'Plantaze\r'

'INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SEE-FIRMS Final Group composing T fitted of content 1 1. 1 1. 2 1. 3 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Background translation …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 question Purpose …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Struct ure of the root…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 2 2. 1 2. 2 look for METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………………………. 2 Data Collection ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2 Data compendium …………………………………………à ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦. 3 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 CASE STUDY ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 troupe Description (www. plantaze. com) …………………………………………………………………………….. 6 internationalisation Process………………………………………………………………………………… …………………. 7 Internationalization Motives …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 4. 1 4. 2 epitome AND INTERPRETATION…………………………………………………………… 11 Theoretical Background ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 Application of the Uppsala stumper ………………………………………à ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦. 13 5 5. 1 5. 2 IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS …………………………………………………………. 4 Implications of the teach ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14 Limitations of the postulate ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 15 6 7 8 refinement AND FUTURE RESEARCH …â €¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦. 15 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………….. ………………………….. 7 appendage ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 19 1 Introduction In this chapter the play down of the case contemplate leave al unity be presented, as intimately as the purpose of the study stick out be stated, before an altogether(prenominal)whereview of the structure of this report is given. 1. 1 Background Description Today, many companies take the look to establish themselves a free. The causes for multinationalization be many. Perhaps the alkali merchandise is saturated, presence in a received pastoral grants access to strategical picks or on that geological period be cluster forcefulnesss to be explored in a specific region.The decision makers of the companies that argon neat international earn disparate experience, argon in contrary seats and consider different motives before pickings the step into the international trade. (Masum/Fernandez two hundred8, 2) For the past few decades investigateers reserve been debating over existing theories and ontogenesis new-made theories of international business organisation to rationalize why and how companies internationalize. Internationalization theories be explaining different internationalisation processes, which are taking red dissemble when companies expand across national b revisions.Ranges of internationalisation learn been discussed in various inv estigations with the conclusion that the majority of these frameworks flunk to explain internationalization behavior of various companies, however, this doesn’t mean that they are non useful at all. (Pett 2008, 1) It is inappropriate to approach the internationalization process without formulating a strategy. Without a proper strategy the incorruptible is active to fail in their internationalization. Formulating a strategy similarly involves deciding hen, how and which merchandises to assume. There are several commercialiseplace entry modes a firm endure tell apart from, such as merchandise, contractual relationships (licensing, franchising), as well as equity or ownership-based international business activities deal FDI or collaborative endangers. (Masum/Fernandez 2008, 2) 1. 2 explore Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the internationalization process of a SEE alliance, tokenly the usefulness of the principal(prenominal) surmisal: the Uppsala toughie. 1 1. 3 Structure of the ReportThe report is split into six major parts: Introduction, query Methodology, cuticle Study, abbreviation and Interpretation, Implications and Limitations, and our Findings and Conclusion. The introduction part contains the background commentary of the general topic and the research purpose. Followed by the look for Methodology part, where the research method, exploitation collection and study analysis is described. Then the elect party is presented in particular and their internationalization process and their motives for internationalization are discussed.In the Analysis and Interpretation chapter the theoretical background and to which adulterate the come with followed the theory is presented, on with a broad discussion of the ga on that pointd empirical entropy. There are besides much or little moments and limitations menti unmatchedd in the next chapter. In the conclusion there is a brief disp lay of the summonings as well as possible pass on research on the topic. 2 2. 1 Research Methodology Data Collection The data stack away and employ in this analysis has been mainly gathered from websites and on fund databases. This means that the method applied was Desk Research.As depicted by name Desk Research is the research technique that is mainly acquired by sitting at a desk. It involves appeal data from existing resources and, compared to Field Research, is the cheapest and quickest option. Nevertheless, there is always the problem of the validity, objectivity and credibility of the data found. There are basi call upy two types of desk research: Internal Desk Research and External Desk Research. Whereas the former is initiation utilize scarce in corporations or companies that bear an internal database, the latter advise be do by any onenessness.External Desk Research is the actual method that was used when gathering information to the highest ground take aim the companionship, near(predicate) the market and intimately other(a) countries. 