One of the main research themes reoccurring in our research projects is the globalization process of a company. It is now well documented that a company's globalization occurs gradually, as firms gain international experience and expand their operations ( Johanson & Vahlne, 1990 ; Townsend, Yeniyurt, & Talay, 2008 ; Yeniyurt, Townsend, Cavusgil, & Ghauri, 2008 ). The globalization process is a long and treacherous path that consists of incremental steps towards global rationalization. Usually firms first engage in exporting activities, then establish foreign subsidiaries and engage in strategic partnerships, developing first a regional international presence, gradually evolving into a multi-regional and finally into a global company. We explored the path towards globalization in the context of international marketing alliances ( Yeniyurt et al., 2008 ), new product development ( Townsend, Yeniyurt, Deligonul, & Cavusgil, 2004 ), product launch ( Yeniyurt, Townsend, & Talay, 2007 ), and global brand architecture ( Townsend et al., 2008 ).
