China goes global: public policies' influence on small- and medium-sized enterprises' international expansion

Despite Small and Medium-size Enterprises’ (SMEs) significant contribution to China’s social and economic development very little has been written about the influence that public policies (i.e. public funding priorities and regulatory measures) may have on the first stage of international expansion of Chinese SMEs. To help to fill this gap, this article analyses five main factors related to public policies and services affecting Chinese SMEs’ internationalization: access to public financial resources; participation of the government in ownership; access to public procurement contracts; adverse regulatory and inconsistent legal frameworks, and public assistance on information and knowledge about markets. The main conclusion is that SMEs appear to base their international expansion on private capabilities, rather than on support from the government; in addition, the perceived barriers for the international expansion of these firms may be mainly internal, rather than institutional.