外文翻譯---因特網對中小型企業(yè)國際化進程的作用.docx

外文資料翻譯英文原文The Role of the Internet in the Internationalisation of small and medium sized companiesAbstract: It is now recognized that many firms are “born global and initiate international business from inception or shortly thereafter. They have been influenced by both globalization and the impact of new ICT technologies. The findings are presented, including the role of the Internet in marketing, distribution, business processes and market intelligence and competitor analysis. The role of the Internet as a knowledge building tool is discussed, and areas for future research are presented.Web access is available to all firms regardless of size, offering benefits which include: the reduced importance of economies of scale, lower marketing communication costs, greater price standard is action, reduced information float time, temporal asynchronicity, increased contact between buyers and sellers, and changes in intermediary relationships.Keywords ：Small firms, Internationalisation , Internet-enabled. The Internet offers a new means of maintaining and developing relationships with clients, channel partners, suppliers and network partners, the Internet provides firms with the means to co-ordinate and maintain communications across many sites easily and effectively. The argument that smaller firms can particularly benefit from the Internet to gather competitor or market intelligence, to promote themselves and service customers in new markets for relatively little expense is very persuasive. Knowledge of foreign markets has always been integral to internationalization theories, including the work of the early seminal Uppsala theorists who argued that a firms market knowledge determines its internationalisation trajectory. firms are able to garner knowledge and information with regard to their own specific internationalisation needs, thus reducing traditional information barriers to internationalisation.The objective of this study was to investigate and understand the behavior and strategies adopted by rapidly internationalising Internet enabled firms. For the purposes of the enquiry, Internet-enabled firms were defined as firstly having a web address and using ICT technologies in their day-to-day activities. Secondly, rapid internationalisers were those new ventures that exhibited an innate propensity to engage in a meaningful level of international business activity at or near inception, to achieve strategic competitive advantage.All firms viewed the Internet and e-mail in particular as essential for business in the 21st century, as it provides the service platform, which enables them to enter new markets, whilst reducing the investment and resources required in order to work internationally. E-mail served as a major communications channel with their customers, distributors, agents or suppliers and also to communicate with employees and sales offices or subsidiaries located elsewhere. In addition, many used e-mail to contact and pose problems to other specialists in the COPs that they belonged to. In other instances, such COPs had discussion areas, specifically set up to share software code, and exchange ideas. All firms offered the facility to contact them by e-mail, and increasingly initial enquiries were by e-mail. However, levels of sophistication varied, some offered this facility simply as, info. . ., whilst others had nominated people and dedicated e-mail addresses for various points of contact within the firm. Some companies, in particular those sited in New Zealand and Australia, cited