The pressures of increased foreign competition can persuade a company to expand its business into international markets. In most cases, the motive is a search for improved cost efficiency or looking for the chance to expand and achieve growth. Swedish firms often develop their international operations in small steps rather than by making large foreign production investments at single points in time. Typically firms start exporting to a country via an agent, later establish a sales subsidiary, and eventually, in some cases, begin production in the host country. Such process was called Uppsala Model or Internationalisation Stage Model. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether Uppsala Internationalisation Model apply to transition market such as Poland. The year 1989 was an important turning point in the history of the Polish economy. After a long period of isolation to the Western world, Poland opened its boarders not only for visitors and tourists, but also for foreign companies. Many of them have invested in production in Poland during the transition period. One of the Swedish investors present in Poland almost from the beginning of the transition process is Scania. Scania holds fourth position in the world in manufacturing trucks and buses, and the second place in Europe in sales of heavy trucks. Poland as a transition market attracted Scania for many different reasons such as market size, geographical location and future growth perspectives. Company's activities confirmed the assumption that Internationalisation Stage Model can be applied to transition country and can explain MNE's initial steps in the unknown environment.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the establishment process of Swedish companies with sales in China, but who did not begun their establishment with sales. This thesis has examined H&M, Nordic Light and Fagerhult; three Swedish companies that recently started selling on the Chinese market, to see how their establishment chain differs from those suggested by the dominant internationalisation theories, Uppsala Internationalisation Model and the Export Behaviour Model. To study this alternative establishment chain, this thesis has interviewed representatives from each company. The results show that the firms have entered China primarily for sourcing reasons and then at a later stage set up a sales organisation thereby differing from the Uppsala Internationalisation Model’s Establishment Chain. This thesis’s establishment chain of the researched companies in China show that they have started with purchasing, then moved on to production for export, and then finally to sales.

This thesis aims to connect the fields of multilingualism and internationalisation by studying language strategies of SMEs located in Belgium. Thereby the access to foreign networks in relation to internationalisation theories and the role of language capabilities and multilingualism is examined. This combination of different academic fields in international business and linguistics has previously not been studied satisfyingly and this research thus furthermore provides theoretical and managerial implications in this matter. Hence, this study addresses the briefly presented knowledge gap by answering the research question: What effect does the multilingualism in Belgium have on an SME’s internationalisation? The two following sub-research questions have been raised additionally to ensure the ability to answer the main research question: 1. What is the impact of the multilingualism in Belgium on an SME’s liability of foreignness when going international? 2. How does a language strategy support an SME’s internationalisation process and create a multilingual capability? Empirical data is collected both qualitatively by interviewing three Belgian SMEs and quantitatively by analysing secondary data of 30 Belgian company websites and their vacancy job postings, to provide answers to these questions. The findings are analysed by applying a conceptual framework, which was created by the authors. The study’s findings summarise the presence of multiple individual language capabilities and highlight the lack and importance of institutionalising these in the SME. This step is vital to successfully access foreign networks and overcome liability of foreignness. Moreover, firm capabilities in relation to the SME’s industry are significant for the accurate implementation of a language strategy. Besides, the results show a crucial role of English in international business.

Our thesis is based on the constantly changing internal and external environment causing firms to increase or decrease their internationalisation efforts. The focus of this thesis is going to be on describing the process of re-internationalisation, including the different stages of de-internationalisation, time-out, and re-entry as well as identifying the influences of the internal and external environment on the process of re-internationalisation.   The influences of the internal and external environmental on the process of re-internationalisation are analysed and accompanied by secondary data about the German biogas market, which the case company is considering to re-entry. The aim of the thesis is to contribute to existing literature by exploring the process of re-internationalisation and its stages of de-internationalisation, time-out and re-entry, to enhance the understanding of SME internationalisation patterns, and the influence of the internal and external environment   The process of de-internationalisation for the case company was characterised by a lower degree of market commitment in contrast to a complete exit. The degree of commitment was maintained during time-out stage, but due to changes in the internal and external environment a move towards re-entering the market was considered. The main influences, found in this single case study, can be separated along the stages of de-internationalisation, time-out and re-entry. The de-internationalisation was mainly driven by poor economic results and a lack of resources. During the time-out, the company’s acquisition led to a change in firm objectives. The re-entry was mainly influenced by changes in institutional policies and the previously altered company objectives caused a consequential increase in resources. The change in institutional policies was perceived as a business opportunity. However, the analysis of the case company’s market showed a deviation between perceived and actual business opportunity, highlighting the importance of acquiring up-to-date market knowledge.

