INTERNATIONALIZATION OF BUSINESS SERVICES - AN INTERREGIONAL ANALYSIS

Internationalization of business services: an interregional analysis, Reg. Studies 30, 101-118. Internationalization behaviour by business s ervice firms in Scotland and the South East of England is analysed. Ev idence is outlined on level of internationalization, time profile of e ntry into foreign markets, location of foreign markets, mode of entry into first and largest foreign markets, and behavioural aspects of int ernational market selection and entry mode choice. Initial foreign mar ket entries occurred in the early 1960s with South East business servi ce organizations entering foreign markets earlier, while there was a s urge in internationalization by Scottish businesses after 1988. Few fi rms engaged in a process of explicitly choosing a foreign market to en ter since the most common entry mechanism was responding to a particul ar ad hoc order. Similarly almost 70% of firms made the mode choice de cision without considering any alternative modes.