The foreign expansion of a service company: The case of ISS A/S

The internationalization of business increasingly is led by service sectors, particularly services based on highly skilled labour industries. This article explores a quite different range of services - those that employ low-skilled workers in labour-intensive services. The article is based on the case of ISS - International Service Systems - which over the past four decades has pursued an aggressive internationalization strategy. The article describes the foreign expansion history in the period from 1960 to the year 2000 that reflected the vision of top management in combination with the development of a unique business model. In order to explain its development, three theoretical frameworks are highlighted, and it is shown that the resource-based view offers a convincing frame of interpretation.