During our last semester in the spring of 2024, we had the opportunity to work as scientific research assistant for a research project by Naya Hapsari, a Ph.D. Candidate in International Business at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder. The aim of the research project was, and still is, to gain a better understanding of the relationship between specific personality traits among entrepreneurs’ and entrepreneurial proclivity and Small-Medium Enterprises (SME) speed of internationalization.
To explore these relationships the study took a quantitative approach, by sending out online surveys to CEO’s/founders within SMEs from both Norway and Indonesia, that had generated sales revenues from abroad.
Our role as research assistants were to focus solely on gathering data from SMEs in Norway. After having located an accurate list of Norwegian companies that had generated sales from aboard, we managed to reach our goal of 200 respondents with a response rate of almost 50%. Getting real time data of how many respondents who had taken the survey, also gave us a clue of what worked, and what didn’t, enabling us to adapt our strategy.
Overall, working as scientific research assistant was an enjoyable experience. It is a great arena for those who are interested to take on more responsibility besides one’s curriculum, and at the same time learn about topics you didn’t even know existed.