Lenses, sieves, and molds in internationalization studies

The Iberian globalization project mentioned in the preceding chapter influenced strategic planning and the development of competences over the course of almost one century. The success of this undertaking turned the Iberian countries into the chief global benchmark reference of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

These days, when we are faced with the successful internationalization of emerging countries' firms, certain questions arise again:

• How can one comprehend their internationalization process?

• How can one explain the strategy and organization of these multinational enterprises (MNEs)?

The different dimensions of the internationalization phenomenon led to the development of different approaches designed to produce answers for these questions; however, these approaches cast light upon certain points while disregarding others.

There are approaches that focus on international financial investments as the chief strategy indicator, whereas others try to understand corporate decision-makers' behavior. Another range of approaches attempts to study how factors external to the firm, especially those of an institutional nature, drove companies to become international. Each approach generates its own theories and models.

“Models, theories, conceptual frameworks and paradigms are all terms that help to organize thinking and action: they give differential priority as well as structure to ideas and practices” commented Warr (1980). They are built using lenses, sieves, and molds.