Resumo

The present article endeavours to identify, through the local entrepreneurs’ perspective, the barriers to the process of internationalization of incubated companies in the city of Natal, the Capital and largest city of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, located in Northeastern Brazil.Throughout the study, the authors followed the assumption that there is a constant need for companies and entrepreneurs to seek internationalization as a strategy not only of expansion, but also survival, accessing the impact of business incubators in that process.

The research was undertaken between the years of 2017 and 2018 and sought to compare the entrepreneurs’ perspective vis-à-vis the current academic research on the internationalization barriers, thus apprehending the local reality of incubated companies within a larger context of internationalization, as to understand their strengths and weaknesses, the challenges to be faced and the role of business incubators in the process. Its main objective was to identify, from the perspective of local entrepreneurs, the barriers to the internationalization process of companies incubated in Natal / RN.

In order to support the internationalization of incubated companies and contribute to their competitive advantages, it is necessary to understand the barriers along the process, as the main problems that need the attention from entrepreneurs and incubators alike will be located there. The barriers lay on 4 dimensions: 1) Incubated business strategy (the entrepreneur's perspective; 2) Business incubator strategy; 3) Incubated business operations; 4) External barriers.

The research undertaken was both exploratory and descriptive. As it sought to analyse the existing barriers to the internationalization of incubated companies in the city of Natal/RN from the local entrepreneurs’ perspective – an effort that had not been carried out previously – in order to describe facts and phenomena related to their organizations and perspectives. The research was divided into two parts. Firstly it focused on the bibliographical and documental analysis. Secondly, a quantitative data collection was undertaken during three months (July to September, 2018).

There are two main types of barriers that encompass different attributes from the constructs analysed, creating a set of unique problems to overcome. The first and most prominent barrier is related to the entrepreneurs’ technical limitations to address external barriers. The second type of barrier noticed in the study is related to strategic management limitations, derived from poor strategic planning as well as infective leadership attitude from senior managers. The strategic management barriers are resumed by a deficiency of an advanced strategy for networking.

The authors concluded that business incubators and entrepreneurs should focus on two interrelated strategies: 1) Networking optimization to overcome the isolated nature of the business and improve their relationships with stakeholders; 2) Knowledge management improvements to address the entrepreneurs’ technical limitations and lay the foundations for the internationalization process. The research has provided some invaluable insights to entrepreneurs and business incubators managers keen on preparing business for internationalization since inception.