. Were the support frameworks outdated? Did the public support functions cover and support satisfactorily the need for quick technology and market access for the SMEs to meet competition in the global marketplace? Were capital resources and type of capital investments available to meet the needs in time? What could the Nordic countries possibly do in a Nordic regional context instead of tackling the challenges solely in a national framework? How could the Nordic region benefit from EU s increased focus on regionalization within Europe through closer networking to meet the global challenges of the free market economies? 1.1. The main objectives of the pre-study The above questions were concentrated in the following two main objectives of the prestudy: 1. To ascertain if the Nordic public support services to SMEs could benefit from reevaluating their strategies and programs designed to support the SMEs both in their present internationalization processes as well as in the future. By mapping especially SMEs with high international potential, disclose their high priority needs and at the same time evaluate how the Nordic support service organizations should meet these needs on a national and or on a Nordic cooperative basis. 2. If the pre-study concludes with a proposal for a specific project or projects in a Nordic context, prepare a proposal to NI with a framework for a Nordic effort and execution of such a project on SME-actions. 4

5 1.2. Research partners for the pre-study The pre-study was anchored with the Norwegian Trade Council in Oslo. The project management rested with the Technology Department headed by Torleif M. Hauge with Jan Dahler Nilsson as project manager The project required close support and coordination within the Nordic network of public service organizations for internationalization. The following were the key partners for the project: Denmark The Danish Trade Council in Copenhagen Responsible: Director Mette Holst, Finland Finpro ry in Helsinki (The Finnish Trade Council) Responsible: Vice president Seppo Laine and Director Jarmo Karesto Iceland The Trade Council of Iceland in Reykjavik Responsible: Senior Manager Haukur Bjørnson Sweden The Swedish Trade Council in Stockholm as coordinator supported by NUTEK- Almi in Stockholm Responsible: Senior Manager Tomas Carlson (STC) and Business Development Manager Thomas Rønstrøm (NUTEK-Almi) The partners were responsible for assisting the project manager with both longand short-listing of representative SMEs and public and private support officials to contact. They served at the same time as essential door openers for both the start up questionnaire and key follow-up interviews. During the study, they also served as the major check point for their own country reports and for drawing the final conclusions and recommendations at a Work Meeting arranged together with NI in Copenhagen April th of The Project Responsible at the Nordic Industrial Fund, Senior Advisor Oddur M. Gunnarsson, was actively supporting and evaluating the pre-study throughout the project period. 1.3 Definitions SME= Small and Medium Sized Enterprise= EU s definition: -less than 250 employees; yearly turnover less than NOK 320 million or balance less than NOK 216 million and less than 25% of share capital owned by any company larger than the SME definition. Born global = an SME that from the outset has its major markets outside the national one. 5

6 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY General The pre-study timing was seen as optimal by all the Nordic public support organizations. They were working on different aspects of their SME strategies for support and further internationalization programs for their SMEs, both for the traditional SMEs and born globals. The focus varied from better organizational support structures and improved coordination to more ready risk capital to especially support the start up and the internationalization process better. The Nordic pre-study results were expected to be useful as inputs to their own evaluations. Internationalization of SMEs All the five Nordic countries and their SMEs stated the need for further focus and investments in promoting internationalization for their SMEs. Internationalization had priority one combined with a parallel focus on innovation and entrepreneurship to meet the much stronger competitive pressures of the global new economy. Nordic focus There was a clear signal from the Nordic public sector in particular that increased support to SMEs in the new global economy required an updated and more expert support infrastructure to advise and support the SMEs than before. The key demand was for critical size of overseas technology and marketing offices as well as full services offered. This was coupled with a requirement for a high level expertise as advisors of also the more advanced SMEs. To open up and share the Nordic service organizations for international technology and marketing support, was therefore found as a very attractive avenue to test out. The Swedish Norwegian Trade Council experience in sharing of offices in certain markets could therefore be expanded to cover the other Nordic countries as well. The interest was for defining a possible wider framework for the cooperation as an overall objective. The opening up of the national trade offices to support networking for the Nordic SMEs was also a part of such a wider framework of cooperation. The positive attitude for Nordic cooperation was supported even more strongly because of EU s objectives and promotion of stronger regionalization and networking within natural partner countries within Europe. The born globals The group of SMEs defined as born globals, since they had their prime markets globally and could not rely on their home markets, did not see themselves as the major benefactors of public internationalization services. They were relying much more on the expanding internationalization services and networks of Venture Capital companies. However, the SMEs and spin-offs residing in the incubator services of the technology parks and innovation centers saw a much higher use for public internationalization support and networking than had been offered them till now. 6

