This study seeks to contribute to entry mode literature by introducing the concept of ¡§corporate culture diversity¡¨. Compared to multinational corporations (MNCs) from developed countries, Taiwan¡¦s MNCs have shorter history of internationalization. Therefore, international learning is critical to their entry modes. We examined an original determinant of entry mode choice, proposed and tested the operationalization for a new theoretical construct, namely ¡§corporate culture diversity¡¨. In the theory of knowledge development process, it suggests that MNCs enter a foreign country initially with relatively small commitments, for instance through export, because of the high uncertainty caused by a low level of knowledge regarding the operational environment of the host country. At the later stage, as knowledge development takes place over time and the uncertainty is reduced. MNCs then gradually increase their levels of commitment to the country. MNCs are viewed to go through this sequential and incremental process of internationalization within not only a foreign country but also when they stretch out from one foreign country to another. To establish a new theoretical construct, hypotheses were developed on the entry modes in relation to cultural diversity of a firm¡¦s international experience, a step beyond the conventional theory of how national cultural differences influence entry mode choice. The hypotheses were tested within the framework of organizational learning, using data on 1,156 entries that 376 Taiwanese MNCs carried out in 41 countries and territories during 1986-2006. Additionally, a moderating effect of corporate culture diversity regarding entry modes in countries with high level of cultural distance was also specified. The result shows that not only culture distance at national level and prior experience by the MNC in a host country, but also the culture diversity of the MNC itself has a strong effect on the decision making process of entry mode choice. In addition, the research confirmed the traditional view that the amount of cultural learning needed in a particular host country is an important determinant of mode choice in foreign direct investments. However, less traditionally, the finding that corporate culture diversity that reflects the capacity of an MNC in understanding foreign cultures had a significant increasing effect on the selection of WOSs mode over JVs mode seems to provide an important contribution to this field of research. Most importantly, the novelty of the research is that we have successfully formulated an operationalization of a new construct ¡V the culture diversity at corporate level, a step beyond the national level. The culture diversity reflects the level that an MNC exposes to foreign cultures. Our result contributes to support the importance of the concept of corporate culture diversity. The operationalization of this construct has also been tested and found significant in our empirical test.

Researchers have been addressing on entry strategies, most of them are foreign researchers conducted researches on multinational firms, especially firms entering developed European countries or USA. Domestic researches mainly focused on firms entering PRC market, literally few studies have been found served Taiwan as the market being entered. Since Taiwan released the limit on foreigner share holding proportions in 1984, international advertisement firms gradually entered Taiwan. In the score years, Taiwan¡¦s advertisement market have been totally owned by foreign firms, thus Taiwanese advertisement firms need a method to break through. Given southeastern Asia markets are emerging, for Taiwanese advertisement firms, they pose as a market to be invested. Thus this thesis analyzed the entry mode of international advertising firms in order to serve as a reference to Taiwanese advertisement firms. This research served the period between establishment and entering Taiwan, cultural differences, five years average growth rate of GDP per capita, five years average growth rate of FDI in origin country, year 1984 and the changes in the number of competitors as the independent variables, and ownership or not as the dependent variable, applied logistic regression models in testing the relation between the selected variables. Outcomes indicate that cultural differences factor and five years average growth rate of GDP per capita factor bear significant factor loading while the other yielded insignificant results. Emerging countries in Asia ¡V e.g. Vietnam and Thailand ¡V possess close culture characteristics with Taiwan. Thus if advertisement firms are willing to invest in these markets, it is suggested to enter with ownership ¡V especially when the underlying countries¡¦ GDP growth rates are high.

The need for Swedish SMEs to expand beyond their limited domestic market grows, spurred on by fading barriers to international trade. Often consisting mainly of engineers without marketing experience, the SMEs cannot afford to recruit expertise in internationalisation. The international business environment is complex, and attempting to internationalise through trial and error, often ends poorly. To remedy this, the objectives of this study has been: To explore and compare how Swedish SMEs expand to other markets. To identify which factors in this expansion pose the largest problems                          to Swedish SMEs. To assure that these objectives were fulfilled, two research questions were formulated: RQ1: What is the internationalisation pattern for Swedish SMEs? RQ2: What are the main problems encountered by Swedish SMEs when                                         expanding their market from domestic to international? The study has been exploratory and descriptive, taking a deductive approach. The research strategy has been multiple holistic case studies. Data was collected qualitatively through semi-structured interviews and analysed through within-case analysis and cross-case analysis. The main findings show that SMEs are increasingly strategic and systematic with time, and that advice given by the interviewed subject revolved around being strategic and systematic from an earlier stage. It also seems that SMEs are fairly systematic in market selection and customer acquisition, and that market entry occurs in many different ways. Furthermore, branding revolves around appearing trustworthy and “larger than they actually are.” Strategies for employer branding seems lacking in all but the most mature SMEs. Also, strong strategic partners are a valuable tactic for long-term success. The practical implications revolve around the importance of being systematic and strategic from the start, highlighting the importance of larger strategic partners, and focusing on relationships with customers, and what value the SME can offer them.

