BALTIC SEA TRADE AND THE DYNAMICS OF SMEs: A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The primary question taken up in this paper is how regional trade of SMEs has been influenced by the on-going liberalization of markets in the Baltic Sea area between 1990 and 2004, and how this trade is affected by the accession of East European countries to the EU. The secondary question deals with effects on regions from this trade. The theoretical framework builds on the institutional network theory, where marketing and purchasing take place in industrial networks, which are influenced by the institutional frameworks of the exporting and importing countries. The methodological strategy behind this research is mainly abductive, where this paper reports on an empirical study made within such a larger research process, namely a survey of the regional international trade with East Baltic Sea countries of 116 firms in the Kalmar county, Sweden. This regional trade is found to have many similarities with Swedish trade in general with this area regarding e.g. type of goods traded, and export destinations. But there are also some differences, specifically regarding the trade with Poland. Although this East-West European trade is still of limited importance to the region, it has grown in importance since the 1990’s and is foreseen to increase even more in the coming years. Paper prepared for the 6 annual conference on European integration, Swedish Network for European Studies in Economics and Business, Mölle, Sweden, May 25-28, 2004.