Background: Since the Go Global policy in 1999, Chinese firms have been growing and expanding exponentially in the global market. The internationalisation of Chinese firms has attracted not only business partners, policy makers but also researchers with their unconventional process and method. The problem occurs when Chinese brands are facing challenges in brand awareness and equity in foreign markets despite their strong presence domestically. One industry stands out as the most relevant example – the apparel industry – since China has been the largest exporter and importer of clothes worldwide yet Chinese brands are hardly recognised internationally. Among all, ANTA, one of the largest multinational companies (MNCs) operating in the sportswear industry, raises high interest for a case study with their rapid international expansion and their new global strategy. Purpose: This paper aims to examine the process of internationalisation and brand internationalisation of Chinese MNCs through the case of ANTA. This paper also wishes to contribute to the lack of study in the stream of literature regarding Chinese market cultivation post-entry to a new oversea markets and brand internationalisation. Method: A qualitative research was conducted through an exploratory approach. In-depth interviews were utilised for primary data collection in which 6 employees from different positions under ANTA agreed to become participants. A thematic analysis was then carried out. Secondary data about ANTA and their activities and strategies was also collected in order to use in combination with the empirical findings from the interviews. Lastly, an analysis of all the data based on the relevant literature was conducted. Conclusion: ANTA’s internationalisation process was found to be in line with past studies where acquisition is the preferable method. Several reasons were discussed for this choice of entry mode including the macro and firm factors. Following this, the choice of multi-brand strategy was fitting as it enables firms to leverage the acquired assets such as brand names, product lines, markets, capabilities and technology to diminish problems like low product range, lack R&D and technology and ownership disadvantages. However, potential challenges may also occur such as low brand equity and short-term orientated strategy that cannot be solved through rapid expansion and capital utilisation.

<p>‘Internationalisation of higher education’ is considered a significant issue in many countries.One effective way to achieve internationalisation is by having an exchange study program. Thisis something which has been promoted by universities all around the globe. It has been foundthat the experience of studying abroad is beneficial to the students. There has been a trend ofincreasing number of students going to study abroad. In Sweden, Jönköping InternationalBusiness School (JIBS) is one of the most internationalised business schools that promoteexchange studies extensively. To promote study abroad it is important to know what motivatesand influences the students to go on exchange. There has been previous research oninternationalisation and push-pull factors of student mobility which acted as a guideline for thisthesis. Thus it was appealing to study the reasons behind the phenomenon of students goingabroad for exchange studies.The purpose of this paper is to explore the push-pull factors influencing student’s destinationchoice for exchange study abroad. JIBS is the institution where the case study was conducted.The empirical data have been gathered by using a qualitative approach combining face-to-faceinterviews and focus groups with international exchange students and Swedish students. Toanalyse the findings, theories relating to marketing communications in service and productattribution were used.The results derived from the empirical findings show the push-pull factors which motivatestudents to go on exchange. The initial push factor is the promotion and encouragement tostudents for studying abroad by the university. Exchange studies helps to enhance students’personal development with intercultural communication, practicing language skills andtravelling. These skills and experiences add value to their CV.On the other hand the pull factors which the students take into consideration for deciding ontheir host countries and institutions are geographic location, weather, culture, and the economicand social position of the country. Living cost and the education system which includeslanguage used, courses offered, perceived image, communication and cooperation andrecommendations are factors influencing the choices of a student’s decision on the destinationfor studying abroad. The authors in this thesis summarised their findings in a model of pushpullfactors which is specialised only for exchange students. The process of considering thesefactors leads to the outcome of choosing the destination for studying abroad. The authorsbelieve the results of this study can be applied on other universities for further research andmay be appropriate for its own case to focus on areas where it needs to improve.ii</p>

