Internationalisation in Theory and Reality - a Study of Five Companies

Abstract: A great deal of research has been made within the field of companies’ internationalisation processes by many famous researchers in the last four centuries. This dissertation will mainly focus on three modern theories of internationalisation; transaction cost theory, the network approach and the Uppsala Internationalisation model. The purpose of the dissertation is to examine whether these models are applicable to the process of internationalisation. Further, our purpose is to investigate if there are other factors influencing a company’s internationalisation decision process. In order to answer the research questions we developed eight hypotheses and conducted a study on five international manufacturing companies in Skåne; Alfa Laval, Backer AB, Furninova, Kron International and Perstorp AB. The need for control of transactions was more of an obstacle in small companies’ internationalisation process than in large companies. The main reasons to engage in networks were to reduce costs and to gain market shares. Further influencing factors for networking were R&D and protection of environment. The companies in our study followed the Uppsala internationalisation model to some extent. Large companies had a higher propensity than small companies to deviate from the traditional establishment pattern of the Uppsala internationalisation model. Other influencing factors in the internationalisation process were coincidence and political changes. The conclusion to be drawn from our study was that the chosen internationalisation theories were applicable to some extent for the studied companies and that a couple of new factors outside the studied theories were to be found.