Internationalization Motives : Sell More, Buy Better, Upgrade and Escape

We review the motives for internationalization to clarify previous classification. We build on behavioral economics and propose a classification of internationalization motives as the result of the interaction among two dimensions, an economics-driven exploitation or exploration of resources and a psychology-driven search of or avoidance of environmental conditions. These two dimensions result into four internationalization motives: Sell More, in which the company exploits existing resources and obtains better host country market conditions; Buy Better, in which the company exploits existing resources abroad and avoids bad home country conditions; Upgrade, in which the company explores for new resources and it obtains better host country conditions; and Escape, in which the company explores for new resources and avoids bad home country conditions