Iveta Ubreziová

Product adaptation in processes of internationalization

Purpose – One of the key decisions in becoming international is the standardization versus adaptation of the products for foreign markets. Previous research has mostly seen these alternatives as polarized opposites, even if it seems that the practitioners must nearly always adopt a certain level of adaptation that is nevertheless clearly less than full adaptation. The aim of the paper is to connect the amount and types of changes required to the cultural distance.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was offered to 33 companies producing 107 Slovak food products being exported successfully; the amount of changes required for different markets were calculated and classified for each product. Supporting interviews to 15 companies were conducted.Findings – The results suggest that markets culturally more distant require a greater number of changes than the culturally more similar target countries. The increase is clear especially in amount of packaging size and style changes for the foreign market. Converse...

Foreign Trade Changes in Poland and Slovakia as an Effect of Europeanization before and after the Accession

Integration processes in Europe as well as globalization trends create new possibilities for enterprises. The accession of ten new Member States in 2004 and additional two in 2007 create new possibilities for enterprises, especially as far as foreign trade in concerned. The paper elaborates on internationalizing of exchange sphere of enterprises in Poland and Slovakia, which is mainly realized by foreign trade. Thus the paper focuses on export and import transactions as the most popular form of internationalization of enterprises. The Paper presents two case studies of new member States, that is Poland and Slovakia. For Poland the authors analyzed the foreign trade turnover in the period before and after the enlargement, while for Slovakia the authors outlined the basic trends in Slovak foreign trade and focused mainly on the trade exchange within the Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four (V4), which made up of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The aim of the paper is to investigate the impact of accession on the value and structure of foreign trade in two selected new Member States, that is Slovakia and Poland.

DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS SECTOR IN SLOVAKIA IN 1993-2006

Development of Small Business Sector in Slovakia in 1993-2006 The main focus of the article is to elaborate on the importance and role of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Slovak economy. The authors show the development tendencies of the SME sector in Slovakia in the years of 1993-2006. Where it was possible the authors enumerated the data for the year 2007. The paper analyses the state of the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises, seeking to understand the causes of its relative strength and weakness. The share of the SME sector in all the registered enterprises in Slovakia is convergent with the whole EU average and it amounts to 99.8%. In Slovakia the share of microenterprises amounts to 79.3% which is the lowest feature in the EU. It means that the situation in Slovakia seems to be better for the economy, as the microenterprises do not have significant impact on the national employment and the GDP. In Slovakia the share of SMEs in total employment is crucial and amounts to 61.2%. A present-day share of the SME sector in both export and import volumes is more than 1/3 of the total volume of foreign trade of Slovakia.