7 The traditional SMEs There were strong recommendations to strengthen the support and upgrading efforts offered to the more traditional SMEs. This was especially important in a Nordic cooperative context of focusing on Nordic SME projects that helped positioning special sectors of SMEs as suppliers with key foreign customers. Presenting and creating market access for Nordic clusters of suppliers as part of common Nordic internationalization programs and projects, was seen as a key area for cooperation. The technology parks and innovation centers A much closer cooperation between the Nordic parks/innovation centers was recommended. Creating a Nordic model for positioning their SMEs was seen as an important element of improving internationalization of their SMEs in face of strong competition from other non-nordic centers. The Nordic pooling of participating SMEs by sectors to position them better with the technology and marketing networks in key markets was a major recommendation. Financing for start-up phase Both the SMEs themselves as well as most of the public representatives agreed on a clear need for early and high risk financing solutions to promote innovation and entrepreneurship better. Simpler, quicker forms for qualifying SMEs and more flexible high risk solutions with banks and Venture Capital companies in closer cooperation with the public finance institutions were major recommendations. Easier project financing during the internationalization process was a key issue. As a Nordic issue, a more active SME supporter role with SME seed money was desired for the Nordic Investment Bank. Overall SME recommendations A pre-study Workshop-meeting with the Nordic research partners in Copenhagen April, th, 2001, found six of the overall recommendations of key importance for promoting Nordic SME internationalization. Two of the six were seen as specifically addressed to the Nordic Industrial Fund s SMB-Forum as direct Nordic Industrial Fund tasks. The remaining four recommendations should be handled directly by the Nordic partners and not solely in the context of the Industrial Fund: 1. Open up the Nordic Trade Council organizations for assisting both the new and the more traditional Nordic SMEs in meeting their start up internationalization needs as well as the needs of the more advanced SMEs working in key overseas markets. The services should ultimately also cover the Scandinavian home markets. 2. Use the best of the Nordic courses and training programs for SME internationalization and start up training developed and or used by the Nordic Trade Councils as common programs for Nordic SMEs as well as for training of own advisory staffs. Also extending cooperation to offer courses and programs for Nordic SME participation and resulting SME network-building. 7

8 3. Establish a Nordic Industrial Fund project for supporting the internationalization needs of the new SMEs being launched in the Nordic Technology and Innovation Centers and Business Parks. 4. Establish two Nordic Industrial Fund pilot projects for inter Nordic branch networking for positioning Nordic SMEs as system and/or package suppliers to major customer organizations in key foreign industrial markets. 5. Evaluate quickly interest among the Nordic partner organizations for resubmitting an updated EU proposal for SME Innovation and networking (internationalization and benchmarking) by September The partner concept would be last year s NTC-consortium this time with all five Nordic countries, the Baltic States, Germany and the Nordic Industrial Fund. 6. Promote an active engagement by the Nordic Investment Bank in Helsinki to engage in earmarked funds set aside for seed money; start up financing and project financing guarantees for typical early phase SMEs. 8

9 3. THE SIX RECOMMENDATIONS The pre-study Workshop-meeting with the Nordic research partners in Copenhagen April, th, 2001, had as its main purpose to evaluate the findings and recommendations from the SME-Internationalization research in the five Nordic countries. The following six recommendations are presented under three separate headings: -Recommendations to the SMB-Forum of the Nordic Industrial Fund -Recommendations to the five Nordic Trade Council Organizations on Nordic SME cooperation -Recommendations for common actions by both the Nordic Industrial Fund and the five Nordic Trade Organizations 3.1 Recommendations to the SMB-Forum of the Nordic Industrial Fund Two recommendations from the pre-study call for direct involvement of the Nordic Industrial Fund through its SMB-Forum. The Fund is seen as a key initiator of three recommended pilot projects. During the pre-study process, one of them concerned with Nordic networking within the aeronautics industry, has already been given start up funding for a mapping of the Nordic aeronautic network and interest in the concept. Project 1. Nordic SME pilot programs for positioning key Nordic supplier clusters with major customers in key markets The research brought out that the Nordic SMEs, and especially the more traditional ones, wanted and were open for closer Nordic networking to better access key foreign markets and key industrial segments/branches and customers in those segments. The experience showed that larger customers required a high level of preparation and professionalism to open itself for testing out and admitting new suppliers. The trend among the larger customers was clearly also to require suppliers to offer packages or systems to improve their own logistics and cost levels further. The recommendation was therefore to organize on a Nordic cooperative level, SMEs within key segments to position them professionally with key international customers. Recommendation The Nordic Industrial Fund through its SMB-Forum, should promote two pilot projects based on positioning of Nordic SMEs with challenging major foreign customers representing important market potentials for Nordic SME networks of subcontractors. Pilot 1 Nordic High Technology Network. The Airbus and Euro-copter organizations, as examples, represent major opportunities for European suppliers of technology and services. The same organizations have invited European suppliers to compete for contracts as part of an overall EU-drive for developing European SMEs. They have stated that their requirements for taking on suppliers are to invite groups or networks of suppliers 9

