Path Dependence and Knowledge Development in the Internationalization Process

■ This paper is based on the Uppsala internationalization process model, which claims that the behaviour of the international firm is path or history dependent. This is so because the internationalization process of firms is based on the stock of their firm-specific tacit or experiential knowledge in the firm. However, no empirical research has explicitly investigated this issue. ■ The empirical investigation uses a sample of 362 Swedish service firms, and the data was processed with LISREL. The effect of a firm's first international step on its existing level of experiential knowledge is measured.

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