2. 2 Data Analysis First of all, it has been decided to go with the alliance Plantaze. Afterwards, a huge amount of data nearly the political party’s tale, strategy and current situation has been gath2 ered immediately from their decreed website, plantaze. com. Moreover, detailed information round their products and takings process has been found here.Additional financial and statistical information was found on the website of the Montenegro Stock Exchange (MNSE), montenegrobreza. com, where the community is listed and traded. Normally, looking and searching for data in online databases is in truth(prenominal) expensive. Fortunately, there has been access to the WU network, where many online databases are available for the research. ‘Amakeus’, ‘Factiva’ and others endure given supplementary data about the guild’s international subsidiaries for example that were non that clear in the places looked before.Actually, the main difficulty was finding data about the companionship’s trading operations abroad. For that reason it was necessary to get in equal with the Plantaze confederacy in order to get much accurate data on their internationalization process. The volume were kind luxuriant and shared many rattling chief(prenominal) positions and dates that completed the information pool that was wishinged. In order to work on the Excel canvass, stinting, semipolitical and geographical data on the countries in which the Plantaze company is directly or indirectly doing business were needed.For this, the withdrawicial websites of the specific countries presidential terms and other websites of some Copernican international organization like the World Bank or the CIA World Factbook were used. Before starting to write about the company’s past, present and future situation in the company description, arti cles from the press about the company and its operations were read. Also a look at various customer reports and trade association reviews about the company were necessary, so that an objective and close-set(prenominal) sagacity to the true image of the analyzed company could be provided.Psychic Distance Psychic outer space is defined as factors such as rests in language, culture, political systems, and so on , which disturb the flow of information betwixt the firm and the market. Psychic duration chain refers to economic, geographical and ethnical outer space. (Johanson/Wiedersheim-Paul 1975, 308). Hofstede’s exercise of cultural proportionalitys from 1970s as one of the sourceborn theories that could be used to explain spy differences between cultures, has fix an internationally recognise standard and major resource in cross-cultural studies. The original theory identified cardinal cultural dimensions for distinguishing cultures: • Power length dimen sion (PD) focuses on the degree of ine fiber between people with and without power in society; • Individualism dimension (IDV) refers to strength of interpersonal connections and share of responsibility among people; • Un authoritativety shunning Index (UAI) measures degree of tolerance towards perplexity and unvalued situations and • Masculinity (MAS) referring to gender differentiations and inequity in society.After some to a greater extent researches Hofstede added a fifth dimension †semipermanent taste (LTO) which relates to how much society values semipermanent devotion to traditional values; and in the 2010 a sixth dimension †Indulgence versus restraint defining the attitude of society towards gratification of basic and pictorial human necessitate related enjoying life and having fun. (mindtools. com 2012) The chase factors were used for this case study: The geographical blank space is an important factor to calculate transportation salut e from the take facility in Montenegro to the sales markets abroad.The check was calculated by measuring the air line blank from Podgorica (Montenegrin capital) to the capital of the reference plain. It is the about important haoma for Plantaze as it is a mainly trade company. So this factor was overweighed against all the other chosen factors. The cultural length consists of the above-mentioned dimensions, power outmatch, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. Regarding to Hofstede the differences of the dimension of artless A and the reference country, i. e. Montenegro, are calculated in a first step.This difference has to be squared and divided by the magnetic declination of the whole spectrum of countries. Cultural duration in exportation is important because of the sheer nature of the product. Drinking fuddle is something that is embed in the national culture, thus fashioning the cultural distance a factor that needs to be taken into consideration . Furthermore for marketing and colloquy reasons the cultural distance between two countries push aside make a company change the strategy. 