C. Study 2: Changes in Foreign Operation Modes: Stimuli for Increases versus Reductions

Abstract

While the choice of an appropriate entry mode is a crucial decision when companies enter a foreign country, they have no guarantee that this mode will remain the best way of servicing the particular market. Scholars showed an initial entry mode may persist (Rosson and Ford 1982), mode combinations may be build (Petersen and Welch 2002), but the initial mode may as well be replaced by another one (Pedersen, Petersen and Benito 2002). Changes of operation modes are important decisions as they concern companies’ institutional arrangements that define the business framework of the activities in a country. Moreover, as we previously discussed, operation mode changes also relate to the internationalization pattern of SMEs.