10 capable of taking on key packages or systems. Their organizations do not have the capacity to take on smaller and lone SMEs. Airbus has stated that they would like the Nordic countries to prepare as a unit for taking on contracts. However, the process of selecting and evaluating their suppliers require a pre-selection and organizations of the Nordic suppliers to be presented and what they have earmarked as the sectors they want to qualify for. Phase I: The preparation of an Airbus pilot project with the Nordic Trade Councils as partners. (The pre-study was undertaken by NTC and the Nordic Industrial Fund on a basis due to the importance of presenting a basis for the overall pilot before August 2001.) Phase II: The SME selection and preparation phase Phase III: The positioning and follow-up phases with Airbus. The concept might require that the participating SMEs would contribute by cost sharing with NI and other national key public support/financing institutions as partners. Pilot 2- SMEs from a traditional sector The Nordic Industrial Fund should initiate and support a similar pilot project representing another industrial sector/segment offering international market opportunities. This segment, however, should represent a typical and more traditional Nordic supplier structure. The Pilot could have two target markets: 1. A major Nordic company/group interested in testing out and helping to upgrade Nordic SME suppliers. 2. A major European company/group willing to test out new Nordic SME suppliers. Project 2. Nordic pilot project for technology and market access networking. Internationalization in key markets for Nordic SMEs operating within Nordic technology and innovation parks. The SME research supported earlier information on the growing importance of the Nordic technology and innovation centers and business parks as incubation centers for Nordic global SMEs. It also substantiated that the parks and centers were not yet focused enough on the internationalization aspects of their process of launching successfully their promising SMEs. The lack of close networking on internationalization preparation of their SMEs with for example the support and cooperation of the Trade Councils was evident in all five countries. The other major finding was that the several of the centers desired a Nordic cooperation in introducing their promising high tech SMEs in key international centers for technology cooperation and/or market access networks. They had experienced that they needed a critical mass of such promising SMEs within a specific market segment to attract the necessary attention among the key players in 10

11 these high tech markets. The individual centers did not alone have the required cluster of SMEs to attract the key players. One of the Finnish centers (Oulu Technopolis/Oulu Tech) proposed, on behalf of an unofficial Nordic network of similar centers, to create a Nordic Industrial Fund pilot project to form a model for a Nordic centers cooperation in preparing and launching international market access and benchmarking project for promising Nordic incubator SMEs. This proposal is part of this pre-study recommendation to the SMB-Forum and the Nordic Industrial Fund. Recommendation NI should support the proposed pilot project to develop a model for SMEinternationalization cooperation among Nordic technology and innovation centers. This model should be made in close cooperation with the Trade Councils and the key public support organizations. The pilot project would cover: Phase 1. Pre-study to define the framework for the pilot project and to map out and select which technology segment(s) to be piloted and which market(s) to select for the pilot. Phase 2. Selection of the participating Nordic parks and their relevant SMEs. Preparation of the market data required from the relevant key market(s) and definition of market requirements for data and information on the SMEs and the presentation model to be used. Phase 3. Preparation of the SMEs for the market access pilot: Launching the introduction of the parks cluster of SMEs to the identified major international technology and market networks. Phase 4. Organization of the follow-up and support to assure that the SMEs do respond professionally and in time. Measuring the result of the pilot and make recommendations. The pilot project in this framework would promote the cooperation of the Nordic technology and innovation centers/parks with the Nordic Trade Council organizations and their technology and market offices in key markets. They would together design and support the SME technology and market access process The project would at the same time serve as a natural starting point for closer cooperation between the centers and the Trade Councils in preparing and supporting the centers in their design of internationalization training programs and use of preparation tools for their SMEs/incubator services. The cooperation would also make it natural for the centers to be using the services of the Trade Councils foreign technology and marketing offices in preparing for and achieving the international objectives for their SMEs benchmarking and network access. 11

