Key motives for internationalization process of small and medium-sized enterprises

The ability of small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 99 % of all economic entities in the Czech Republic, to involve in the internationalization process is an often discussed topic. Apart from finding the key motives for entering a foreign market, the aim of this paper is to determine whether there is some dependence between motives and characteristics of a company. The results show some differences among sectors. Nevertheless, the key motives for internationalization of Czech SMEs are the foreign demand for products, the lack of demand in the domestic market, the customer portfolio enlargement and the increase in sales. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V.