The research on the exploratory factor analysis of SME Internationalization

The main objectives of this research are to identify internationalization factors on Korea SMEs and explore the factor differences between AEO authorized companies and Non-AEO authorized companies. SMEs in Korea compose the 99.9% of overall industry, more than 88% of labor forces work in SMEs, despite this growing importance, Korea SMEs may not recognize the greater importance and benefits of AEO authorization yet. Korea's AEO companies were365 in numbers as of Dec. 2012. A greater number of them were large companies and only a small number of SMEs earnedan AEO authorization. In order to identify the internationalization factors of international authorization in Korea, the survey questionnaires were conducted on AEO authorized companies and Non-AEO companies which were in the process of AEO authorization. About 200 hundred companies out of 365 AEO authorized companies were involved in the research. The research was focused to identify the internationalization factors by AEO authorization and internationalization process by measuring factors in 5 Likert Scales. Based on previous literature studies, we also analyzed firm’s internal factors and external factors (foreign market environment), technology factor(technology capacity) and AEO authorization or Non-AEO authorization.