Internationalization strategies – A competence-based framework

Questions regarding the internationalization of enterprises have been the focus of scientific studies for several years now. Many authors to date, however, still point to the fact that there is a current lack of an acceptable model for research into the internationalization process. At present, with the Scandinavian School, the GAINS approach, and the process trilogy (at least) three different approaches are vying for predominance, where evolutionary and revolutionary process interpretations seem to contradict each other. Since there is empirical proof for both approaches, reconciling these is currently difficult. Within this context, the objective of this discourse is to contribute to shaping corporate internationalization process theory with the resource-based and the competence-based views by rectifying several current deficits. The approach is deductive in order to circumvent the problems associated with inductive theory development that result when using the Scandinavian School and GAINS approaches. Secondly, the approach is economically substantiated in contrast to predominant non-economic interpretations. Finally, this approach makes it possible to formulate hypotheses that do not contradict previous findings on the internationalization process. Both evolutionary and revolutionary internationalization processes can be explained on this base.