12 3.2. Recommendations to the five Nordic Trade Council Organizations on Nordic SME cooperation The pre-study concluded with strong recommendations as to expected benefits to SMEs through closer cooperation and networking between the Nordic Trade Councils and their related support network. The following two recommendations were both seen as having high priority: Project 1- Sharing of Trade Council Services in key international markets The overwhelming recommendation from both new and traditional SMEs as well as from the relevant public and private institutions was support for opening up internationalization service offices of the Trade Councils and pooling of resources for the benefit of the Nordic SMEs. Major reasons The already hard and increasingly tougher global competition facing the Nordic SMEs and other SMEs as well, called for better utilization of Nordic competitive market advantages. The five Trade Councils overseas technology-and marketing offices in key markets, represented such an advantage through their system of professional bridgeheads for service assistance to SMEs. The present demand and challenge, however, was for improved service levels. This would require offices optimally manned with specialists with required background and experience, ample resources and facilities to also serve as SME incubators if required and strong enough networks in the markets to handle both early phase SMEs and the more demanding advanced SMEs. It was noted, however, that the Danish Trade Council would be more restricted in such cooperative arrangements than its other partners. Since budget restraints in many cases kept most of the present offices below critical size as national offices, the recommendation was to find practical ways to pool resources, cooperate in utilization of facilities and office administration, without loosing the national identity of the offices. Nordic manning was therefore a key but at a high quality and experience level. Recommended actions The Trade Councils, between themselves, should review the proposal at the upcoming Top Management Meeting with the possible agreement to fund a Nordic pilot project to test out a cooperative model that could function in one key foreign market, but to pick a test market not close to Scandinavia. However, the market should be an important SME growth market as seen by all the five countries. If successful, the cooperation should be expanded. The recommendation was also to open for a special SME cooperation arrangement at the Trade Councils home offices to service and promote network-building between Nordic SMEs in their local markets. 12

13 Project 2- Sharing best SME and internal staff training programs for business start up, internationalization, upgrading of personnel, Board of Director tasks etc. The research brought out a desire among those Trade Councils directly involved in training programs as well as their support service organizations to share the best SME internationalization programs, start up training and advisory courses instead of each organization re-inventing the wheel and duplicating efforts and costs unnecessarily. Recommended action Those Trade Councils with such services, should quickly establish a coordination project focusing on utilization of existing SME training- and upgrading programs as well as programs tailored to the Trade Councils own internal requirements for training of their staffs. The objective should be to optimize the use of good programs and courses especially focusing on internationalization requirements. The use of standard Nordic programs in cooperation with related EU-supported programs could provide both financing support for running programs as well as development of new Nordic-EU programs in support of Nordic SME networking. The upcoming meeting of the heads of the five Nordic Trade Council organizations or their representatives in June, 2001 would be a possible first date for reviewing the above recommendations and to discuss a possible framework for coordinated actions. 13

14 3.3 Recommendations for common actions by both the Nordic Industrial Fund and the five Nordic Trade Council Organizations Project 1 Possible updating and resubmitting Extended Nordic Regional SME innovation proposal to EU-DG Enterprise Background The Norwegian Trade Council as initiator together with the Nordic Industrial Fund, Finpro, STATT/Nutek, the Industrial Development Associations of the three Baltic States and the Industrial Relay Center of Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany prepared and submitted a proposal to EU s DG Enterprises in September The project was a response to a call for projects supporting SME innovation and internationalization. The concept was a three-year program of networking and international benchmarking for SMEs within this extended Nordic Region. It was a response to a Nordic effort in March 2000 to utilize EU s call for further regional cooperation to strengthen regional networking for SMEs within Europe. The recommendations from this present NI-Nordic pre-study support the need to promote further regional cooperation between the Nordic countries, but it also underlines that the Nordic partner countries give a clear priority for cooperative programs supported by EU. This former EU-proposal was evaluated by EU and found very interesting in concept and objectives. It was one evaluation point from being accepted. It was therefore recommended by the evaluators to be re-submitted incorporating their advice to add even more focus on the Baltic State integration and to extend the cooperation with the Innovation Relay Centers even further. Recommended actions The Nordic Trade Council partners wanted to receive quickly a short update and description of the earlier submitted EU-SME proposal together with the EUevaluation. (This documentation was distributed in May as per instruction). There should also be an official request to the Trade Council Partners from NTC to evaluate eventual participation in an updating. This would serve as a background for a decision to participate in a renewed and revised EU-SME proposal or not. 14

