The Influential Factors on Internationalization of the SMEs in China: on Wenzhou’s Shoe Industry and Policy Implications

As a major center in the world’s largest footwear producing and exporting country, China is trying to transform its labor intensive manufacturing industry into a more competitive and internationalized one. However, there are still many uncertainties in the process of internationalization. Wenzhou, one of the major industrial cities, is also facing this challenge. This paper first examine the key influential factors for internationalization of SMEs from a theoretical perspective, then plug the data and factors from Wenzhou into the framework to analyze the influential factors on the Internationalization of the SMEs in Wenzhou. Results demonstrate that both the external factors, like global financial crisis, and internal ones, like the local infrastructure, government support, are critical for the internationalization of Wenzhou SMEs. Policy implications are addressed to promote the internationalization of SMEs.