4 It was calculated by using the Kogut and Singh-Formula:When calculating the internationalization process of the company regarding only the subsidiaries and the phrase venture the cultural distance variable gains importance. Because unveiling a market in this way, by greenfield investment, a company has to think and act on a long-term level. The country’s culture can be decisive in whether the own company will be successful or non. The â€Å" drink” distance measures the drink-colored consumption per capita of a nation compared to Montenegro. This portend is relevant because it would make no sense for a wine-coloured producing company to enter a market that scores low.As already mentioned wine consumption is something that is extremely linked to the nation’s culture and their drink habits. That is why this is a r elevant figure. To calculate the wine distance, the same formula as above has been used. The economic distance was non taken into grudge because of the fact, that it is not relevant for this type of industry. To calculate the psychic distance the above mentioned factors have been standardized to numbers between 0 and 1, while 0 stands for Montenegro respectively a country with the same figures than Montenegro and 1 for the country with the highest distance to the reference country.The factors have been weighted according to their importance. In the exporting internationalization process the geographical distance has been weighted with 60%, the cultural and the â€Å"wine” distance were weighted with 20% each. In the subsidiary and joint venture internationalization process the geographical distance has too been weighted with 60%, the cultural distance with 40% and the wine distance was not taken into consideration. 5 3 3. 1 Case Study Company Description (www. plantaze. c om) ‘13jul-Plantaze’ is a wine-producing company from Montenegro.Its history takes us back more than 100 age, more specifically to 1907 when the Montenegrin wine ‘Vranac’ won its first wampum in London. It was provided more than 50 years later, when the government of Montenegro decided to invest in the make growment of agriculture, that the led to the creation of the company Plantaze as we be it at present. Between 1964 and 1974, Plantaze expanded the vineyard to 377 ha and the wine wine cellar capacity to 26. 000 hl. In the 1977-1982 period, the company realised one of its most important projects.Transforming the arid and granitic soil of the ‘Cemovsko’ field into one of the largest green oasis of the Balkan area is not something to be overlooked. 62 meg U. S. dollars cost the creation of the largest vineyard in atomic number 63 at that time, covering 2000 ha of orchards and vineyards. The geographical plant makes this place so uni que. Located at about 30 km from the Adriatic See, on the river Bojana, the ‘Cemovsko’ field has a microclimate of its own, suitable for quality grape production.In 1979 the main touch on plant was built near the vineyard. ‘Agrougostitelj’, ‘Agrokom’, ‘Agroekonomski institut’, ‘Uvoz-izvoz’ and ‘Ribnjaci’ merged with Plantaze in 1998. 2005 was the year in which the company established a joint venture with their Italian partners and added the first scintillate wine ‘Val’ to the product range. During the years, they successfully obtained international certificates of quality such as the ISO 9001:2000; HACCAP or the ISO 1four hundred0. In 2007, Plantaze invested 2 trillion euros in the remarkable wine cellar ‘Sipcanik’.Located at 30 meters below the soil, covering about 7000 m2, this completely natural area has the perfect climatic and technological conditions to age over 2 million liters of wine in wooden barrels, oak barriques and bottles. In the withstand 10 years exports have arise by 530% to 4 million bottles in 2008. The company exports to over 30 countries situated all over the world, from the U. S. A to Canada, to the E. U. countries, Russia, China and Australia. Today, Plantaze tranquillize owns and manages atomic number 63’s biggest vineyard at ‘Cemovsko’ field, which stands on 2310 ha and contains trio wine cellars with a capacity of 310. 00 hl. They recently proclaimed that the investments made in the period 2003-2009 were over 40 million euros. With an annual production of 22 6 million kilos per year, Plantaze is the biggest producer of wine and table grapes in Montenegro. A quick look at their company’s official website will be enough to understand that this company has something special about it. Their guardianship statement is to produce worldclass quality products with which they can satiate their loyal custo mers and gain new ones.It must be added that the company is not save producing and marketing wine and grapes. An 85ha peach plantation that averages an annual production of 1. 200 tons is one of their most prized possessions. As of 1957, Plantaze produces and sells about 100 tons of Californian trout. The ‘Mareza’ fish kitty covers 6. 000 m2 and is exclusively fed by fresh jump out water. The grapevines used are not being bought; they are being grown on a greenhouse of rootstocks that spreads over 40 ha. Two restaurants complete their portfolio. Mareza’, a restaurant with a capacity of over 400 seats, located 5 km outside of Podgorica and ‘Jezero’, with a capacity of over 300 guests, located along the main road between Podgorica and Petrovac, on the propping up of the beautiful and relaxing Skadar Lake appear in every touristic guide of Montenegro. Coming back to the wine business, we can see that Plantaze offers a great variety of wines. 11 ty pes of red wine and 6 types of white wine are currently in their catalogue. Furthermore, we can find a special rose wine made from red grapes applied in the white wines production. ternary types of brandy complete the offer.The Plantaze company is probably one of the most successful brands and businesses in Montenegro. Their incredible attitude towards the purlieu and their fine attention to detail stands before every product they make. The Plantaze company must be a proud flag-bearer and ambassador of Montenegro because they managed to achieve something that many firms only dream of, and that is to produce traditional goods from your local country and culture at the highest quality possible. For this reason and others, the company Plantaze has been chosen to be analyzed and presented. 