The Uppsala Model: A Summary

The theory of the Uppsala model presents that psychic distance is a barrier. Psychic distance consists of language differences, degree of education, business practices, cultural aspects, and industrial development (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977). It is clear that language differences play an important role as a barrier for firms internationalizing. Five companies in the thesis agreed with this and found language specifically to be an influential barrier in internationalization. Also, culture was influential when deciding which market to target and whether to target a specific market. Furthermore, for both Ariterm and Wapro, business practices had been perceived as somewhat constricting as other business practices could take longer and be more complicated.

(2016b), when conducting a study on municipality owned cleantech firms, to be exhaustive administration. In the case of this thesis all the companies mentioned that administrative tasks like documents and certifications were increasingly complex in foreign markets. This strengthens the view of administration as an important barrier when internationalizing. However, it was argued through some of the interviews that this is a matter of learning and adapting in order to make this more efficient. Moreover, the view of national regulations and local laws by Oviatt and McDougall (1994) seems applicable when looking at barriers for cleantech companies. Partially due to the fact that the majority of the companies mentioned administration to be affecting them but also due to the fact that several companies mentioned national standards and documentation to be barriers in their internationalization

Kosakiene (2014) fosters this view by presenting the same argument regarding SMEs. This seems to be accurate when analyzing the results of the interviews as Airwatergreen, Ariterm, TTM Energiteknik, Baga Water Solutions, Wapro and Anonymous company A mentions that there is a big competition in the foreign markets. This means that all companies in the thesis expressively mentioned industry competition to be an influential factor in internationalization. Most of the companies stated the competition to be tough and that it has grown since they started their internationalization. This provides basis to believe that competition is an influential barrier for these