There must be some motivations behind the decision to internationalize. Leonidou, Katsikeas and Percy (1998) found that organizations are often willing to market themselves for four reasons. First, it may be due to slow growth in the domestic economy as evidenced by a decrease in the number of the home market opportunities. Consequently, an organization will look for other opportunities by entering new international markets (Chandra, Styles and Wilkinson, 2009). Second, there may be a trade deficit followed by currency devaluation and a number of export restrictions. Third, the world trading system may become more liberalized leading to a minimization of international market entry barriers. Forth, it might be more intensive global competition in the global business environment.

All these trends have developed the dynamic of exports. The creation of exports is not only due to the self-initiative of a company, but also by the government. This is also confirmed by Gripsrud (1990) who states that the government of a country may believe their firms to think globally by expanding their service areas to foreign markets, in the expectation of increasing exports from the country. Thus, it will help the economy of that country.

Additionally, OECD (2009) also analyzed motivations for small and medium-sized internationalization including growth motives, knowledge-related motives, network or stoical ties and domestic or regional market factors.

4.1.1 Growth Motives

The growth opportunities associated with international markets were identified as a key driver of firm internationalization in several recent studies (Orser et al., 2008), (Rundh, 2007), (Barnes et al., 2006), (Reynolds, 2007). Growth opportunities in other markets and increase profits from international opportunities have been identified as key driver for exports. The company decision in venturing abroad also seems to be motivated by a need for business growth, profits, an increased market size, a stronger market position, and to reduce dependence on a single or small number of markets. The reason for the growth is very closely linked to maximizing revenues and minimizing costs in purchasing, production and sales.

4.1.2 Knowledge-related Motives

Garvey and Brennan (2006) suggest that knowledge assets both push and pull small and medium-sized enterprises into international markets. The ‘push’ dimension relates to the importance of managers’ previous international experience and related management capacity factors. There are also related findings on the internationalization triggering effects of knowledge aspects, including R&D investment, innovation capabilities, unique product or technology, and language skills; and firm resource base, which reflected in the proxies as size, age, and experience.