3. 2 Internationalization ProcessBecause the company has a history of over 40 years, in which it exchange goods on an international level, the need for splitting up the process into more than one p eriod was created. Therefore, the internationalization process was divided into four different builds. 7 These phases are not equal. For example, the first period is twenty years long, whereas the uph oldish one is fifteen years long. The reason for this is that the first two periods were slower from the internationalization point of view than the last two. So, in the first period that is between 1964 and 1984, they started marketing their products on the Yugoslavian market and in Albania.The contrast for the fact that Yugoslavia has been added to the internationalization process is actually very unaffixed to follow. Because for the company at stake the cultural distance is of great importance, it was clear that Yugoslavia had to appear on the graph. Although from a political and technical point of view, there was only one single country and one single market, taking the cultural differences into consideration, the situation changes dramatically. The septet entities that are n ow seven different countries have their own traditions, habits and culture.Therefore, exchange products all over the ex-Yugoslavian grunge makes the process an international one. Furthermore, if the Uppsala forge is the center point of this presentation, gaining experience about different cultures and using it into new markets, like Plantaze did, just proves out argumentation. In the second phase, from 1985 and 2000, numerous other markets were penetrated. Of course, afterward 1991 and the fall of ex-Yugoslavia, the products sold into these new established countries could officially be called exports. The company entered some important European countries like the Czechoslovakian Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.In the east, Bulgaria was chosen to start exporting to. The first countries from the European Union in 8 which the firm started internationalizing were Italy, France and the U. K. , in which they established a all told-owned sales subsidiary in London. Russia wa s the first opposed market they choose. In the one-third period, or between 2001 and 2004, the focus remained on Central and Western Europe. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden were the next markets they entered. The third period alike meant a development of the internationalization process.Some very distant markets such as China and the United States were submitted to the process. The fourthly and final phase takes place from 2005 until the present day, in 2012. Norway and Switzerland are the newest addition from the European continent, while Canada and Australia are another two distant markets to which the company started exporting. 3. 3 Internationalization Motives To figure out the motives for the internationalization of Plantaze a quick look at Dunning’s different categories of motives is necessary. strategic Asset pursuit Resource desire qualification Seeking Motives for Internationalization Network Seeking market Seeking 9 Dunning (2000) explai ns how market and resource seeking motives have been the two most recognized categories of motives before. These two categories still correspond to most first time internationalization by firms. Overall, might seeking and strategic summation seeking motives increase in significance and are more common as motives for companies already booked in multinational activity. He also shows that closer relations with customers and durable relations with suppliers were important motives. Furthermore, he suggests that internationalization was more driven by opportunities quite than threats. Hansson/Hedin 2007, 5) Market Seekers: Companies that invest in a particular country or region with the intention to communicate goods and answers are called market seekers. This category of motives focuses on demand aspects. (Hansson/Hedin 2007, 6) Plantaze’s home market is throttle as Montenegro is a small country and so it brings the firm not enough revenues. This fact and also to diversify the customer base of Plantaze to reduce the habituation on the home market are reasons why they decided to go abroad. Resource Seekers: According to Dunning (1993) resource seeking means to invest abroad in order to obtain resources.This could be resources that can be acquired at a lower comparative cost, or simply does not exist at all in the home country. (Hansson/Hedin 2007, 7) Plantaze is not seen as a resource seeking company, as the conditions for producing in Montenegro are unique. Sometimes skills and capabilities are resources that can be used by dint of collaboration with a business partner. Efficiency Seekers: The purpose is to rationalize structures of established investments in order to gain from common governance. Often those benefits come from economies of scale, but also risk diversification.Therefore, efficiency seeking is seen as gaining from the differences of factor 10 endowments, cultures, institutional arrangements, and economic systems etc. (Hansson/Hedin 2 007, 7) Economies of scale and scope as well as the increase of sales and profits are issues that an efficiency seeker often focuses on, and so does Plantaze. Another motive for the company to internationalize is that Plantaze might be able to lower the tax burden. Strategic Resource Seekers: Strategic resources are for example patents, experience, the skills