the combination of e-mail and time zone differences as a positive advantage for them as e-mail sent from North America or Europe was answered by the start of business for the senders, giving the impression of an instant response.The internet as a marketing medium Almost without exception, firms were actively using the Internet as a marketing medium. Setting e-mail communications aside, the use of the Internet for marketing related purposes is the most popular use of this medium. Basically firms were using the Internet for three main purpose in this area: Marketing communications, Customer relationship management (CRM) and as a Marketing Channel (sales transaction and fulfilment), although the latter was less prevalent. The majority of firms utilised the Internet primarily as a marketing communications medium or tool. These firms were interested in getting more exposure for their proprietary products, services, and business opportunities. There was a broad consensus that the Internet offers a very cost-effective way for them to reach a large potential customer base compared to traditional communications methods: “We use it (the Internet) for all the marketing type things, advertising, promotion, contact, communications, demos of work, like a virtual catalogue. Its our window on the world. You found us there! It powers the international element really-otherwise we would need offices in each country we work in, instead of just the US.” CEO, Media promotion firm, New Zealand. “The website gives us a great marketing tool; we prepare a package of special events and put this on the website. So as people are becoming more aware of us, they can go to the website, see the APEC package and they dont have to call our sales person any more. And eventually, what we want is for the broadcaster to say, “APEC, go see if XXX have a package” CEO, Satellite news provider, Canada. Clear evidence emerged that the firms attached much more importance to supporting offline sales and CRM, than transacting or fulfilling orders online. Findings indicate that firms were using the Internet as a means to further develop and maintain relationships with customers and channel partners. At the most basic, the majority of firms in all locations offered online materials to support sales made via more traditional means. In general, but particularly prevalent among software firms, there was an online support facility, often combined with help facilities, suggestions and feedback opportunities, which are all elements of customer service. Those with more sophisticated CRM arrangements were providing vast amounts of shared information to customers in real time, and had Internet enabled specific interactions with both customers and suppliers. Undoubtedly the Internet was altering and reconfiguring the structure and operations of these firms, including their ability to collaborate online. This occurred at many levels, and significant numbers of firms were using the Internet to underpin relationships with strategic alliance partners, suppliers, clients, agents and distributors, research and development partners, and other software coding developers, both nationally and internationally. Thus the Internet was acting as an enabler of new collaborative forms of organization.Conclusion：Informal intra-firm knowledge sharing was occurring via virtual CoP, where members were connected due to a shared interest or problem. As the firms competitive advantage is embedded in the intangible, tacit knowledge of its human capital, these proved to be good mechanisms for