The internationalisation process of e-commerce companies

Abstract

This thesis was initiated because of the new and fast growing environment that attracts more and more companies to do business electronically the Internet. The question that was raised was how e-commerce companies are internationalizing into new countries, and why they go about in a certain way. Using the Uppsala-model and its operationalizations as a theoretical framework, four case studies were conducted. The companies studied were Bokus, Boxman, Dressmart, and LetsBuyIt.

In the study it was concluded that the Uppsala-model and its operationalizations could not alone describe and explain the internationalization process of the case companies. These companies seem to operate in a hyped environment and three factors, capital, external knowledge, and homogenization influencing them to behave in another manner than suggested by the Uppsala researchers, were found.

The main findings were that the companies moved very quickly from country to country, and that they took rather radical and direct first initiatives when entering foreign markets. The study also showed that the case companies internationalized to countries with increasingly higher rates of psychic distance. Other more rational factors such as Internet penetration and market potential also influenced the choice of countries entered.