Internationalization - A study on actual internal changes due to major external internationalization in SMEs

Abstract: In a world characterized by constant change, a phenomenon commonly known as internationalization has emerged; The process in which companies refocus, alternatively shift their business operations across their national boards. While theories such as the Process theory helps us by providing an explanation to the steps taken by a firm in its international expansion, not much has been put forth when discussing the internal changes associated to external internationalization, especially in regard to SME companies; it is within this realm we intended to focus our attention. By conducting a trustworthy case study of three SME companies in Gothenburg and interviewing them we decided to explore the aforementioned phenomenon and with the help of our self-constructed research model scrutinize what could be excavated. What we managed to unveil was that all companies could be analyzed by using our research model and hence the model therefore constituted an unprecedented foundation for investigating the firms and the actual changes they had made. In summary we found that due to major external internationalization subsequent internal changes also occur, however what internal changes and the actions they took differentiated slightly. Conclusion-wise to our surprise we found that all the case companies were more of Born Global internationalization character than followers of the world-renowned Process Theory by Johanson & Vahlne due to their company size and innovativeness. Also all the companies took similar and different actions, which pointed diversity in solutions on coping with internationalization. The result of this thesis is one of the few standing on the threshold, waiting for the door to open to an under-researched paradigm: internal internationalization