Internationalization Strategies of Medium-Sized German Companies : An Empirical Survey

This empirical survey is based on a questionnaire which was distributed to 6,000 medium-sized German companies with international activities. The analyses included responses from a total of 533 enterprises. The areas examined include the importance of globalization, the motives for and the obstacles to globalization, the strategic planning of internationalization, the forms of internationalization adopted, the internationalization of a range of business functions and, finally, the geographical regions targeted by medium-sized German companies in their drive for internationalization. The study offers an up-to-date view of the current situation of medium-sized German companies operating within an international context and insight into their attitudes towards internationalization