 The concept of learning in the Uppsala internationalization process model: a critical reviewMats Forsgren No 2001/1, Occasional Papers from Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies Abstract: In behavioral models dealing with the internationalization process, such as the Uppsala Internationalization Process Model, knowledge and learning have a profound impact on how the firm is seen to approach foreign markets. In the light of recent work on learning in organizations, this paper addresses some issues related to how the process of learning is conceptualized in the Uppsala Model. It is argued that a more narrow interpretation of learning is applied by the model builders than the literature allows for, which limits the ability of the model to explain certain forms of internationalization behavior. It is also claimed that perceiving a firm to be a loosely coupled organization causes some problems in relation to the model’s possibility to predict internationalization behavior. The consequences of the strong emphasis on individuals as the holders of market-specific knowledge are also discussed. The paper concludes with some remarks on the emergence of interesting research issues about internationalization behavior if a broader concept of organizational learning is applied. Keywords: Internationalization; Knowledge; Learning; Loose-coupling (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhb:uufeop:0101 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Occasional Papers from Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.