ABSTRACT

This article deals with the use of heuristics in the decision-making process of entrepreneurial exporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in business-to-business settings. It specifically considers the textile industry. Heuristics can be defined as “simple rules” for cognition and action. The article points out the presence of a research gap in the literature on the decision-making of exporting SMEs and deals with the following research question: What heuristics are used in exporting decisions by SMEs in business-to-business markets? Empirically, it discusses the findings of seven case studies of Italian exporting textiles SMEs in business-to-business markets. The results reveal the widespread use of heuristics and formulate propositions about their features. Findings show that heuristics in exporting SMEs in the textile industry are perceived as effective tools for export decisions, corresponding to personal beliefs of the single decision-maker, intentionally built through experience, generalizable to different export markets, and time tested.

摘要

本文探讨了在企业对企业环境中，企业家式出口中小企业（SME）的决策过程中启发式方法的使用。它专门考虑了纺织工业。启发式可以定义为认知和行动的“简单规则”。本文指出了有关出口中小企业决策的文献中存在研究空白，并涉及以下研究问题：中小企业在企业对企业市场的出口决策中使用了什么启发式方法？从经验上讲，它讨论了在企业对企业市场中意大利出口纺织品中小企业的七个案例研究的结果。结果揭示了启发式方法的广泛使用，并提出了关于它们的特征的命题。