Background: During the past years the increasing internationalisation has not only affected companies but also universities. This development is due to the Bologna Declaration which prescribes a harmonisation of the higher education in Europe. The declaration implies a tougher competition, but also a higher degree of co-operation among European universities. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how LiU can make use of thenetwork approach in the process of internationalisation, in order to cope with the changes that the Bologna Declaration implies. Realisation: We have carried out a total amount of 17 interviews. To complement these interviews, secondary data about the Bologna Process and LiU have been extracted from the internet and other information material. Results: LiU should take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Bologna Process in order to further internationalise. The most favourable way of networking for LiU would be to be a part of relatively small and complementary networks. The promotion and facilitation of the communication between partners, but also within the university, is crucial. Use, and constantly develop, the competitive advantages in order to seek possible network partners and to attract students, teachers and researchers.

Do the corporate cultures have to integrate in an international merger? In March 1999, the two large Nordic IT companies, Tieto of Finland and Enator of Sweden, announced their intentions to combine their businesses. The new entity was to have over 10,000 employees and net sales of more than 1 billion Euro. TietoEnator (TE) was to become one of the leading suppliers of IT services on the European market. The combination was announced as a Merger of Equals – the merging companies being of about the same size, and operating mainly in their respective home markets, thus avoiding competition with each other. The authors´ interest to this case has emerged from the fact that company fusions generally, and international mergers of equal partners in particular, are considered as high- risk projects. The issues discussed in this paper are expected cultural differences between Finland and Sweden, and between Tieto and Enator; differences in management style and market structure and buyer behaviour between the two companies, and differences in the industry environments and business climates of Finland and Sweden. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the TietoEnator´s merger process from two perspectives: the cultural perspective and the strategy perspective. The main objective is to exemplify some theories in organizational and strategic research by connecting the theories to the significant events of the TietoEnator merger case. Five executive employees of TietoEnator in Sweden give their personal view on the merger and the development of the company. The strategic (vision, mission, and strategy objectives) statements of the company before, during, and after the merger are compared and analyzed. Conclusions: the cultural distance should not only be considered as a negative issue. The paradox of cultural proximity, where two neighbouring cultures show significant cultural differences, is according to our findings not expected to lead to serious problems if handled in a constructive manner. Selective integration and leveraging the positive tensions between the different cultures is the key to success in internationalisation through merger.

The organisational forms of companies have undergone a transformation from a hierarchal structure towards a network based form. The network form has proven to be the best structure for the current competitive environment. With technological advancements in almost every area it has become almost impossible to produce everything “in-house” and still stay competitive. This has caused an increase in the degree of outsourcing parts of the value chain to suppliers. Therefore, the competition has now moved from between companies to between entire value chains. For a manufacturing company, with a large part of the value chain outsourced to suppliers the task of setting up production in a new market brings forth new questions such as: is it possible to move an entire value chain to a new country? The purpose of this thesis is to explore what factors influence the construction of a strategic network of suppliers of a manufacturing company when entering a new market. The purpose was divided into two research questions: How is the internationalisation process performed in a strategic network situation and what factors influence the construction of a supplier structure in a world based on networks? Three multinational companies with a large part of their value chain outsourced to suppliers were chosen for interviews: Ericsson, Scania and Volvo Truck Corporation. The internationalisation process of a manufacturing company is conducted as follows: the first step is the decision to enter a new market followed by a rather quick set up of a production plant. In this initial phase of the establishment, everything or almost everything is imported which is possible due to a global network of suppliers. The last step depends on the strategic objective with the establishment, either importing will continue or a complete organisation will be established in the country. A complete organisation is in this aspect when the company makes large investments inthe market and starts constructing a supplier network, surrounding sales and marketing functions. Factors influencing the internationalising process are: degree of networking, the type and structure of the network surrounding the company; level of knowledge, the accumulated experience of operating in foreign markets; type of market, the characteristics of the market and degree of commitment i.e. will an entire organisation be built up or will importing suffice.

