Export promotion, stimulation, and development once again are topics discussed by politicians, government administrators, academics, and executives. Exports are perceived as the engine of job creation. Exports are also considered a major tool of economic development and growth of smaller manufacturing enterprises. Since the mid-1960s a great deal of academic research has focused on export promotion, stimulation, and development activities, especially among smaller manufacturing enterprises on local levels.
In Wisconsin, the effort to promote, stimulate, and develop exports, in the past, was an industry wide effort that goes back to the early 1980s when, under Governor Dreyfus, a number of executives, academics, and government administrators under a government initiative assisted in formation of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on International Trade (GACIT). GACIT was so successful in working with Wisconsin smaller enterprises that it was reinstated as a state government initiative under every succeeding governor, including Governor Thompson, who was its greatest support, and was expanded and renamed by him as the Wisconsin International Trade Council (WITCO). WITCO was further modified under Governor Doyle to focus on larger Wisconsin based manufacturing enterprises. Since the early 1980s, the Wisconsin Department of Commerce was responsible for all initiatives and efforts to increase Wisconsin exports.
The University of Wisconsin System campuses, especially at UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater, had direct involvement in export expansion among Wisconsin smaller manufacturing enterprises. The original research on export promotion, stimulation, and development was initiated by George Tesar during his doctoral studies under the doctoral supervision of Professor Warren J. Bilkey at UW-Madison. This seminal research is still recognized internationally and has a wide following of academics and practitioners. George Tesar became a professor of international marketing at UW-Whitewater where he continued the research and was a member of the original group of executives and government administrators responsible for the GACIT initiative and also an active member in both GACIT and WITCO until the end of Governor Thompson’s administration.
The research on export promotion, stimulation, and development was continued over a period of over thirty five years (35) by Professor Tesar and his colleague Professor Hamid Moini. The result of their research has been recently published in a book titled: Smaller Manufacturing Enterprises in an International Context: A Longitudinal Exploration. The book was published by Imperial College Press in London, U.K., in December 2010. The book not only includes an historical perspective on how Wisconsin smaller manufacturing enterprises, over the years, attempted to develop and improve their export capabilities, but also includes an account of how six Wisconsin manufacturers succeeded in their export experiences.
The book is very much international in scope. It was written in collaboration with two Danish colleagues who contributed three Danish perspectives on exports and internationalization of smaller manufacturing enterprises. Professor Tesar, who became a Swedish professor after his retirement from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has contributed three additional descriptions of Swedish experiences with export expansion and internationalization; and Professor Moini, who is known internationally as an expert on family firms in the Czech Republic, has provided examples of early internationalization in two smaller Czech manufacturing enterprises.
These experiences provide the foundation for an international comparison of how smaller manufacturing enterprises in four different business environments experienced their own export promotion, stimulation, and development efforts. But most of all, the book describes export activities among smaller Wisconsin manufacturing enterprises over the past thirty five years.
Today, the main economic emphasis in countries world-wide is on job creation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. The study presented by Professors Tesar, Moini, Kuada, and Sørensen offers implications not only for managers of smaller manufacturing enterprises who are interested in expanding their exports, but also for government officials and policy makers whose primary objective is to create jobs. If administered properly, export promotion, stimulation, and development can be a beneficial and productive process leading to job creation.
Full reference: Smaller Manufacturing Enterprises in an International Context: A Longitudinal Exploration by George Tesar, Hamid, Moini, John Kuada, and Olav Jull Sørensen (London, UK: Imperial College Press, 2010) ISBN-13 978-1-84816-495-6 or ISBN-10 1-84816-495-5. The book is available on http://www.amazon.com or through most book stores in the area.
For additional information please contact:
George Tesar, tesarg@uww.edu, or
Hamid Moini, moinia@uww.edu
John Kuada, kuada@business.aau.dk
Olav Jull Sørensen, ojs@business.aau.dk