In the last couple of decades internationalization of firms has increased all over the world, and banks are not an exception. Different factors are impacting the decision of entering a new market and digitalization is certainly one of the main factors contributing to the internationalization process. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate what the internationalization process looks like for banks originating from the Nordic region and the impact of digitalization on the process as well as how digitalization impacts the banks' effectiveness. The data were acquired using a qualitative multiple case study of five leading banks originating from the Nordic region through semi-structured interviews. Afterward, the collected data was discussed in the literature review chapter in the analysis chapter to detect similarities and differences.  The findings in this thesis revealed that the factors that are evaluated are both internal and external before entering a market and that the significance of each factor varies depending on what bank it is. Additionally, the role of digitalization has also played a big part in how the process of the banks looks and how the current process of internationalizing is done. Instead of expanding which has been the previous focus for these leading banks, the focus has the recent years switched to withdrawing from foreign markets with their physical presence to focusing on offering their services from their home markets and on digital investments. Along with how digitalization has affected Nordic banks' internationalization process, this thesis also presents how effectiveness and assessment are impacted by digitalization.

本論文之結論如下： 1.台灣廠商在東協五國偏好採合資、獨資的策略型 態，而較不偏好採 國外銷售子公司、技術授權的型態。 (1) 台灣廠商 在東協五國的國際化過程與歐美學者所提出的國際化過程不同，歐美學者 所提出的國際化過程為漸近式之市場涉入過程，即出口→技術授權→國外 銷售子公司→國外生產子公司，但台灣廠商的國際化過程中卻以「出口→ 合資生產」、「出口→獨資生產」為多，即有”跳躍”之情形。 (2) 台 灣廠商在東協五國之市場進入策略不變遷者：對「出口」、 「國外銷 售子公司」、「合資生產」而言，不變遷之主要原因 為改變進入策略 的時機尚未成熟與對目前的營運狀況滿意，共 同理由為地主國基本設 施、供應商、銷售通路等狀況不佳。 (3) 台灣企業在東協五國進入策略 的變遷上，多由出口開始，而後 即採市場涉入程度相當大的合資與獨 資的型態。 2.東協五國市場進入策略的變遷與三項廠商特性： (1) 國際 經驗的移轉使廠商改採市場涉入程度大的策略型態。 (2) 公司規模越大 ，越會使廠商改採市場涉入程度大的策略型態。 (3) 公司國外收入比例 越高，越會使廠商改採市場涉入程度大的策略型態。 3.若一開始在地主 國之進入策略即為涉入程度大的「合資」與「獨資」的型態，則傾向的是 在地主國生產，再外銷到其他市場的考慮。 4.公司在地主國有計劃的從 事規劃與研究，評估投資機會，可使其跳 過漸近式國際化過程的某些階 段。

Economic globalization, regional economic cooperation and knowledge economy make a great impact on the development of the new century. The changes of international trade and investment reflect the variety of the world economy development; the world economic development, in turn, influences the international trade and investment in both quality and quantity (Feenstra, 1998). The international marketing has become an important trend in this modern society, global strategy has been put at the top of the agenda of many companies. And making development in the international market can also be a good solution for the companies to increase their competition (Mittelman, 1996). It is vital for those companies to deal with foreign market entry as a first step in accomplishing their global mission (Onkvisit & Shaw, 2004).  How to enter a foreign market is very important in this case, so the purpose of this work is therefore to research important factors on entering a foreign market. The theories, including environmental assessment before entry and foreign market entry strategies, are summarized by literature review and in order to make the theories applicable, a case study on a company inChinahas been done in this work as well. The methods used in this work include collecting processed data from literature review, gathering primary data by telephone interviews and through e-mails. SWOT analysis is used to assess targeted market for the case company. The case company is Shandong Shuanglun Group which is a famous pump manufacturer inChina; its targeted market that the company wants to enter is the Italian market. After SWOT analysis, the conclusion of this work indicated that opportunities of entry targeted market for the case company includes favorable tax policies and relevant laws, the threats in high context culture and terrorist activities should be paid attention to. The company has strengths in product but weaknesses in service, strategic alliance with one local pump manufacturer and exporting could be their market entry modes.

