Milena Ratajczak-Mrozek

Krzysztof Fonfara

Łukasz Małys

In the 21st century, even small firms can reach customers located in different, often remote, parts of the world. In fact, internationalisation has become a common phenomenon that affects the majority of companies worldwide. Recent research emphasises that there are numerous determinants of a company’s competitive advantage in the international business environment, including product quality, price, and market knowledge. Much less attention, however, has been paid to the role of business relationships. The task of determining the impact of business relationships on performance poses a considerable challenge. In the book, business relationships are operationalised by a set of characteristics and determinants which influence a company’s competitive advantage. The contributors here refer to these characteristics and determinants as components of the company’s internationalisation maturity. It is argued that a higher level of internationalisation maturity increases the firm’s performance. The book includes both conceptual discussions on the role of firms’ business relationships in the internationalisation process and results of extensive empirical studies. In order to verify the concept of a firm’s internationalisation maturity, a mixed methodology was used, combining quantitative (almost 300 companies) and qualitative (40 case studies) research. As such, the book provides useful insights for academics, students of management and international business, and business practitioners.

A Business Relationships Perspective

The Internationalisation Maturity of the Firm

This book systematizes the concepts of business relationships and network embeddedness, taking a new approach to internationalization, relevant for the global economy. It reflects the growing importance of network internationalization theory and explores the impact of embeddedness in domestic and foreign relationships on a company’s performance. The author questions the validity of the distinction between domestic and foreign activity of companies and demonstrates that in the B2B market, there are actually no exclusively domestic companies which are not directly or indirectly connected with foreign entities. Chapters cover both small to medium sized enterprises and large multinational corporations, presenting a qualitative analysis of over 400 companies including case studies from the IT and furniture industries. This informative study will provide useful insight for academics and students of business and management, international business and organization studies.

Milena Ratajczak-Mrozek

Books

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