Abstract:
An increasing number of small and medium sized enterprises are engaging in overseas operations.
This paper reports on research carried out on 18 small Australian businesses which have established an on
the ground presence in Singapore. This constituted approximately half of the Australian small and medium
sized enterprises which were identified as operating in Singapore. It was found that Singapore was not
chosen to be their main market but rather to act as a base in which to penetrate the region. Most of these
firms received no support from government agencies in setting up their operations, many finding the
processes too cumbersome to be worthwhile. A number of the firms were induced to set up by the
availability of a local manager to operate the business. Over half the firms used local rather than expatriate
managers. Two major problems encountered in employing local staff were the tendency to job hop for
small increments in pay and a lack of long term commitment to the employer. A number of respondents
also found it difficult to adapt to what they termed the "trading mentality" of many Singaporeans. This was
the tendency to think in terms of price and quantity rather than the suitability of the goods for the purpose.
Many businesses found that the Singapore market was not as open as they thought with many cliques being
formed in industries which attempted to exclude outsiders. A clique was also formed by Singapore
government owned companies and a number of respondents avoided government tendering because of the
tendency for the work to be given to other government owned companies.
The implications of the above findings are discussed and the relationship to the literature is
explored.