Summary Title of the thesis: A comparison between an Australian and a Swedish company's internationalization process, within the food sector. Seminar date: 2011-10-12 Course/subject: International marketing, master thesis 15hp Authors: Sanna Ekborg, Paulina Haglund Supervisor: Svante Andersson Keywords: Internationalization process, Swedish and Australian company within the food sector, Gourmet Garden, Örneborgs Delikatesser, market choice,entry modes, reactive/proactive behaviour. Purpose:The purpose of our study is to describean Australian and a Swedish company within the food sector, and analyze which factors affect the differences and similarities in the companies' internationalization processes. Research method: The research is qualitative and the analysis is deductive. Empirical study: Our empirical study is based on two companies, Australian Gourmet garden and swedish Örneborgs Delikatesser. Our empirical data consists of indepth interviews with the CEO, Chief Operating Officer and marketing manager. Theoretical framework: Internationalization in the food industry, the Uppsala model approach, the network approach, international entrepreneurship and internationalization through innovation. Results: Our research has showed that there are differences in the internationalization process between the two companies. Our Australian company has a more proactive approach to internationalization, while our Swedish company has a reactive approach. it may be due to their different export traditions.

Japan är världens tredje största ekonomi och skulle därav kunna anses vara en attraktiv marknad för svenska företag. Även om Japan anses vara en attraktiv marknad för svenska företag, återstår fortfarande faktum att länderna skiljer sig åt gällande kultur, värderingar och seder vilket kan medföra svårigheter för svenska företag när de försöker etablera sig på den japanska marknaden. Studiens huvudsakliga syften var att visa hur fem framgångsrika svenska multinationella företag har gått tillväga vid sin japanska expansion, belysa vilka etableringsstrategier de tillämpat och utmaningar företagen har stött på, samt redogöra för vilka framtidsutsikter respektive företag har. De studerade företagen är stora multinationella organisationer med etablerade dotterbolag i Japan. Studien tillämpade en kvalitativ forskningsmetod, mer specifikt i form av intervjuer. Teorier som tillämpas i studien är; Uppsalamodellen, Hollensen’s Entry Modes samt Hofstedes Fem Dimensioner och används i studien för att analysera det empiriska underlaget. Studiens resultat visade att fyra av fem företag valt en etableringsstrategi med lägre risktagande och det femte företaget valt en strategi med högre risktagande. Respondenterna beskrev att de största utmaningarna var att hitta rätt personal samt att samarbeten med inhemska företag har visat sig vara en framgångsrik strategi hos fyra av fem företag. Resultatet av studien skulle kunna användas som inspiration för svenska företag med tankar på ett inträde i Japan.

Scholars in the international business field have presented various findings on international entry mode strategies, yet few were conducted on the Middle East. However, a recent study has presented a new form of entry mode used among multinational corporations (MNCs) in the Middle East where foreign companies tend to form partnership with individuals (local sponsor) rather than corporations when entering the market. The entry mode is presented as “sponsorship” entry mode, which is a new form of entry used by MNCs. It allows MNCs to enter the market in a similar way of joint venture, however, instead of finding a partner to penetrate the market MNCs are required to find a local sponsor. The thesis purpose is to examine the case of United Arab Emirates (UAE) as one of the most attractive countries for foreign investors in the Middle East. In addition, the thesis will provide a deeper understanding of the “Sponsorship” entry mode and the different criteria needed to select a local sponsor. To get a deeper understanding of the subject, a qualitative approach has been followed. Additionally, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews with senior managers and CEOs, which were based on the literature review to get rich findings. The literature review presents several theories and models that helped to analyse the data collected from the interviewees. Moreover, a conceptualize framework was added in the literature review chapter to summarise and illustrate a primary framework that provides an idea on the “sponsorship” entry mode.  By analysing the data that were collected, the outcome of the research reviled various forms of local sponsors that could be chosen based on the criteria needed to guarantee a successful entry. The findings have also provided insightful examples of different challenges that could be faced when establishing a sponsorship through a local sponsor and the different strategies used to cope with such challenges. The outcome of this study has provided a deeper understanding of the “sponsorship” entry mode and the different selection criteria needed to select a local sponsor. Finally, the thesis concluded the study by providing answers to the research questions and summarizing the answers into the revised conceptual framework.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how Start-Ups from Switzerland pattern their expansion to foreign markets and how prevalent traditional internationalization models are among Start-Ups. In order to conduct the research, the term Start-Up has been defined in comparison to other forms of enterprises. The first part of the literature review has been conducted regarding key concepts within the field of international business such as psychic distance or the choice of the right entry mode. The second part of the literature review has been conducted regarding relevant traditional internationalization theories as well as the international entrepreneurship theory, as counterpart to traditional internationalization theories. The theories have resulted in a conceptual framework that reveals the relations between the different theories. The thesis is built on a qualitative approach on the basis of a multiple case study by means of three interviews with Swiss Start-Ups. Further the thesis has followed a deductive approach to first build a profound knowledge about the internationalization process of Start-Ups. The authors of this thesis consider a good pre understanding of the research area as relevant to observe a pattern from the empirical observations. In the analysis chapter the differences and similarities between the theory and the empirical findings were discussed. The structure of both chapters, empirical findings and analysis, are structured in accordance with the conceptual framework. On the basis of the analysis, the conclusion chapter presents the responses of three research questions. Further the final chapter consists of theoretical and practical implications and recommendations as well as limitations and ends with proposals for a further research.