The aim of the thesis is to investigate local impacts of large investments. This problem has been approached from three directions and, therefore, the study consists of three themes, namely: the changing spatial patterns of corporate activities, the short-term local economic impacts of invest­ments, and the long-term socio-economic impacts of investments on the local municipality. In order to put the impact studies of investments into a broader context the first theme provides an analysis of the macro-orientated processes that change the spatial pattern of a forest- based industry. The empirical investigation is based on a case-study of a major Swedish forest company (SCA — Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget), analysing its development from the 1950s to the present (Paper I). The locational changes of production plants, sales units and headquarters have been mapped and, parallel to this study of the company's spatial evolution, the underlying corporate strategies are discussed. The second theme focuses on the short-term local economic impacts of investments which are carried out at production units. The empirical data has been collected from a major investment introducing a new technology (Light Weight Coated paper - LWC) at Ortviken, an SCA-owned paper mill in Sundsvall. The point of departure for the analysis is the identification of contracted suppliers and their location in order to obtain a picture of the investment's diffusion in the local economy. As the choice of supplier is an important part of the study, criteria on how suppliers are chosen have also been examined (Paper II). Moreover, by using results from a number of similar investment studies, an attempt is made to summarize general experiences within a tentative model for estimating the share of local purchase deriving from major investments: the Local or Non-Local (LNL) model (Paper III). The third theme of the thesis pinpoints long-term local impacts of large investments. The investment generates impacts not only concurrently with the implementation phase, but also during the operation period of the invested item. The investigation of long-term socio-economic impacts has been performed by two studies employing different methodological approaches. The first study (Paper IV) deals with ex ante local impacts of locating a nuclear waste repository in Storuman or Mala, two sparsely populated municipalities in northern Sweden. The model is a traditional macro- formulated cohort model which is combined with a 'basic/non-basic' assumption regarding the intcrdependency within the local trade and business. The second study (Paper V) refers once again to the forest-based industry by emphasising the long-term socio-economic impacts of the investment examined in Paper II. This paper employs a micro-analytical modelling approach, so that, the municipal population is represented individually within the model. A microsimulation model is elaborated in order to analyse the long-term (15 years) local population and labour market dynamics induced by the LWC-investment. Some major findings of the thesis are: * The share of local purchase is connected to the composition of the investment. Analyses have shown that the higher the technological demand and the more technically advanced the goods and services related to the investment, the smaller is the local share of the purchase. *  It has proved possible to trace chain effects on different local labour-markets induced by changes in production at a particular place of work. Through linkages between the partial labour markets the closure of a major place of work will not only affect the occupational groups to which laid-off employees belong, but also give rise to changes in unemployment levels in many other occupations. / digitalisering@umu

The awareness about corruption has distinctly risen since the 1990s. In line with this many anti-corruption approaches arose initiated by the international community. This ranged from international legislation, initiatives by international institutions as Transparency International as well as strategic efforts on corporative levels as given with the appearance of Code of Conducts. However, the phenomenon appears to be of stable nature, which clearly impacts international business. Globalisation brings companies from less corrupt countries, unexperienced with its dimensions and handling, in frequent contact with business environments being highly dominated by corruption. Due to this, we find it to be a topic of importance and high relevance for almost any multinational business actor. Within the business related research field of corruption, we identified three research gaps. Firstly, the investigation of the supply-side of corruption within the private sector has not received sufficient attention in comparison to the demand-side. Further it appears that the contextuality of the phenomenon has been widely neglected, meaning that its driving dimensions of economical, social and political nature have not been investigated as a whole, revealing potential interrelations. In connection to this, the third gap we see to be given with a lacking connection of the topic to ethical considerations, which also calls for a contextual embedment. Based on these gaps we formulated the following research question: What drives corrupt practices of Multinational Enterprises within the internationalisation process? We argue that before any decisions concerning the handling of corruption can be made, one firstly needs to understand the phenomenon in its complexity. Building up on that, we further aim to scrutinise whether the above described anti-corruption approaches represent sufficient measures for MNEs when it comes to the practical avoidance of corruption. This represents the purpose of our study. We divided anti-corruption measures into internal and external approaches. The former include corporate anti-corruption- strategies, which in connection with ethical standpoints are commonly stated within Code of Conducts. The latter depicts the international legal framework against corrupt practices as well as international institutions fighting it. We concentrated our research on MNEs based in Europe, which internationalised to the BRIC-countries. In order to gain practical insights, a qualitative multiple case study has been conducted, comprising