A Critical Comparison of Internationalisation Theories: Eclectic Paradigm of Dunning vs. Uppsala School

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Saarbrücken, language: English, comment: This paper focuses on two approaches which explain firms intention to establish activities outside their national borders. A critical comparison of the Eclectic Paradigm of international production and the Uppsala School Internationalisation-model is made. That critical juxtaposition is made in the end, after the basics of the Eclectic Paradigm and the Uppsala School internationalisation approach had been explained. The end of that seminar paper is the outlook which puts forward ideas of improvement as well as possible changes of the theories. , abstract: 1 Introduction Centuries ago it was out of question for companies to operate worldwide. The costs to act global had been too high as well as the existent lack of knowledge about other countries, cultures, languages, foreign demands etc. But a few decades ago, companies started to run for globalisation which is seen as a process of internationalisation. Globalisation can be defined as a global network of economic processes. Today companies face less risk when engaging in international activities than ever before. Nowadays markets are easy accessible and the society faces a similar development concerning living standards all over the world. Companies notice the existing possibilities when passing national borders. Today internationalisation is an option for big companies as well as for SME´s. Internationalisation can be defined more exactly as the name "international" predicts as an international network between companies of different nations which means in most cases industrialised nations. Today almost all products and services are internationalised and available on the world market. It is indispensable that enterprises conduct business in host countries to remain competitive. Most companies are aware of internationalisation processes. Multination