15 Project 2 Promote an active engagement by the Nordic Investment Bank in Helsinki to engage in earmarked funds set aside for seed money; start up financing and project financing guarantees for typical early phase SMEs. Background Among key Nordic public and private support organizations there was a strong wish and demand for modernizing the Nordic Investment Bank. There was also a clear need for focusing on the financial needs of the new economy enterprises and SMEs and not as before, mainly on the traditional and well established Nordic corporations. There was a call for earmarking a certain part of the Bank s funds for seed capital for both new and traditional SMEs in upgrading and internationalization and for supporting more strongly technology and innovation parks in their SME incubator efforts. The recommendations also desired the Bank to offer quick back up guarantees to the same type of SMEs during their early phase project financing for international projects in particular, but also for local projects where the local banks were too risk conscious and therefore in need of a solid official partner to soften their risk-taking. Recommended actions The Trade Councils top management and their Board of Directors should agree to cooperate on putting forward the proposal concerning the needed SME focus by the Nordic Investment Bank to their own delegates at the Bank and its governing body. This should at the same time be a coordinated effort with the Nordic Industrial Fund and its governing body. It was clear that only through lobbying, could the proposal of modernization lead to the required refocusing of the Bank to the needs of the new as well as the more traditional smaller Nordic SMEs belonging to the global new economy. 15

16 4. NORDIC RESEARCH SUMMARY General comments The pre-study research was conducted on the one hand through a selection of representative SMEs both of the new global type as well as more traditional but still high tech type. However, the major investigation was directed at representatives of public and private organizations with SME focus and responsibility. A total of 33 SMEs were interviewed and responded to the questionnaire. A total of 43 public and private representatives were equally interviewed and responded to the questionnaire. This prestudy is therefore not qualifying as a scientific study nor representing a normal distribution curve. What it does represent, however, is a representative snapshot of qualified opinions by persons selected for their type of industry, open views and positions both in the industry and in the support services. Most of them would be qualified as representing opinion makers. This section of the report focuses on the Nordic essence of the research findings and summarizes the major points made on SME internationalization needs and desired focus. The points made were seen as priorities and recurring as comments common to all the Nordic partner countries. The chapter is organized under three subjects: 4.1 Key areas of focus for the Nordic public and private service networks 4.2 Nordic differences on SME internationalization 4.3 Major Nordic points from the pre-study 16

17 4.1 Key areas of focus for the Nordic public and private service networks The public support networks in each of the Nordic countries were focusing on doing more for their SMEs and making their internationalization support more effective. The focus, however, was not only on the new globals but in equal measure to help the more numerous traditional SMEs in their needed restructuring- and internationalization process. Key focus areas All the Nordic countries were trying to find workable solutions for better financing support to innovators and new SMEs in the high risk phase of the start up. Finland was in the lead with preparation for a pilot program to cover the start up period of 6 months to 18months for SMEs located in and recommended by a selection board in their main Centers of Excellence (Technology and business parks). Denmark was also working with success to extend such start up or restructuring support to its SMEs. There was, however, an underlying common understanding that present support and finance schemes were not risk oriented enough and lost good innovators in the often too bureaucratic and limited risk evaluation process. SMEs, especially during their national and international market access phase to prove their worth, needed easy access to patent protection, project financing and project guarantees as part of the start up period, normally the first three to five years. The need for more ready money and support for patent advise and protection was on the agenda. However, the problem of local banks that were too reluctant to grant required financial project financing and guarantees without someone sharing the risk had been a recurring complaint. How the public financing institutions could design schemes for quick support guarantees and project financing together with the banks, was still a challenge not met by all the Nordic countries. The upgrading of the public service personnel handling the SME support functions was a common challenge for Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The new and open economy required better understanding of finance, industry operation and internationalization. This process was especially important to meet the new entrepreneurs representing high education and international networking experience. Better networking of the public support services and more team solutions to cut bureaucracy and time consuming decision processes to better meet the needs of the SMEs, was an overall objective as well as a demand in four of the Nordic countries. Finland was the exception, as it was also judged by its own SMEs to have achieved a higher degree of streamlining and cooperation of its support structure. A more complete and higher level advisory and networking service at the key international Trade Council and technology stations overseas, was a priority demand. This was especially a concern of the most advanced SMEs with international experience and clear priorities of further internationalization. Critical size of offices and a full range 17