of employees, and strategic supplies necessary for developing comparative profits.By focusing on developing strategic resources the company supports its long term strategic objectives. (Hansson/Hedin 2007, 8) Plantaze’s aim is it to create brand awareness in contrasted countries and to transmit the positive image of Montenegro by producing a traditional product from the home country and selling it to other countries. Network Seekers: The network orientation reflects to what extent companies participate in alliances, cooperative ventures and other forms of similar social connections. Networks outside the organization c an be very important for the companies.Companies intend to nurse, develop and expand their existing networks. (Hansson/Hedin 2007, 9) Developing useful foreign relationships is an important factor for Plantaze. Their partner have knowledge of the local markets and the necessary skills. 4 4. 1 Analysis and Interpretation Theoretical Background The Uppsala Internationalization Model The Uppsala Internationalization model is a model of a firms choice of market and form of entry when spill abroad. It was developed by a number of Swedish researchers, Johanson, Wiedersheim-Paul and Vahlne (1975, 1977). The model was named after the business 11 chool of the Swedish city and based on the process of internationalization of four Swedish manufacturing companies with operations in more than 20 countries. The model assumes that internationalization is a innovative process made of several successive stages. The main aspects of internationalization are market knowledge and level of commitment in a particular emcee country. The major obstacle to international operations is the wishing of knowledge about foreign markets and operations, which can be overtaken gradually by actively engaging in such foreign environments (Forsgren, Hogstrom, 2004; Lakomaa, 2009).The Swedish researchers noticed that observed companies had begun to operate abroad in nearby markets and so slowly penetrated markets far away. They entered new markets through export, and after several years of exports the company could establish wholly owned or majority-owned operations. Thus, the process of progressive internationalization is built on four stages that are: discontinuous export, export via independent representatives, foreign sales subsidiaries and production and manufacturing units in foreign markets. Source: Forgren and Johanson 1975, 16 12The figure shows that additional market commitment will be made in small steps, both in the market commitment and geographical dimension. The geographical dim ension means that firms enter new markets with successively greater psychic distance, defined in terms of factors like language differences, culture and political system, etc. Therefore, companies internationalize by liberation to those markets they can most advantageously understand and where the perceived market uncertainty is low. critical review of the Uppsala Model There were several critics referring to the Uppsala model.Some of them are that the model is too deterministic (Reid, 1983; Turnbull, 1987) or that the model doses not take into account interdependencies between different country markets (Johanson and Mattson, 1986). Studies have shown that the model is not valid for service industries, situations of highly internationalized companies and industries and that the whole internationalization process has speeded up. Firms also tend to enter ‘distant markets in terms of psychic distance at an early stage (leap-frogging tendency), because the world has become much more homogenous and that has crest to that psychic distance has decreased. . 2 Application of the Uppsala Model Only by simply looking at the internationalization process that the Plantaze company followed over the years, it is easy to conclude that the firm followed more or less the theory that the Uppsala Model describes. In the beginning, for example, when the firm started selling their products only on the ex-Yugoslavian territory and Albania without having the need of loss to distant markets is clearly the kind of behavior that a newly founded enterprise would have in the Uppsala Model.After encyclopedism from this experience (because in from the companies point of view, since culture plays an important factor, it learned a great deal from selling on the whole territory of Yugoslavia, where seven different entities and cultures were mashed together under one flag) they could start and admiration off to other countries and cultures. In the second phase of their internationa lization process, countries from Eastern Europe were chosen and some small steps to the Western part of Europe were also made. The first important milestone in the company’s history is the opening of their first sales-subsidiary in the United Kingdom.It is called Monteadria and it is located in 13 London. This particular step can be notable as the exception from the rule since the firm ventured off to a distant market directly by establishing a sales-subsidiary and not starting by exporting and then gradually develop. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult for a company that is active on the market to sincerely yours and without exceptions follow the Uppsala Model since it does not take into account other important factors such as market attractiveness, market size and others.The globalization and internationalization effect can be seen in every market and in every country. Because of that, because of the massive inflow of information and data available in a act reflexively o f an eye, companies show leapfrogging tendencies and go to more distant markets earlier. The general psychic distance between countries has decreased. Plantaze took full advantage of the fast moving business world in which they operate. The company grew rapidly and intensified export activities worldwide. As a result, their export figure has increased by more than 550% since 2003. 