Gateway strategies : an efficient tool to manage risks and accelerate SMEs' internationalization ?

The saturation of traditional markets and the opening-up of economies push SMEs to internationalize. Even if they suffer from resources scarcity, more and more SMEs are investing abroad, calling for a reinvestigation of their expansion strategies. This article relies on the analysis of five independent manufacturing SMEs having (at least) one subsidiary abroad. It aims at understanding the main motivations pushing SMEs to implement gateway strategies in order to penetrate foreign markets. The decision to invest in a gateway country is following a defensive or offensive logic resulting from the interaction of external and internal factors. It appears that gateway strategies act as a tool to facilitate the entry to emerging market, reducing at the same time SMEs' exposure to local risks.