The retail sector is at the forefront of internationalisation activities. It is especially the case for German and French retailers that operate respectively 27,8% and 20,6% of non domestic outlets in Western Europe. Stating this, the grocery retailers have also drastically changed their orientation, from domestic to multinational players since two decades: a relatively new and important subject that needs to be taken into account. Within this frame, Casino and REWE Group are good examples of internationalisation since both have the same size internationally but do not operate in the same area and do not seem to have the same strategy regarding their global activities. The aim of the research is to find outstanding characteristics in the internationalisation strategy of European grocery retailers, via the case of Casino and REWE Group. In order to illuminate this aim, Porter's (1980) ‘Structural Analysis of Industries’ is going to be used to the grocery retailing sector following a previous demonstration of Colla (2003) and other field-specific theories. After pointing out the similitude between the two companies in their domestic markets, several dimensions have been taken into account to analyse the differences when going international such as geographical spread, branding, channel selection, and ownership. We have identified two different internationalisation strategies, through the case of these retailers. Thus, we have drawn a dichotomy in the European food retailing industry internationalisation strategy between what we named ‘umbrella organisation’ and ‘unifying organisation’. The latter is characterised by a unified branding strategy, operating few formats, looking for full control of its operation abroad via direct takeovers or organic growth, and looking for harmonisation of its operations abroad. On the opposite, an umbrella organisation operates numerous banners abroad. It is mostly looking for a multi-format offer, enters countries via overtime capital acquisition and gives more independence to its affiliates worldwide.

Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships. Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners. Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction. Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated. Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.

Historically the research of International Business and the internationalisation of companies have been concentrated to large, mature companies with extensive resources to deploy in new markets. Since the 90’s a big field of research has though been on so called born globals, or international new ventures. In this thesis I will take up where this research is today and I will deal with the issue of new entrepreneurial ventures that internationalise from a very early stage of their existence From the theory five factors are retracted; 1) The Entrepreneur; 2) Identified Opportunities; 3) Entry/ Establishing mode; 4) Deployed Resources and 5) Local Challenges and from this the theoretical model is created. The following empirical study is made on Swedish entrepreneurs that have established in China during the last decade and the model seeks to answer why and how the entrepreneur established in China. The model is constructed to be usable for research on entrepreneurs from any market entering any other market. This specific study on Swedish entrepreneur in China merely fills the function of illustrating the use of the model, as the sample is too small to generalize.

Internationalisation is today part of every firm’s reality and impossible to deny. Researchers have developed several models and theories concerning this topic describing firms internationalisation in terms of innovation models, behavioural-, sequential-, and learning processes. However, there is a lack of export research for small firms that are practically oriented towards a specific market. Small firms often lack the resources and time to investigate new markets. We have seen an empirically driven need for research about entry strategies due to a request from a Swedish design company. The Japanese economy is the second largest in the world with a population interested in consumer goods such as design products and services. During the last years, the fascination for western cultures, Swedish design and lifestyle has grown. Due to this, it is interesting for small Swedish design firms to examine the Japanese market. The purpose of the thesis is to empirically examine small Swedish design firms’ internationalisation process to Japan. Appropriate export entry strategies will be evaluated in order to find suitable suggestions for other design firms with similar characteristics that wish to expand to Japan. To fulfil this purpose, a qualitative method with an orientation towards induction was used. Primary data was gathered by interviews with five Swedish design firms with experiences from Japanese market penetration. To approach the Japanese market and entry strategies from another perspective, complementary information and interviews were conducted with for example the manager at Swedish Trade Council Japan, and the founder of the agent association Japan Porten. Internationalisation theories, export entry strategies, and theory about the Japanese market have also been presented. As a result of the theory chapter, research questions rose concerning what international entry strategy this type of companies should use. What entry mode and distribution channels are most appropriate, how should the marketing plan be composed and what other things should to be considered before a Japanese market entry? A cross-analysis was then made contrasting and comparing theory and empirical data in order to reach conclusions. The conclusion gives suggestions about what steps small Swedish design firms should take after they have decided to enter Japan. We have found evidence during this research process that suggests them to use a direct entry mode, contracting an agent or distributor. To get in contact with business partners, the companies can participate in trade fairs or events, promote themselves through magazines, and take help from the Swedish Trade Council. Products should be slightly adjusted to the Japanese market, especially in terms of physical size and packaging materials that has to be flawless and professional. The price can be set higher than in Sweden and the company should position themselves as high quality producers. Swedish design, originality, and handicraft tradition should be promoted. Further, the Japanese business culture has to be respected, where negotiation manners, honesty and politeness should be considered. The companies also have to bear in mind that things take time in Japan and it is important to develop personal life-lasting relationships.

