Investigating the export marketing activity of SMEs operating in international healthcare markets

The paper reports on an investigation of the characteristics associated with small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) exporters that operate in international healthcare markets. A framework is initially developed to analyse (a) the factors that stimulate such firms to venture overseas, (b) the key barriers to export, (c) the international market coverage where the firms do business, and (d) their success factors associated with trading internationally. Based on a sample of 112 SMEs, our findings reveal that although business growth, profits and a large market size were seen to motivate firms to venture overseas, finding an appropriate partner was a key barrier. Cultural issues were not found to prevent the sample of firms from doing business internationally, but having high-quality products and competitive prices were considered important ingredients of success. Several managerial implications are also extracted from the study that business support providers and governmental sources can use to assist firms operating within the sector.