Title: Internationalisation process in turbulent and stable markets: Do firms know that they do not know?

Authors: Amjad Hadjikhani; Annoch Isa Hadjikhani; Peter Thilenius

Addresses: Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden ' The School of Business, Society and Engineering, Malardalens University, Västerås, Sweden ' Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract: The view of foreign market commitment in the internationalisation process is constructed on the assumption of firms' experiential knowledge. Firms know that they do not know and seek for knowledge through the experience. The paper is based on the view that firms sometimes do not know that they do not know. It raises the question: if international firms can really gather knowledge about the future, why then do they always face critical problems? Unlike the view of studies on the internationalisation process that firms 'know what they do not know', this paper is concerned with the unknown. It discusses the idea that firms in their foreign market relationships do not know that they do not know; therefore their commitment always faces crises. With this theoretical assumption, the paper presents one case study. The process of internationalisation of a Swedish firm is analysed to examine the connection between knowledge and commitment.

Keywords: internationalisation process; knowledge; commitment; turbulent markets; stable markets; bank internationalisation; foreign markets; Sweden.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2013.055026

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2013 Vol.6 No.3, pp.182 - 201

Published online: 12 Jul 2013 *

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