18 of services were seen as a Nordic Trade Council challenge for more extensive networking and cooperation between their organizations. Introducing a networking concept of cooperation to support the launching and internationalization process of SMEs located in the different technology and innovation parks, was seen as a growing challenge to meet needs for international networking and market access. The optimal network was seen as combining resources of the parks/centers, Venture Capital with public finance institutions and the Trade Council organizations. The public institutions were addressing this challenge, but Finland and Denmark were in front focusing on new and improved cooperative models. Mandatory training of innovators/entrepreneurs in business planning, launching of the business, early business operation, marketing and internationalization, was a recurring advise and demand from many of the Nordic SMEs themselves as well as from public support services. This was a proven approach in Iceland and in Sweden to a certain extent. All the Nordic countries had various approaches but not yet as a requirement to get launched. However, all the Nordic countries were giving more attention to such training schemes coupled with advisory services as well as training of members of board of directors to understand their tasks and responsibilities better. Making public R&D funding support equally available for representative soft service and trade companies and institutions and not only dominated by the traditional high tech SMEs and institutes was another key area for public action among the Nordic countries. Norway as an example starts a major new R&D fund to assure a more balanced focus in May this year. 4.2 Nordic differences on SME internationalization The five Nordic countries represent differences in their organization of SME support and in their focus of support for SME internationalization. Finland has often been used as an international example of successful coordination and organization of its public and private SME support and service structure. This successful Finnish profile was without envy mentioned by the other Nordic countries as a good model for public restructuring of their services too, however, the historic circumstances and the Finnish spirit of confronting and solving crises made it a Finnish solution. There was, however, envy expressed when the other Nordic countries described the lack of national long term economic planning to give entrepreneurs and investors a solid enough framework for committing their efforts and money, long term. They felt their politicians were too often changing rules that affected negatively the creation of new business and the maintenance and growth of existing industrial activity. Key differences - The organization of the internationalization support functions in the Nordic countries varied. One major factor was the degree of industry ownership and direction of the SME internationalization services. With the exception of Denmark, the Trade Council organizations were now semi-public with a high 18

19 degree of industry direction and identification as the objective of its operations. However, the new Danish Trade Council still as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had now a strong industry identification through its Advisory Board with its industry representatives. - The Norwegian Trade Council with its technology service offices integrated in its operations, was seen as a stronger organization for that reason than those who had not the same integrated technology resource in house. The technology service and expertise was especially needed by the typical high tech exporting industries and SMEs in the new global economy. - There were also major differences in the public focus on cost of the internationalization organizations and the resources required both in the home office organizations versus the overseas operations. Having been created as public financed institutions originally and relying still heavily on public contributions to their operations, the Trade Councils were under heavy pressure to effectuate savings at the same time as they should provide better and more high expertise services to the SMEs. The organizations were therefore faced with varying but decreasing budgets in real terms and increasing earning and efficiency demands. Having offices overseas in both key markets and in up and coming ones at the same time and manned for giving optimal service and back up to the SMEs, was seen as impossible on a national basis but possible along a more Nordic cooperative model. - The public internationalization support services offered the SMEs were still not fully coordinated or satisfactory coordinated as seen both by SMEs as well as by public and private service organizations. The common objective though was to bring these services (like to a large extent in Finland) together through common objectives and simplified coordination and structure. Key elements were simplification of decisions and clear funding responsibilities and authority delegation. - The increasing importance of the technology parks and innovation centers with incubator services and business objectives was recognized to varying degrees among the Nordic countries. The most advanced and integrated model for supporting and structuring cooperation and innovation as part of a national strategy was again Finland. However, the other Nordic countries were actively working on upgrading their structure of support as well as positively accepting and promoting more inter-nordic cooperation as natural both from a regional point of view, but also from sharing common culture and common industrial clusters. - The role of EU as a key promoter of internationalization and source of cooperative industrial guidance was a primary factor for the three Nordic EUmembers. It was also critical for the Norwegian and Icelandic cooperative strategies through the Common Market Access Agreement. However, a Nordic regionalization strategy was only natural as long as it was in line with the EU objectives of further regionalization within Europe. Since a closer Nordic cooperative regional effort for the SMEs was fully in line with EU s objectives as well as programs, the pre-study did not uncover any conflict in increasing Nordic cooperation and networking on behalf of its SMEs. 19

