Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Developing the analytical framework and contextualizing the phenomenon
- 1 Globalization and internationalization: the perspective of emerging countries
- 2 The analytical framework: the multinational as a network of competences
- 3 The first wave: early-movers and the earliest internationalization theories
- 4 The second wave: Japan and third world countries move abroad
- 5 On the threshold of the third wave: productive globalization and new multinationals
- Part II Multinationals from Brazil and other emerging countries
- References
- Index
3 - The first wave: early-movers and the earliest internationalization theories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Developing the analytical framework and contextualizing the phenomenon
- 1 Globalization and internationalization: the perspective of emerging countries
- 2 The analytical framework: the multinational as a network of competences
- 3 The first wave: early-movers and the earliest internationalization theories
- 4 The second wave: Japan and third world countries move abroad
- 5 On the threshold of the third wave: productive globalization and new multinationals
- Part II Multinationals from Brazil and other emerging countries
- References
- Index
Summary
Internationalizing under enticing conditions
Competence and competition are two sides of the same coin. With no competition, the development of competences tends to be feeble.
The earliest theories on the internationalization of firms were based on a global scene in which three blocks of countries coexisted: the so-called first world (the industrially advanced countries), the second world (the countries behind the iron curtain), and the third world (the other countries, considered underdeveloped at the time).
At that time, there was a worldwide need to create the capacity to produce goods and services. Although competition did exist, it was different from what it has become in modern times. For the major firms from first world countries, especially from the United States, the circumstances surrounding their international expansion were enticing. These were the firms that were at the core of the studies that gave rise to the pioneering international business theories. This, for instance, was the case of Caterpillar, mentioned in Box 3.1.
Box 3.1 Caterpillar's expansion after the second world war
“Caterpillar had started the war as an American company with no overseas plants and small but significant export sales. Six years later, the Caterpillar name would be known throughout the world, carried by American combat engineers and SEABEES [Construction Battalions (CBs) of the US Navy]. A combination of the reputation Caterpillar would earn in the harsh conditions of combat and the acute need for tools to rebuild two shattered continents would transform a postwar Caterpillar into the multinational company that it is today. […]
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- Brazilian MultinationalsCompetences for Internationalization, pp. 62 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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