Data Analysis

Recordings from the semi-structured interviews, whenever allowed to be made, are transcribed into English within a week after being conducted. The transcription was then further dissected into parts relevant to the research by categorising the provided answers of the interviewee into the specific questions drafted in the official interview protocol (see appendix). This made further analysis through coding swifter and more effective. Advanced software specifically designed for coding is used for this step called Atlas.ti version 8.0. All interviews were peer reviewed by at least one more research colleague to ensure a greater level of validity in the results. This process resulted in a list of empirically discovered quotes from interviewees that can be linked to the five aforementioned constructs according to the current body of knowledge on the subjects. To strengthen these qualitative results, a score for each of the five factors is accredited to every interviewee according to the questionnaire they filled in respectively. This step allows for a higher confidence level in the measurement of the antecedents by not relying solely on the interviewee's interpretation and story on the constructs. A link between the five selected antecedents to focused sequencing and the sequencing strategy itself, or absence thereof, can now be made.

To finally establish the link between the sequencing decisions and firm performance level, inspiration was drawn from the graph that was presented in a paper by Bingham from 2009. This has been recreated by plotting the country sequencing steps against the firm performance level. In this way, it became possible to assess any consistency between the performance levels of both firms scoring high on strategic ability versus the ones that were more spontaneous in their internationalisation efforts.

3.4 Codes

In order to analyse the qualitative data from the interviews that were conducted, a coding process was executed. This coding process is the spiral of analysis integrated into qualitative research process (Boeije, 2009). This process of coding is chosen, since it includes various steps of coding, i.e. open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Codes have been derived from pre-existing literature on the constructs and codes are linked to the most relevant concepts from the literature. Moreover, the process of coding was cross-reviewed by peers in this research in order to ensure a higher level of accuracy and increase the reliability of the coding process.

The codes that are established are categorised by each construct that is analysed in this study (i.e. sequencing, slack within financial resources, global mindset, and cultural intelligence). The table below illustrates the type of codes that have been used in this study. Moreover, illustrative quotes per codes are included in the table in order to exemplify the meaning of the code.

Factor Code Quote

Sequencing - Entering markets in a specified order

Slack within Financial Resources

- Possessing slack within financial resources “[…] we had our own financial resources to give a boost to that market.”

- Not possessing slack within financial resources

“We simply did not have the money [to go to markets far away].”

- Applying capabilities “We had developed a product for greenhouses and stables for example, and with that product we targeted multiple countries. So,[…], we just had one product in which you have to invest in and then you can go to all those countries.” - Capitalisation of the financial resources “We are now investing in that

market to get everything up and running. If that is the case, you do require that financial slack or room.” - Characteristics of Agent Theory Perspective “Incorporating entire

companies provide

Moreover, with each acquisition new software is bought, which needs to be incorporated as well. For efficiency reasons this poses challenges.”

- Characteristics of Organisational Theory Perspective

“And that has always been a reason for us not only to go to Belgium, but to constantly look for other markets. To spread your risks. That is why we also aim to enter new markets.” - Characteristics of Resource Dependence

Perspective

“The current strategy is to look for distributors, employing international sales managers, and executing acquisitions to become market leader in a specific country.”

Global Mindset - Possessing the ability to recognize global market opportunities

“Opportunities need to be sought internationally and the entire world is the market in order to survive”

- Possessing the ability to integrate global market opportunities into strategy

“We saw harmonisation, we saw a big market, we saw all of these opportunities […]” - Possessing a global talent pool “[…] we are over 200 people

but from like over 30 different nationalities as I said and only half of them speak German.” - Regarding the world as market place “Opportunities need to be

sought internationally and the entire world is the market in order to survive.”

- Having a shared vision across the entire firm worldwide

“Challenging in an international firm. Country managers can be ‘lonely cowboys’.”

Cultural Intelligence - Possessing knowledge of different cultures “Knowledge of local market is essential, the risk would otherwise be too high to acquire a firm.”

- Possessing the ability to understand cultural differences and cultural empathy

“So that is the case for the European countries but it should be noted European

countries are also individual markets although thresholds are eliminated concerning, the cultural and language barriers are still very much present” - Possessing the ability to express acceptable

behaviour

“There are a number of large obstacles over there, in China, namely corruption. Our market is very poorly organised. Like in many Chinese markets. But in this case maybe even more extremely. There have been a lot of cowboy behaviour from the first entrepreneurial sector there. And there are certainly some shortcomings there.” - Being familiar with the economic and legal

systems

“Well, the thing is we do not really need to be integrated because we cooperate with partners who are on the ground and from the culture. And already in align with their local legal systems.”

- Possessing the ability to speak different languages

“I speak German quite well so that makes things easier for sure, I worked for a German company for ten years so you do have more connection there. You do notice language is very important. So for instance it does not make sense to go to France at all when you are not speaking the language well, that puts you behind.”

4. Results

In this chapter the empirical data that is gathered through the qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys will be presented. Firstly, an overview of the sample of firms will be provided together with data on their internationalisation strategies. In the subsequent parts of the chapter the sequence of market entries and the internationalisation strategies will be further investigated. Moreover, the data on the three factors will be presented.