Let's get social on the way to the market : A study of German companies' internationalization proceses

Germany and Sweden have been significant trade partners throughout history, which has even strengthened during the last decades. Many German firms have established their business in Sweden and vice versa. The Uppsala model has often been used to describe the way a company becomes international. However, in recent years there has been a demand for a new perspective that also takes the social aspect of internationalization into account. This paper focuses on these two approaches and tries to combine them. We have conducted a survey amongst German companies that are members in the Swedish-German Chamber of Commerce and also conducted an interview with the CEO of the Chamber Dipl.Ing. Klaus Bohler. We analyzed our answers and presented our conclusions, which suggests that a significant part of the firms questioned relied on their former social ties when they decided about entering the Swedish market. However, the mode of entry was not influenced remarkably. Furthermore, we concluded that the German counterparts were more active in seeking business opportunities; in more than 60 percent of the cases the initiative was taken by the German seller