20 4.3 Major Nordic points from the pre-study research Introduction The following findings are drawn from the five individual country reports on SMEinternationalization. They represent the common ground where the focus of the countries were similar or complimented each other. SME - structure and internationalization support 1. All five Nordic countries had a high priority assigned to supporting both innovation and the consequent establishment of competitive SMEs both within the traditional industrial sectors as well as those defined as born globals of the new economy. 2. There was at the same time a clear understanding both among the SMEs themselves and the public and private support groups and institutions that operating as a SME - manufacturer or as a service provider today required understanding of internationalization and acceptance of an open market economy. The words globalization and free trade were not for the select few. Competition from outside was standard practice. 3. The public concern for SMEs and their internationalization capability was not only centered and directed at the born globals category, but in equal degree at the more traditional SME sectors faced with the need for upgrading and modernizing themselves to tackle international competition and markets. 4. The traditional SMEs saw their close regional market represented by the Nordic countries as still their first step of collecting experience of internationalization, before tackling the more foreign markets. For that reason the possible opening up for Nordic cooperation in assisting them to enter and hook up to these local markets with official local help, was of major interest, both for the SMEs and their support organizations. 5. Also the born global type of SMEs did see the Nordic markets as important both as start up and alliance building markets. Their global views did not overlook the importance of the more local and more known Nordic networks as a basis for further expansion or in parallel with opening the non-nordic markets. 6. There was a growing and open criticism among SMEs and public institutions that the new service trades were still treated as secondary to the traditional technology sectors of the economy. The public funding of R&D projects reflected still that its attention and major focus was on the technology sectors. This curtailed unnecessarily the development of the soft sector projects representing important areas of the new economy like service sectors and trade related projects. The demand was for equal treatment in evaluation of project support funding was clear. 7. The importance of market access and marketing in achieving results from all R&D investments was recognized as a major weakness in the innovation and internationalization policies of all the Nordic countries. In spite of this 20

21 recognition, the public funding programs were still dominated by a focus on the development phase and not at preparing and launching the products/services. 8. At the same time as more internationalization and better market access were key issues, the different public and semi-public internationalization organizations (trade councils and technology offices) were not given stronger budgets and signals of further expansion. With exception of Denmark, the signals were critical to the efficiencies of the existing organizations and the demand was for higher levels of self financing through own project income. Restructuring to attract more projects from SMEs in their internationalization process was a clear signal from the policy makers. 9. The Nordic officials signaled that ways to more efficiency of internationalization support to their SMEs, had to be sought in the context of further support to the regionalization efforts of EU. Only as long as the Nordic cooperative efforts could be seen in an EU context, could a more active Nordic SME cooperation expect an equal interest and be given equal political priority. Role of public and private support organizations for SME internationalization 10. Both SMEs and public/private support organizations wanted further simplification of the SME support network and its structure. Only Finland was given high marks for its consistent efforts to improve and simplify its services through closer cooperation of the service organizations. 11. The support organizations themselves had a clear understanding of the need for both further simplification and a closer coordination of their services to the SMEs, but the pressure and priorities to achieve these objectives, varied from country to country. Conflict of interest as to who had or should share control of SME funding, entrenched rivalries between some of the service organizations to have their own internationalization service instead of using the existing set up, made an eventual change process difficult and time-consuming. However, the most critical situations were found in Sweden and in Iceland where different service organizations competed in offering internationalizations services to their SMEs. The demand from the industry was for simplification and one stop shopping as well as having the public partners accepting more readily that the industry representatives should be granted the direction and control of these services. The trend was to assure a business approach and priority setting. 12. The Trade Council type organizations were seen as providing important overseas bridgeheads for SME internationalization. The demand was, however, for full service offices that could also serve as incubator centers for SMEs in need of a first build up of their foreign operations in key markets. Critical size of offices meant also having the required expert staff to handle also experienced SMEs. The industrial experience among the staff/advisors was key. The SMEs had therefore no criticism or anxieties concerned with receiving such service from offices combining the Nordic service organizations as long as their requirement for both critical size and expertise were met. 13. The public financing service organizations were often viewed as operating too much like normal banks although they had clear objectives and expressed roles as risk taking organizations. The bureaucracy of its application and evaluation 21

