Internationalization Speed in the Context of Diversified MNEs : A Literature Review on Internationalization Speed and an Empirical Study on the Internationalization of New Business Units

Intro -- Summary of contents -- Table of contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of abbreviations -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Motivation and positioning -- 1.2 The research subject: Internationalization of newly founded business units -- 1.3 Theoretical perspective: Organizational learning -- 1.4 Structure of the doctoral thesis -- 2 Theoretical background -- 2.1 The internationalization process -- 2.1.1 Characteristics of the internationalization process -- 2.1.1.1 Reasons for internationalization - Why? -- 2.1.1.2 Modes of internationalization - How? -- 2.1.1.3 Directions of internationalization - Where? -- 2.1.1.4 Timing of internationalization - When? -- 2.1.2 Internationalization process theories -- 2.1.2.1 Raymond Vernon's (1966) product cycle theory -- 2.1.2.2 Jair Aharoni's (1966) Foreign direct investment decision process model -- 2.1.2.3 Johanson and Vahlne's (1977) Uppsala model of the internationalization process -- 2.1.3 The role of speed in classical internationalization process theories -- 2.2 Speed in contemporary International Business research: A review of the literature -- 2.2.1 Method of the literature review -- 2.2.2 Descriptive overview of journal articles -- 2.2.3 The concept of speed -- 2.2.4 Perspectives of speed in the international business literature -- 2.2.4.1 The single activity perspectives -- 2.2.4.2 The multi activity perspectives -- 2.2.4.3 The hybrid perspectives (single and multi activity) -- 2.2.5 Learnings from the study of internationalization speed perspectives -- 2.2.6 The study of speed in international business: Overview and Classification -- 2.2.7 Drivers of Speed -- 2.2.7.1 The influence of the general business environment on speed -- i. Product Characteristics -- ii. Industry Characteristics -- iii. Technological development -- 2.2.7.2 The influence of location-factors on speed.