International licensing by emerging market SMEs in the audiovisual industry

Abstract

Abstract The central issue that guided the study was that of understanding how emerging market SMEs in the audiovisual industry overcome their liabilities of smallness, newness, outsidership, foreignness and emergingness when entering foreign markets through licensing. Using an abductive approach to the case method of investigation, the study analyzes three cases of animation studios from an emerging market, Brazil. The results show that the firms are quite different in the way they approach the international market through licensing. Each firm follows a trajectory that is strongly connected to its time of inception and its technological options. They use different approaches to overcome their liabilities, and thus deal with issues related to uncertainty, risk, commitment, and control. The study contributes in several ways to the understanding of how emerging market SMEs overcome their liabilities and enter foreign markets via licensing, including: establishing strategic partnerships, taking advantage of technology disruptions and industry turmoil early on, partnering with new players that are still building their networks, using home government incentives, and using the advantages of emergingness to enter alternative markets.