The Swedish town Kalmar suffered from economic cutbacks during the 1990’s and many local companies left the region resulting in a decrease in population. Local authorities therefore set goals of regional development and an economic turn was thought to come with foreign investments. Fanerdun is one of the Chinese firms recently interested in investing in the Swedish market, more specifically in Kalmar. Its business idea is to build a convention centre where ap-proximately 1000 Chinese suppliers will sell light industry products to companies in the Baltic Sea region and Northern Europe. The establishment process is of value to study since the economically strained Kalmar region managed to attract such a large investment and Fanerdun’s reasons behind its choice of location for the establishment are not apparent. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the questions why and how the convention centre was realised in Kalmar. Both given and cre-ated factors are taken into account. To fulfil the purpose, a case study using a qualitative method with an abductive approach was used. Primary data was collected through interviews with different involved actors to give a complete picture from various perspectives. This approach is referred to as triangula-tion and was also present in the frame of reference. Three different theory fields; regional network, internationalisation and guanxi were appropriate to describe the complexity of the establishment process. The conclusion includes the given and created factors that led to Fanerdun’s establishment in Kalmar. The given factors are; location in Europe and the Baltic Sea region, low corporate tax, low investment costs, infrastructure capabilities and small town advantage. From the analysis, created factors became clear. One common feature found to be a central factor was relationships between people, organisations and regions. From Kalmar’s perspective, the regional network anticipation explains why the establishment was realised. To answer how, the three developing regional networks; Changxing-Kalmar, Baltic Sea region and Kalmar region itself together played essential roles. From Fanerdun’s perspective, why and how Kalmar was chosen as location for its international establishment is interlinked. Different internationalisation drives were characterised by commitment, shared knowledge and mu-tual dependency between Fanerdun and Kalmar representatives. The presence of guanxi, a Chinese concept of relationship cultivation, was a specific aspect for the realisation of the convention centre.

Le travail de recherche que nous présentons dans ce document porte sur la dynamique des centres de R&D industriels implantés à l'étranger. Comme Ronstadt (1978), Asakawa (2001) et Asakawa & Som (2008), nous constatons que la mission et la position des centres de R&D dans le réseau interne d'innovation de la firme évoluent. Nous avons modélisé cette évolution en quatre phases distinctes : l'implantation du centre, la double phase de la construction de son identité grâce à son intégration au réseau interne d'innovation de la firme et à la construction de son réseau externe d'innovation et enfin la maturité du centre.Nous avons ensuite cherché à comprendre comment le centre passait de sa phase d'implantation,durant laquelle il n'a pas encore d'identité propre, à sa phase de maturité, où il est parvenu à se spécialiser et à devenir un élément clé du réseau interne d'innovation de la firme. Nous avons caractérisé chacun des moments de l'évolution du centre par les types de relations entre le centre,son réseau interne d'innovation et son environnement local. Pour y parvenir, nous nous sommes appuyée sur la littérature sur les clusters qui s'est intéressée aux types de liens nécessaires à l'échange de savoirs et de savoir-faire et à la construction de rapports de confiance entre plusieurs organismes au-delà de la seule considération de leur proximité géographique. Cette littérature apporte un outil peu mobilisé dans la littérature sur la globalisation de la R&D : les proximités (Boschma,2005). Nous avons utilisé six types de proximités pour comprendre et analyser de quelle manière un centre de R&D implanté à l'étranger évoluait : les proximités géographique, institutionnelle organisée, institutionnelle inorganisée, structurelle, cognitive et sociale. Il ressort de nos travaux que chacune des phases de l'évolution du centre se caractérise par une architecture de proximités spécifique entre le centre, son réseau interne d'innovation et son environnement local.Pour parvenir à ces résultats et pour les valider, nous avons combiné plusieurs outils méthodologiques : 1/ nous avons construit et animé pendant deux ans un focus group composé de managers de la R&D industrielle sur le thème de la globalisation de la R&D, 2/ nous avons étudié les centres de R&D implantés à Bangalore de quatre entreprises multinationales : ABB, AkzoNobel,Procter & Gamble et Siemens, 3/ enfin, nous nous sommes appuyée sur un grand nombre de " minicas", recueillis lors d'entretiens informels ou de réunions relatives à la question de la globalisation de la R&D. L'ensemble de ce travail empirique a été fait dans le cadre d'une thèse CIFRE avec l'association européenne pour le management de la recherche industrielle (EIRMA).

