Le processus d’internationalisation des sociétés : théories, motifs et facteurs d’influence

Today, we commonly hear about "globalisation" at anytime and everywhere but what does that mean exactly, when did this phenomena start and why is it so important for companies?

There is no standard definition of what is meant by globalisation. This term is imprecise, however in the literature, it can be observed two mains categories of thought which define it. The first one is called "internationalisation" which means the growing interdependence among national markets for goods, services and factors which has resulted from the liberalisation of trade among nations in goods, services and factors. The second category is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the multinational enterprises (MNE). In their annual World Investment Report, UNCTAD , use the term "globalisation" by the sense of integrated production activities and strategies of multinational enterprises. They consider MNE as an agent of production with their activities such as their integration strategies, intra-firm trade, outsourcing and offshore production.
This chapter is more concerned with trade and investment liberalisation. The working definition used here is a marked increase in the movement across national boundaries of goods/services, investment, people and information.

Globalisation of market and production came about thanks to two factors:
- the decline in barriers to the free flow of goods, services, and capital that has occurred since the end of World War II;
- and the developments in communication, information, and transportation technologies in the same period. (Hill, 1997)

According to the Department of Trade and Industry (2004):
the first wave of globalisation began around 1870. The ratio of merchandise exports to world GDP increased steadily over this period. The ratio of foreign capital stock to developing country GDP increased even more markedly. Advances in transport, such as the steamship, made long-distance migration much more feasible. Historians contend that migration in this period was far more substantial than it is today. It is estimated that in the 19th century 10% of the world's population may have migrated, whereas about 3% currently move across borders for more than a year(DTI 2004)
The second wave is after the World War II, between 1950 and 1994. The volume of world merchandised trade grew at slightly more than 6 percent per year on average, while the volume of world output grew at around 4 percent per annum. Put differently, by 1994 world output was 6 times as large as it was in 1950, while world trade was 15 times larger (Hill, 1997). Thanks to the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and trade (GATT) in 1947, government-imposed barriers have been reduced and thus trade and investment liberalisation increased. Indeed, the GATT is a multilateral agreement whose objective is liberalizing world trade by eliminating tariffs, subsidies, import quotas, and the like (Hill, 1994). The process of tariff reduction has been spread over eight rounds. The last round, the Uruguay Round ends up with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which implements the GATT agreement and extends its rules to services and intellectual property. Today, the globalisation differs from 1914. "Broadly, much trade prior to 1914 consisted of the sale of commodities by developing countries to developed ones, with the sale of manufactures by developed countries in return. One characteristic of modern trade has been the growing role of developing countries in the production of manufactures, which was traditionally the preserve of developed countries. The share of manufactured goods in developing countries' exports has risen from about 25% to over 80% in the last twenty years, and developing countries have markedly increased their share of world merchandise trade. This emergence of some - but by no means all - developing countries as major participants in international trade in manufactures and increasingly in services presents both challenges and opportunities for developed countries. Another difference in the pattern of globalisation today has been the growth of industry trade - that is sales between countries of very similar products, for example cars. It is estimated that intra-industry trade in OECD countries is 60-70% of total trade for sophisticated manufactured products and 40% for simpler manufactured products" (Department of Trade and Industry, 2004).
Moreover, the new dimension in globalization today seems to be the role of entertainment and media on a global scale. Entertainment produced in the United States - mostly in the media studios of Southern California - is exported around the globe, exposing all to U. S. values, culture, and influence. World financial markets (such as the sale of securities) are likewise dominated by the United States. The key technology in today's world of global media and finance is information technology, consisting of telecommunication and computers, with the need for global standards and access to technology.
If globalization has become different today, it is because the physical global commerce of the past has expended to include the virtual commerce of media and finance. Time has been collapsed through instant communication around the globe over optical fibber and telecommunication satellites. Access to media and information of all forms is instantaneous, over telephone lines, direct broadcast television, and the Internet.

The result of this process is that economic agents are becoming more and more interdependent and national economies are becoming deeply intertwined (Hill 1997). Then, with the increasing globalisation of business and the revolution in communications, no company can afford to ignore the international dimension. For managers, this requires a totally different perspective on company strategy and the knowledge and skills necessary for understanding the international business environment. Many of the major developments shaping the business world are economic, for example the creation of the European single currency, the growth of multinational businesses and the changing role of governments in managing economic activity and regulating businesses.
Managers need to create profitable businesses and generate returns for investors by entering global markets, compete against international rivals, make investments, and find opportunities in the shifting tableau of a world in continuous transformation. The global arena is where the extraordinary opportunities lie, but it is also where complexity and risk abound. The most insular business leaders recognize that in a world in which markets are global, they need to be actors on the world stage (Gatignon et al. 2004).

It can be concluded that today, companies have to take into consideration the importance of globalisation if they want to increase their profitability and their growth. It is becoming more and more evident to firms that a major task towards maintaining their competitiveness is the expansion of their activities in foreign markets. In a world where liberalisation and economic integrations rise slightly, internationalisation becomes primordial for multinational to conquer the global market.

After understanding what is globalisation and why it is important to internationalise, this literature review will answer these three different following questions.
- What is the definition of the internationalisation process?
- Why to go abroad?
- How to go abroad?

In two chapters, the author will discuss the theories of internationalisation and make a comparison analysis of the different entry mode after introduce them.