knowledge exchange, supporting Ardichvilli and Wentling, Martin and Matlayand Sanchez and Perez. New product development and R&D activities were vastly enhanced in some firms through the knowledge pool created via formal and informal Internet enabled collaborations. Indeed for many firms in the present study, the Internet proved to be “. . . a powerful platform for collaborating with customers on innovation”.Importantly, firms were using the Internet as a knowledge and resource building tool, supporting Maloff) who asserts that the Internet can generate a wealth of external information. In fact, the firms key decision makers were internalising the knowledge gained with regard to both market intelligence and competitors, which then became part of the collective wisdom of the firm. Knowledge has always been viewed as crucial to internationalisation and is now well recognized as central to the internationalisation process. The input and moderation of the entrepreneurial founders leveraged Internet usage and enablement to best “fit” with the strategic objectives and internationalisation strategies of the firm. It is this Internet infusion that enables them to develop the knowledge rich environments in which they operate, reducing the barriers to internationalisation and increasing international opportunities and competitiveness. As such, Internet leverage by rapidly internationalizing firms in general, and knowledge acquisition activities in particular, merit much further.Form：Sharon Loane.The role of the internet in the internationalization of small and medium sized companiesJ.Science and Business Media，2006(3)：263277.因特網對中小型企業(yè)國際化進程的作用摘要：現在已經形成一種普遍的認識：許多公司是從一開始成立或其后不久就力圖像全球化和國際化發(fā)展，他們已經受到全球化背景下新的信息和通信技術等因素的影響。調查結果顯示：互聯網的作用體現在營銷、銷售、業(yè)務流程、市場情報和競爭對手分析多方面?；ヂ摼W作為一種工具，是一種知識積累手段，并有助于討論、預測未來的研究領域。網絡進程提供給無論規(guī)模大小的所有企業(yè)很多優(yōu)勢，其中包括：減少重要性規(guī)模經濟，降低營銷傳播成本，更大的價格標準，降低信息浮動的時間，增加買家和賣家之間的聯系，改變與中間人的關系等。關鍵詞：小型企業(yè)，國際化，基于互聯網互聯網提供了一個維護和發(fā)展與客戶、渠道合作伙伴、供應商和網絡合作伙伴之間關系的平臺，互聯網公司提供的手段，以統籌和保持通信使得許多網站簡便而有效。有人認為，特別是規(guī)模較小的公司可以利用互聯網收集競爭對手或市場情報，以改善自己為客戶提供的服務，在新的市場條件下付出相對較小的代價，這是非常有說服力的。了解國外市場一直是與國際營銷不可分割的，烏普薩拉理論家（保羅，1975年；約翰森，1977年）認為，一個公司的市場知識決定了它國際化的軌道?，F在人們普遍認識到，國際化的企業(yè)要重視外國市場方面的具體知識，了解當地的商業(yè)同行的關系，以及了解社會價值和商業(yè)文化。在較小的公司，特別是企業(yè)所有者或經理人或企業(yè)創(chuàng)始人是工作在第一線的，更應該擁有或獲得這種知識。格蘭特2002年假定新興的以知識為基礎的觀點，該公司提供了一套利于公司存在與發(fā)展的系列因素，其中突出了知識的作用。知識植根于企業(yè)家從以往的經驗方面吸取并發(fā)揮作用，從而贏得與企業(yè)趨于國際化相關的優(yōu)勢。例如，獲得必要的金融支持，獲得網絡的合作伙伴。企業(yè)能夠獲得知識和信息可以滿足自己國際化發(fā)展的需要，從而減少了傳統的信息障礙。本研究的目的是調查和了解能通過互聯網使公司迅速國際化的戰(zhàn)略措施。為便于查詢，互聯網功能的企業(yè)被確定為首先在其日常活動中有一個網絡地址和使用信息和通信技術的條件。其次，迅速國際化是那些新的合資企業(yè)一個天生的傾向，表現為進行有意義的高水平的國際商業(yè)活動，擁有為實現戰(zhàn)略的競爭優(yōu)勢。所有的公司都認為，互聯網和電子郵件是21世紀開展業(yè)務所必不可少的，因為它提供的服務平臺，不僅使他們能夠進入新的市場， 同時降低了投資和所需資源，以便在國際上工作。電子郵箱作為與他們的客戶、分銷商、代理商或供應商主要的溝通渠道，與員工和銷售辦事處或子公司的其他地方亦如此。此外，許多使用電子郵件聯絡和商議問題的，其他專家在締約方舉行會議的，也屬于此類。在其他情況下，這種締約方會議已提出在討論區(qū)專門設置軟件代碼共享和交流的想法?；旧纤衅髽I(yè)都提供了上網設施，以電子郵件的應用最為頻繁。然而，復雜程度不一，一些提供這種設施的只是共享信息，而其他提名人，專用電子郵箱地址各聯絡點均在公司內。一些公司，特別是對于那些設在新西蘭和澳大利亞（相隔較遠），由于地區(qū)和時區(qū)的差異，電子郵件應用是一個積極的優(yōu)勢，他們發(fā)送的電子郵件從美國或歐洲的發(fā)送快捷而及時，大大減少了溝通阻力?；ヂ摼W作為一種新型高效的營銷媒介，很多公司幾乎毫無例外地正積極利用互聯網作為自己公司的一種主力營銷媒介。除了設置電子郵件通訊外，利用因特網進行市場營銷是目前最流行的使用這種媒介的手段?；旧掀髽I(yè)利用互聯網，為三個主要目的：營銷傳播，客戶關系管理（CRM），銷售交易和實現（作為一個營銷渠道）。但后者不太普遍。大多數企業(yè)使用互聯網主要是作為一個營銷傳播工具。這些公司有興趣最大程度地公布其專有產品，服務和商業(yè)機會。一個普遍的共識是，互聯網提供了極具成本效益的方法，使它們達成一項巨大的潛在客戶群。相比于傳統的通信方法，“我們用它（互聯網）為所有類型的營銷，廣告，促銷，聯系，通訊，演示的工作，就像一個虛擬目錄，這是我們對世界的窗口。你發(fā)現我們有它才能實現真正的國際化，否則，我們將需要在每個國家設立具體的辦事處。我們的工作不是僅僅在美國。新西蘭媒體宣傳公司的總裁說，“該網站為我們提供了巨大的營銷工具;我們準備的一系列特別活動都可以通過網站得到迅速及時的發(fā)布。因此，人們越來越意識到他們可以登陸網站，看到亞太經合組織，他們不再遇到所有的問