Tutkimustani varten haastattelen kansainvälistyvien pienyritysten perustajia. On enemmän sääntö kuin poikkeus, että heillä on haasteita ajan, rahan ja muiden resurssien puutteen kanssa. Kuitenkin samaan aikaan he kykenevät unelmoimaan suuria, omistaen vakaan uskon siihen, keitä he ovat ja mitä he tekevät. Saatat samaistua tai sitten et, mutta olen itse saanut tuon saman vaikutelman suurimman osan tapaamieni yritysjohtajieni ja haastattelemieni yrittäjien kohdalla. Myös sijoittajat, joiden osallisuus on elintärkeää monen startup-yrittäjän mukaan, jakavat jotain oleellista tuosta unelmointikyvystä, kantaen mukanaan tuon uskon ”ilosanomaa”.

Olemassa olevilta luottamuksellisilta verkostosuhteilta kysyminen on tehokas tapa löytää uusia verkostosuhteita kansainvälisen liiketoiminnan kasvuun. Projektin tutkimustulosten pohjalta näyttää, että nykyiset pk-perheyrittäjät voisivat käyttää verkostojen verkostoja tehokkaammin. Yrittäjälle ei koidu kustannuksia, kun hän kysyy olemassa olevilta tuttavilta, että tuntisivatko he jonkun sopivan verkostosuhteen jollakin halutulla alueella. Toisaalta tämä säästää myös aikaa, sillä kun esittely uuteen verkostosuhteeseen tekee joku, johon molemmat osapuolet luottavat, luottamus syntyy tässä suhteessa nopeammin.

Last September 2017 I started my journey towards PhD degree, and as a crucial part of it, the data collection of our research project started in the beginning of 2018. Having visited and interviewed a bunch of interesting family SMEs in Finland, I feel confident that we are digging a fruitful and important turf of internationalization phenomena, and that there is a lot to learn from these stories of successful family enterprises. For now, I won’t go that deeper into the insights relevant to our research project (because there are still many interviews to be made during the spring and, thus, more insights to be taken into consideration), but rather I would like to reflect these enterprise visits to the researcher’s work and career development in general. Being at the early stage of my PhD degree path and having done few courses related to the research field and methodology, I think that, just like the case often is with lower level degrees, there should be compulsory internship or practical training period for each PhD to really get to know, what the real world is really like regarding one’s own research field.

Olen tutkijanurani (2008-2018) aikana perehtynyt syvästi 23 suomalaisen pienen ja keskisuuren perheyrityksen kansainvälistymiseen. Tässä kirjoituksessa esittelen tutkimukseni kautta tekemiäni yleisiä havaintoja erityisesti näiden 23 pk-perheyrityksen kansainväliseen verkostoitumiseen ja kulttuuriosaamiseen liittyen. Lopussa vielä valotan miten 1870-1930-lukujen perheyrittäjät (Serlachius, Schauman, Waldén, Ahlström) verkostoituivat ja hallitsivat vieraat kulttuurit.

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a bus. The bus is taking me to Austria, where I’ll spend a couple of days visiting my friends before heading towards the expected white Christmas in Finland. My trip has started from Milan, where I attended an European International Business Academy Conference of current research related to my own research field. Now, having a good 5-hour ride for myself, I start reflecting on the past six months of research and my next steps in this process. So, in addition to a simple bus ride with a nice view over the Alps, I find myself being on a mental journey of some sort inspired by the things I see around me.

My newest publication* deals with how SMEs are able to build international network ties wisely to an institutionally different foreign market. We investigated eight Finnish SMEs who had exports via agents / distributors, sales subsidiaries, or a production subsidiary in the French market. We interviewed both Finnish managers and their French collaborators. We used the concept of institutional logics to find out about the cultural and material practices typical of Finnish and French business culture / SMEs.

PwC recently conducted a large-scale Family Business Survey Report about family enterprises both globally and in Finland. The survey dealt with various themes, among which a closely examined one was internationalization. In Finland, 54 phone interviews and 57 face-to-face interviews were conducted, which yielded some interesting findings. Finnish family enterprises expect more growth than their counterparts in Sweden, Germany and globally, both overall and in terms of international sales during the next five years. The survey, however, raises a concern over the relatively low willingness among Finnish family enterprises to use nonfamily executives in running the business. According to the survey, enterprises with nonfamily executives tend to grow more aggressively. Accordingly, it asks whether Finnish family enterprises are capable enough to achieve the high international growth targets with current skills, people and product/service portfolio.

Some family enterprises do not want to be labeled as family enterprises. The reason for it might be the lack of respect there used to be for this type of firms. Recently, the focus in many societies has been on high-growth firms, which are without doubt important and fascinating stories. However, at the same time, the largest group of firms, the ones growing slower, slowly, or not at all, making more than 95% of the firm population, have achieved much less attention. I think this really needs to be fixed, and there needs to be more focus on firms with slower growth, such as family enterprises.