a sample of ten European companies. Given that we decided to conduct an exploratory study, we interviewed firms of differing size and industries in order to gain diverse data. The data collection was specifically tailored to the sensitivity of our research topic. As an ethical standpoint we took the anthropological perspective of moral relativism, implying that corruption cannot be evaluated as right or wrong without taking its context into consideration. Based on the latter, the findings revealed that corruption depicts a phenomenon of high complexity, being driven by every single of the investigated dimensions. Those are intensively interrelated and further reinforce each other. This characteristic seems to lead to a failure of anti-corruption approaches as sufficient measures on the operative level. Thus, within the BRIC-countries MNEs are unlikely to be able to uphold a strict non-tolerance for corruption as it appears to represent the Western business expectations. Consequently, they seem be entangled in a dilemma, facing the local given of strongly prevalent corruption but lacking tools to efficiently circumvent any engagement. According to this we identified a need for a new perspective, going beyond the oversimplified moral evaluation of corruption as right or wrong, implying a ‘black or white’-decision. We see this to be unrealistic since the real-life- context partly leads to grey-zones, in our view making the engagement in corrupt actions morally acceptable since the assessment has to be based on national moral views and take situational dependency into account. With this, we provide a new perspective on the phenomenon of corruption which can serve as a base for future research. On top of that managers can make use of our implications in order to better understand corruption. Consequently, they are able to make more realistic evaluations, for example acknowledging acceptable cultural adaptations instead of claiming a zero-tolerance approach. This again can lead to the creation of transparency, in the end supporting the combating of corruption.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le domaine de l’internationalisation de la distribution. Son objectif est d’expliquer les facteurs de succès ou d’échec de la filiale étrangère du distributeur international. L’analyse de la littérature met en évidence l’existence d’une large palette de perspectives théoriques divergentes. Afin de construire un cadre conceptuel cohérent, notre travail se fonde sur un modèle intégré d’origine industrielle combinant les approches SCP (« Structure-Conduct-Performance »), RBV (« Resource-Based-View ») et la théorie des capacités dynamiques de la firme, que nous adaptons aux spécificités de la distribution. Le modèle est construit et présenté à partir du concept central de « compétences-clés », appliqué au distributeur, il s’agit de comprendre de quelle manière les compétences clés de la filiale internationale de distribution influencent ses choix stratégiques et sa performance. Cette recherche nous conduit à clarifier une série de notions ayant un lien étroit avec les compétences-clés. Nous pouvons observer indirectement les « compétences-clés » du distributeur international au travers des activités et capacités distinctives de sa filiale dans un pays donné. Le terrain choisi est la Chine, qui, tant par sa taille que par sa vitesse de développement économique et commercial, représente un véritable laboratoire des transformations à l’oeuvre dans les pays émergents. En termes de méthodologie, nous avons retenu une approche qualitative basée sur la « Grounded Theory ». Les résultats, obtenus par l’analyse des entretiens de vingt un dirigeants de filiale étrangère font apparaître d’une part, que la typologie des compétences-clés de la filiale du distributeur international repose sur deux types de compétences: les compétences de base et les compétences architecturales, d’autre part, le modèle intégré emprunté au domaine industriel est validé dans le domaine de la distribution sachant que les facteurs environnementaux jouent dans ce dernier cas un rôle plus important. / The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the success and failure factors for the foreign subsidiary of an international retailer. However, the existing literature draws on a wide range of divergent theoretical perspectives. In order to build one coherent conceptual framework, our study is based on an integrated model combining the SCP and RBV perspectives and the dynamical capability theory, while indicating the central role of core competences. Since this model was derived from industrial fields, we adapted it into a retailing model in order to understand how the core competences of the international retailer’s foreign subsidiary could influence its strategic choices and performances. This framework was used in a Grounded Theory study aimed at 21 top managers of international retailers in China. Our findings showed that the foreign subsidiary’s core competences for the international retailer could be classified as: component competences and architectural competences. Results from the international retailing fields broadly support the theoretical model borrowed from industrial fields. However, the environmental factors play a more important role in the first field.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in the development of the nation's economy by providing employment and creating the economic growth. The management of the companies that are going international considers different motives before taking the step into the international market. The internationalization process involves risks and uncertainty significantly effected by challenges and barriers to SMEs from developing countries.