Overview

This report is the third in a series by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) that examines the domestic and global operations of U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Commission found that U.S. exporting SMEs outperform their nonexporting SME counterparts by several measures. Whether they deal in services or manufacturing, exporting SMEs show higher total revenues, faster total revenue growth, and higher labor productivity than their nonexporting SME counterparts. The Commission also found several noteworthy contrasts between exporting large firms and exporting SMEs. Across all sectors, large firms primarily sell to foreign clients via foreign affiliates rather than through direct exports, while SMEs serve foreign clients primarily through direct exports. Exporting services SMEs, which represent a very small share of all U.S. services SMEs, are more export-intensive than large services exporters. U.S. services SME multinational companies, which are even less common, are nearly three times more export-intensive than large U.S. multinationals. On the other hand, trade barriers, including both tariffs and nontariff measures, disproportionately affect SMEs relative to large firms, as do many business impediments, such as high transportation costs. In addition to their role as direct exporters, U.S. goods and services SMEs also participate in the export economy by exporting indirectly through wholesalers and other intermediaries or selling intermediate goods or services domestically to large and small firms that use these intermediate inputs to produce exported goods or services. The Commission estimates that SMEs contribute a substantially higher share of the value-added content embedded in exports than suggested by traditional trade statistics.

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