In a society often depicted as global, internationalization is an increasingly important expansion process in the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. The international business landscape had to be restructured in response to the COVID-19 epidemic crisis, and with it, internationalization strategies had to be rethought and adapted. The ability to adapt has become a fundamental aspect for both companies and industries, which needed to undergo major changes to sustain the effects and consequences of this rapid paradigm shift. This paper seeks to explore the internationalization strategy of Ubiwhere, a small and medium-sized technological research and development company, and its adaptation to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several themes associated with the internationalization of small and medium-sized technology R&D companies in the pandemic context are explored, themes that have been little explored and developed in the existing literature in the field of management and technology to date. The work uses a mixed methodology, using three semi-structured interviews (in-depth) as the main qualitative methodology, and from this a thematic analysis was developed, which explores in more detail several aspects associated with the strategy and the internationalization process, the organization, the sectors in which it operates (Smart Cities and Telecommunications), the pandemic, the marketing strategy and concerning the effect of the country of origin. In the quantitative approach, the work uses a survey that had as respondents, the employees of Ubiwhere (43 responses), this is the main method of quantitative data collection, and from this was developed several statistical analyses, such as descriptive analysis, frequency analysis, cross table analysis and Chi-square tests. The results from the qualitative research indicate that the internationalization process is seen as an essential step for the company, and despite the pandemic causing instability, the organization was able to adapt to the changes imposed by the pandemic. The quantitative analyses demonstrated which aspects stand out most in the Portuguese culture (the culture of the resourceful and the ease with languages), the most promising segments in the areas of Smart Cities and Telecommunications (smart mobility and wireless communication), which is the best product, and which has the greatest margin for improvement (Urban Platform), the best and the worst country for international expansion (Spain and Germany).
Citation
Sousa, B. (2022). Internacionalização de empresa tecnológica de investigação e desenvolvimento na era pós-Covid-19: O caso da Ubiwhere (Master’s thesis). University of Aveiro.