The changing pattern of SME's innovativeness through business model globalization

Globalization has forced small and medium enterprises to change business models with new innovative capabilities. However, it is not clear what those old and new business models are let alone capabilities. Challenging this, we suggest a way of identifying principal types of those business models, and of finding evolving paths of SME's business models with the changing pattern of innovativeness. Based on a survey result of 400 Korean SMEs, four principal types of business models are identified and characterized by distinctive innovativeness. Also, through interviews and additional surveys on 30 globalized SMEs, the four evolving paths of SME's BMs are explored. For small and medium enterprises, our research can be used not only as a strategic reference, but also as a policy tool to design government-funded supporting programs.

► We find four principal types of SMEs' business models: global infant, global niche market, focused R&D and global champion.
► We can identify four evolving paths with distinctive changing pattern of innovativeness.
► Four paths consist of disruptive transition, incremental transition, leapfrogging and born-to-be-global.
► Our result can be used a strategic reference for SMEs, and a policy tool for government-funded SME support programs.