Most firms in the sample sell products of the same quality abroad as they sell
locally. Therefore, positive experiences with products successfully sold in the local
market can aid in the internationalization process, selling first to regional customers
that may demand products of similar characteristics than the ones demanded locally.
However, according to the data, one of the requirements to become a successful exporter
is to have international quality standards, something not easy to be achieved by SMF,
helping circumvent the quality barrier mentioned by Neupert et al. (2006).