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'explorer le processus de formation de l'opportunité (PFO) dans le contexte de l'internationalisation des PME haute technologie (PMEHT) ou à forte intensité de savoir et d'approfondir les rôles des réseaux sociaux (RS) de l'entrepreneur technologique ou de son équipe entrepreneuriale dans ce processus. Cette recherche se situe dans le paradigme interprétatif, relatif au constructivisme qui accorde de l'importance à la réalité subjective et aux processus de construction et de signification : la réalité est construite à partir de l'interaction sociale. Nous avons analysé huit cas de PME-HT du Québec en privilégiant un échantillonnage de cas extrêmes et en octroyant une attention particulière à l'interprétation que l'acteur entrepreneurial se fait de son environnement et à la signification qu'il accorde à l'opportunité. Cette thèse contribue à cerner la dynamique de l'entrepreneuriat dans le contexte international, notamment en montrant l'importance du réseautage plutôt que celui de la structure des réseaux. Trois catégories de réseautage ont émergé : le réseautage de capitalisation, axé sur l'expérience préalable à la création de l'entreprise; le réseautage de prospection utilisé lors de l'exploration des nouveaux contacts; et un réseautage d'effet domino qui capitalise sur la légitimité gagnée par l'entreprise à l'international. Il ressort que le PFO à l'international est intrinsèquement lié aux RS. Le PFO peut être décrit comme un processus dynamique d'apprentissage qui s'améliore avec l'expérience et qui intègre cinq composantes : i) l'équipe entrepreneuriale (ÉE); ii) les réseaux sociaux (RS); iii) la représentation de l'acteur entrepreneurial de son environnement; iv) le PFO lui-même; et v) l'organisation PME-HT. De plus, il ne se déroule pas séquentiellement mais par plusieurs allers et retours qui comportent des activités de veille, d'interprétation et de traitement de l'information et qui résultent en une intégration et un apprentissage dynamique. Son déroulement relève autant de l'intentionnalité (façonnement) que de l'émergence (bricolage) et il dépend de l'expérience acquise par les entrepreneurs (apprentissage lors des PFO), de la situation (types d'opportunités) et de l'interrelation avec les RS. Lors du PFO, les RS jouent des rôles autant actifs lorsqu'ils répondent à une demande explicite de l'acteur entrepreneurial que passifs lorsqu'ils influencent le PFO de façon indirecte, via une information non sollicitée, mais perçue comme clé par l'acteur entrepreneurial. Les RS jouent des rôles informationnels, donneurs de sens, leviers de ressources ou modérateurs de décisions. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Dynamique entrepreneuriale, Processus de formation de l'opportunité, rôles des réseaux sociaux (RS), internationalisation de la PME-HT ou à haute intensité de savoir, entrepreneuriat international, signification de l'opportunité, networking international.