5. 1 Implications and Limitations Implications of the Study The main implication of the study would surely represent if whether or not managers that handle the company use the Uppsala Model when entering the internationalization process. Just by looking at the export avenue explained in the Excel sheet above, it is easy to conclude that the firm applied the model. Of course, the fact that the managers specifically used the Uppsala Model or that the soma used just randomly fits, is something that needs to be analyzed more in detail.In contrast, when it comes to the path chosen by the company for entering new markets and countries via wholly-owned or partially-owned subsidiaries or joint-venture, the situation changes. The path chosen is not similar to the Uppsala Model. One argument would be that they chose to enter the British market with a subsidiary in London before opening one in Belgrade or Sarajevo. The logical step, according to the Uppsala Model would be to start with establishment of subsidiaries in dwell countries and afterwards spread out to other, more foreign countries. 14 5. 2 Limitations of the StudyThe main limitation of this study would be that it revolves around the Uppsala Model and thus qualification its criticism point, the major liability of the study. The model is old and was not updated to the current economic situation. For example, in today’s business world, companies have the tendency to leapfrog some entry modes and to go directly to more physically distant markets. The world today has become more homogenous because of the globalization process that has been going on in the last decades and the psychic distance has also decreased. The company described and used in the study, Plantaze, is not the perfect fit to the Uppsala Model.The point that the company posses enough financial resources leads to the fact that consequences of their commitments won’t have a huge impact on their balance sheets. Moreover, the company is not obliged to go abroad to gain new market knowledge and gain experience because today they can call on other sources for additional information and know-how. Universities, government databases and institutions or other companies from the branch can provide this kind of data. Regarding the limitations of the research, the fact that the findings are closely linked to a specific context is underlying.This research has been confined to a few countries in the European Union. This whitethorn not be sufficient to generalize our findings in this paper. However, this paper points out the direction and may ac t as an indicator how our company internationalized. Thus, we believe that our findings are useful to better understand the driving forces of the internationalization of Plantaze. 6 Conclusion and Future Research The path chosen by the Plantaze company follows to a certain degree the theory of internationalization that the Uppsala Model presents.No one knows for sure if the higher management of the company on purpose acted in this manner or if the match is just a random one. To better understand their internationalization process, in future studies, interviews with the persons responsible and who took the decisions must be conducted. Only then, only with that data, the study can very show how the company reacted to the internationalization process and how they proceeded. Nevertheless, without having that data available to be 15 used, and only through analyzing ex-post the steps taken in the past, the Uppsala Model provides a possible framework for companies to follow.In addition t o future research possibilities arising directly from the limitations, it should be recommended that future research may explore longitudinal research design for further contribution to international business in this context. 16 7 References Publications Birn, Robin J. 2001. The Handbook of International Market Research Techniques, London 2001 Hansson, Anders and Hedin, Kim. 2007. Motives for internationalization. Small companies in Swedish incubators and science parks, Uppsala Hofstede, Geert. 2001. civilisation’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations crosswise Nations.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Johanson, Jan and Wiedersheim-Paul, Finn. 1975. The Internationalization of the Firm †Four Swedish Cases, in: The ledger of Management Studies, 1975, 305-322 Kent, Raymond A. 1993. Marketing Research in Action, New York Kogut, B. and H. Singh. 1988. The Effect of National Culture on the Choice of Entry Mode, in: Journal of International tun e Studies, 19(3): 411â€432. Masum, Mohibul Islam and Fernandez Alejandra. 2008. Internationalization-Process of SMEs: Strategies and Methods, Vasteras. Pett, Timothy L. 2008.Examining SME Internationalization Motives as an Extension of Competitive Strategy, in: Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 2008, 1-13. Internet CIA Factbook n. a. : Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. Understanding work Values Around the World http://www. mindtools. com/pages/article/newLDR_66. htm, accessed October 15, 2012. 17 Plantaze www. plantaze. com , accessed October 15, 2012. WHO http://www. who. int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles. pdf, accessed October 15, 2012. Worldbank http://data. worldbank. org/indicator/NY. GDP. PCAP. CD, accessed October 15, 2012. 18 8 Appendix 19\r\n'