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Internationalization as an entrepreneurial process

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Abstract

When firms cross-borders it is, by definition, internationalization. We believe that often internationalization should be seen as either a by-product of a firm’s efforts to improve its position within its network or networks, or as the result of an entrepreneurial action. We consider three theoretical approaches as a starting point and breathe life into them with a rich case study. We suggest adjustments to Johanson and Vahlne’s business network internationalization process model, an update of the Uppsala internationalization process model, to emphasize the entrepreneurial aspects of the process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 610, 405 30, Göteborg, Sweden

    Roger Schweizer & Jan-Erik Vahlne

  2. Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 513, 75120, Uppsala, Sweden

    Jan Johanson

Authors
  1. Roger Schweizer
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  2. Jan-Erik Vahlne
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  3. Jan Johanson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roger Schweizer.

Additional information

The authors wish to thank JIEN’s reviewers and Hamid Etemad, the editor, for their helpful suggestions on this article. We are grateful to The Swedish Research Council for funding this project. We thank Jan Smith for his generous cooperation.

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Schweizer, R., Vahlne, JE. & Johanson, J. Internationalization as an entrepreneurial process. J Int Entrep 8, 343–370 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-010-0064-8

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