22 procedures was therefore a recurring criticism (Finland was the exception). It resulted in too many innovators holding back from trying or giving up the fight during the typical start up phase. 14. The demand for an upgrading of the public service personnel handling SMEs to understand better and to be capable of handling and advising the better educated and IT related born globals as clients and not as beggars, was recognized as required by the public organizations themselves. Efforts to meet this demand were therefore underway in several of the countries, but not in all. (Sweden was actively developing such programs). 15. The entrance of Venture Capital companies, Funds and private investors during the economic boom years of the 90 ies had fueled both innovation and entrepreneurship and helped reduce the reliance on the public funding organizations. However, the IT sector s loss of investor confidence during the last year in particular, made demand for worst case preparation of the public sector financing tools a recurring topic. The public sector should be ready to step in with support financing for their SMEs, if the private sector pulled back too much. (Norway, Iceland and Sweden were especially concerned) 16. The same Venture Capital sector had developed its own profile as capable advisors and couplers to their networks for SMEs in foreign markets. These services were often growing out of a positive and closer cooperation between the VCs and the public financing institutions. However, there were no special efforts recognized among the public organizations to promote a closer working relationship or networking cooperation between the VCs and the Trade Council organizations. There were, however, clear recommendations from the research to promote a closer working contact between the two service sectors both providing SMEs internationalization back up and direct assistance. 17. There was a clear concern for improving the SME evaluation phase in terms of providing a more extensive network of qualified evaluators than available today. All of the countries would like to see a possible network arrangement of qualified experts for the evaluation of the varied technology and service projects trying to compete for public support. This was especially important within new and highly specialized technology segments with few national specialists due to the newness of the fields. 18. The international focus on the positive role played by Business Angels in supporting and motivating start-ups, was also a Nordic topic. With relatively small national clusters of qualified Business Angels with background in specialized segments of industry, a Nordic Network of qualified Angels was proposed as one way of providing experience and quicker help than today. Start up and project financing 19. The Nordic countries were all concerned with finding acceptable ways for providing better start up support for innovators. Their present programs for support did not allow the higher risk of financing the testing out phase of new projects before the innovators or owners of the ideas had established their SMEs. Finland with TEKES and SITRA as responsible public partners had, however, discussed a pilot project with the Centers of Excellence (Parks) to test a program 22

23 of support for the period -6 months + 18 months allowing for public funding of such start ups in the early testing out phase. The other Nordic countries were equally focused on finding their own acceptable risk solutions to provide such start up incentives. They were interested in the Finnish concept and reasoning to cut down their own evaluation time and maybe take on the Finnish model. 20. The SMEs were equally concerned about the lack of sufficient coordination and funding follow up of SMEs during their initial start up and internationalization process. They were positive to the initial funding schemes when they were established as SMEs to get organized better, but criticized the lack of ready support and guarantees for project financing during the early phase. The critical point was to get the local banks to accept the risk of project financing. The recommendation was to have the public finance institutions with a ready scheme to step in with the local banks as guarantors to prevent both loss of time and loss of trust with the customers, especially foreign customers. 21. The same SMEs pointed at the growing importance of having patent coverage at a very early stage. The global marketplace and communication technology made patent protection very important, and already from the early stage. Most patent support schemes were based on the pre global communication period and did not reflect today s global situation. More available patent resources and funding were key recommendations. 22. Denmark, but also other Nordic countries, wanted not only focus on the born globals and their possible internationalization requirements, but also on the traditional family owned SMEs with international potential. The financing of such restructuring to make them competitive and capable of new growth through internationalization as well, were not fully recognized by the public support systems. One recommendation was to speed up the present slow and risky process, by having banks and public finance institutions together focus on new finance tools. In the same context, a proposal was to offer interest free loans for a certain restructuring period, up to 3 years, against higher interest during the subsequent pay back period when the businesses had proven their earning potential. 23. Both born globals and public service representatives concerned with more Nordic cooperation, focused on the need to revitalize and modernize the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) to better serve the SMEs of the new global economy, not only the old and established Nordic industries, as was the criticism. The proposal was to make NIB also a seed funding bank and a bank also for the technology and innovation centers and parks with their SMEs. 24. All the Nordic countries joined in the recommendation of opening up more the public R&D funding for soft projects. The criticism was that funding was too focused still on high tech projects from traditional industries. There was also a desire to move away from too much cluster related R&D that severely curtailed the availability of support funding for other development areas. 25. More attention and acceptance among public service institutions and politicians to the funding of preparation of marketing related tasks in parallel with the product/service related R&D developments, was a major and recurring criticism. 23

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