A persistência das PMEs gaúchas nas exportações: uma análise dos fatores de estímulos e barreiras

Abstract

Exports are motivated by internal factors associated to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – such as the availability of a superior product and the company's ambition to grow and prosper – also by external factors, related to the environments in which SMEs are inserted, such as favorable exchange rate variations. However, internal barriers, such as the lack of sufficient production and the difficulty in offering competitive prices, and external barriers, such as an economic crisis in the destination country of export, usually hinder the export activity of SMEs. These motivating factors and problematic barriers interfere in the persistence of the regional SMEs in exports. Based on a study of fourteen Rio Grande do Sul companies, which exported uninterruptedly from 2003 to 2017, using the QCA method – a methodology that allows the use of quantitative and qualitative methods together – it was possible to know the main combinations of motivations that generate exports, as well as to identify the main combinations of barriers that complicate SMEs’s exports. The results also pointed out the stimulus factors for exports that stood out most in the research, as well as the main internal and external barriers that were faced by the SMEs in their exporting trajectories. Finally, this research presents suggestions for initiatives and actions directed at policy makers related to export development and support programs, in order to stimulate exports through endogenous motivations and indicate the main internal barriers that need to be addressed for the persistence of SMEs on their way to export success.