A Comparative Survey of Danish and Swedish Attitudes and Strategies toward EC-92 and Eastern Europe: Implications for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
调查丹麦和瑞典企业对欧共体1992年计划及东欧变革的态度与策略，重点关注中小企业，为美国企业应对欧洲市场整合提供参考。
In 1986, the 12 European Community (EC) members(1) ratified the Single European Act (EC-92) setting 1992 as the completion date for the Internal Market. Since then there has been significant interest in the impact of EC integration on Europe and the rest of the world. Many business firms within and outside of the European community are assessing how the impending integration of major European markets will affect them so as to position themselves to take advantage of opportunities or to overcome challenges. The excitement or anxiety associated with upcoming changes is not limited to large, multi-national firms. Even domestically oriented, small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) must evaluate the potentially far-reaching effects of EC integration. In addition, recent transformation in Eastern European countries will have various ramifications on the process of EC-92. The theory of economic integration predicts several short-term and long-term effects of integration, among which are increased competition, economies of scale, larger average size of firms, increased industrial interwovenness and consolidation of technical progress (Molle 1990). It would be interesting to see how the firms that will be affected by integration perceive and prepare for EC-92. While there have been several surveys on the impact of EC-92 and a few on Eastern Europe, most of the studies used samples only from large countries, large multinational companies (MNCs), or EC member countries. For example, Booz-Allen (1988) surveyed the attitudes of CEOs of European MNCs. Larger MNCs expected greater impact on their operations from EC-92 than did smaller MNCs. In a KPMG survey (1990), large firms saw the major advantage of EC-92 arising from a uniformity of standards and rules and the elimination of barriers. They also expected trade with Eastern Europe to increase more than with non-EC countries. An EC-commissioned study (Nerb 1988b) found that, in general, the larger the firm, the more concerned it was with standards and regulations, public procurement, and taxes. These and other studies (Anders 1990; Quelch, Buzzell, and Salama 1990; and Revzin 1989) not only surveyed MNCs in large countries but presented no statistical analyses. The purpose of this article is to investigate the attitudes and strategies of European firms in order to draw implications of the developments in Europe on American companies. Unlike the prior studies, the focus of this study is not limited to large MNCs of large countries. This study surveyed chief executives in Denmark and Sweden. Denmark was chosen because it is in the EC, is export-oriented, and has very few mega-firms. Like many U.S. firms, Denmark had not been overly enthusiastic about EC-92.(2) Sweden was chosen as a comparison. Like the U.S., it has more MNCs than Denmark and is not in the EC. Exports are important to its economy, and it has close ties with the EC. Unlike the earlier surveys, this sample contains a substantial portion of SMBs. The relatively smaller sizes of the Danish and Swedish firms, their export orientation, and the fact that Danes have been less interested in the EC than other EC members make this study relevant to American SMBs. American firms will be interested in the strategies that these SMBs are considering as they prepare to compete in the newly integrated EC. METHODOLOGY The sample for the study was derived from a database provided by KOMPASS-EUROPE Dialog Information Services. Surveys were mailed in the summer of 1990 to 535 chief executives, representing 285 Danish and 250 Swedish firms; 138 usable responses were received resulting in an overall response rate of 26 percent. The Swedish response rate was 32 percent, compared to a 20 percent response from Danish firms. Classification data were collected based on firm size (in terms of annual sales), the industries in which they participate, and their exports as a percentage of sales. Characteristics of the sample are shown in table 1. …