The Reverse Umbrella Company Concept

This qualitative study approaches export promotion on the basis of a novel concept targeting small and medium sized enterprises on a corporate level. As proven by various studies and reinforced throughout this research, small and medium sized enterprises worldwide are experiencing severe difficulties with the initial step to overseas markets. Especially, in developing countries framework conditions and internal barriers pose great hurdles to internationalization. For this reason, the following pages represent an attempt to apply the Umbrella Company Concept to the internationalization of Vietnamese small and medium sized enterprises by reversing its principle. Thereby, a step by step approach to the concept provides the reader with a theoretical and practical perspective. Through interviewing valuable experts in this field, significant differences between potential trade partners are confirmed and reveal several severe barriers to the establishment of international operations. Going further, insights on how to overcome obstacles and barriers are gained and developed in theory as well as in practice. Among others, the study reinforces the notion of interrelation between risk, control and resource commitment from the perspective of small and medium sized enterprises. The accompanying case of Vietnamese Trung Kien Group serves as an ongoing vivid practical example.