Company internationalization in a volatile business environment (A case of Lithuanian textile and apparel industry)

Globalization has changed business environment markedly bringing lots of opportunities as well as much confusion, threats and dependency on global markets of the business. One change of business environment can be replaced by the other that is why nobody can state which international expansion strategy is the most suitable. Therefore, nowadays entrepreneurs have to be able to perform international expansion activities and to recognize their compliance with associated business environment factors at the same time.The aim of the dissertation – after the analysis of internationalization theories and examination of tools for business environment analysis, to create integrated company internationalization model and to identify company characteristics necessary for increased involvement in international activities under the conditions of changing business environment.The Lithuanian textile and apparel companies were selected as a research sample as they are dramatically affected by the changes in the international business environment.Empirical research of the dissertation is divided into two phases. Analysis of textile and apparel sector trends in global, European Union and Lithuania levels was done, as well as a survey of Lithuanian textile and apparel companies’ managers was performed.Analysis of global textile and apparel sector trends show that companies change their strategies when international trade regulatory instruments, demand, customer preferences, social awareness... [to full text]