The * of Internationalization - A literary review. * Death, Birth, Re-Birth, Dawn, Dusk, Rise, Fall…

Abstract

In the last decades internationalization research has produced many groundbreaking theories. Concepts like the IP-model, the network perspective and the born global perspective have until recently dominated the research area. The question asked in this thesis is: Within the recent internationalization research what are the trends, new directions or new knowledge being developed? The purpose of this literary review is to make a contribution within the area of internationalization research by providing a thorough review of publications published between 2000 and 2005. Overall, over 200 internationalization articles have been reviewed and their main elements recapitulated in a condensed format. By conducting detailed analysis of some aspects of the articles, several important conclusions can be drawn. The main findings include, that no major new theory seems to have been developed over the last five years and that the long-time debate between supporters of the born global perspective and IP-model researchers is still dominant. The authors hence conclude that the research area is in need of new ideas. Finally, a need to combine existing ideas into more holistic frameworks is identified – both within research streams, but also between research streams.