5. Conclusion
5.1 Discussion
The positive relationship between TC and export intensity at the firm level is supported by thestudy of Karadeniz and Göçer (2007) in Turkey and that of Kongmanila and Takahashi (2009) inLao Republic. This finding indicates that SMEs require curtain levels of TC in order to engagethemselves into international market. The more they adopt technological knowledge that theyhave acquired and absorbed into their processes and product development, the more likely theyare able to penetrate into existing foreign market. However, this does not guarantee their international success if they are lack of competitive advantages (López-Rodríguez and García-Rodríguez, 2005). Only when they have started to export and accumulated experience, the export process as a result of technological spillovers within the industry allow it to improve its TC at thefirm level and hence its competitiveness. This positively affects its export intensity.The positive relationship between TUC and export growth at the firm level was supported byMacpherson (1994). He studied the influence of innovation on SMEs in USA. The result presented the positive relationship between product innovation and export growth and the strongrelationship between process innovation and export growth as well. Flor and Oltar (2005) foundout the same phenomenon in their study on 88 Spanish exporting ceramics tile firms.
5.2 Implication
This study provides several theoretical and practical implications for researchers and managerswho are concerned with TC development in SMEs in emerging countries. The findings of thisresearch suggest that the improvements of manufacturing processes and of product design arecritical for SMEs to successfully compete in international markets. These improvements are based on accumulative technological knowledge acquired from both internal and externalsources.
Practical implications of this work are considerable. Firstly, SMEs’ owners and manager
s shouldrecognize the importance of TC to the international competitiveness of their firm, and hence of the need to invest more in technology to improve it. At the higher level of firm-level TC, SMEscould achieve the better result SMEs perform in the international market. Moreover, they shouldtake initiatives to empower TC within their firm to continuously improve their processes and products, to boost up sales volume in foreign markets, and consequently, to reduce their cost inorder to maintain the existing export market as well as to develop new products and services.Secondly, researchers can study the export performance for SMEs in emerging economies fromthe concept of organizational capabilities. The studies of the impact of other capabilities on SMEsexport performance are needed to further the understanding of this phenomenon. Third, the policymakers should promote and stimulate the investment in TC developing at specific level for SMEs. However, they should separate campaigns for SMEs that engage intensively ininternational markets.These findings contribute to the understanding of how SMEs in emerging market countries usethe available technologies to improve firm performance and integrate them into the globaleconomy. However, from the results, firm-level TC alone is not enough for SMEs to sustain their existing international customer and to spread themselves into new foreign markets. Thus other relevant capabilities need to be included in further study. Furthermore, this study concentratedonly on plastic industry in Thailand. The studies of the impact of firm-level TC on export performance in different industries and countries are in required.