Internationalization and customer satisfaction : A case study of a luxury knowledge-intensive soft service firm

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if a luxury knowledge-intensive soft service firm can use an existing internationalization model for a future internationalization process. The aim is furthermore to investigate how the main driving forces contribute to customers’ overall satisfaction level in luxury knowledge-intensive soft service firms and how management in a structured manner can work towards establishing a set of standardized procedures for a future internationalization process. Method: The study object of the study is Aging Off, a case company working in the medical beauty industry in China. The future goal of the organization is to internationalize the company outside the borders of China. The study was conducted with a qualitative research approach, in which the collected empirical data was acquired by conducting written and semi-structured interviews, a survey questionnaire was also conducted. The collected empirical data has been analysed through a systematic thematization in order to identify similarities and abbreviations with the study's presented literature. Conclusion: The conclusion regarding the usability of an existing internationalization theory is that the Uppsala model is not 100% usable as the firm primarily want to expand using business partners. Grönroos market identification tools are determined to be usable in the early stages in an internationalization process. However, the methods need to be used in conjunction with one another. Grönroos direct entry modes are suitable, although the joint venture is the preferred entry mode. While it can be concluded that the Network Model is fully usable for a knowledge-intensive soft service firm, it does not provide a full solution or guide for how a firm is to internationalize, due to the inclusivity of partners. Furthermore, core service is clearly ranked as the most contributing factor for customer satisfaction, perceived value as the second to most and relational service as the least contributing factor. Finally, the result clearly illustrates the firm's individualistic approach to customer satisfaction and therefore, in conclusion, the need to implement standardized procedures to compile and evaluate data to generate useful results to be generalized for a future internationalization