| Summary: | Going abroad and expanding its geographical scope to foreign markets is not a strategy reserved to large corporations. It is, indeed, an important strategic option for both small and large organizations. With globalization of market and the increased of a
more and more integrated world economy, we have “witnessed a rapid internationalization of markets, industries and firms” that took place in the early 1950’s
(Olejnik & Swoboda. 2012).
By being more and more active on their local market and by consequences playing an increasing role on international market, expanding its activities is becoming fundamental for a SME survival or growth (Lu & Beamish. 2006). Additionally, going global also implies for a company to deal with new actors in its perimeter that are often culturally opposed. In that specific event, it is important to understand if culture matters
when doing business in foreign markets.
Even if the internationalization of SMEs and culture are fields that have been widely studied over the past years and decades (McDouglas & Oviat, 1997; Anderson,S.,
2000. Armario, 2008) no specific study has been performed on such specific region as the Middle East and more specifically the Gulf Cooperation Council (also called the GCC).
This is why this research is oriented toward the study of this particular geographical area in terms of economic growth, history, business potential and also in term of internationalization process.
How SMEs in the GCC area internationalize their activities? Within this process, what is the role that culture plays? Finally, how important is the network of an organization?
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