Abstract
This chapter seeks to understand the motivations that lead companies to internationalize and how they do it since this has been a constant challenge for business research. For this purpose, a descriptive research was conducted with a qualitative strategy applied on different companies in the wine sector. International trade is a Portuguese tradition that started and reached its peak in the 16th century with the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries, which justifies this study. The wine industry, particularly in the Douro Region, has also always been closely linked to foreign trade and has even benefited from a historic trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The empirical results show that companies are practically born international. The size of the domestic market was the main justification for the demand for external markets. The constant evolution of markets and industries generates opportunities and potential threats to which companies must be able to respond.
TopMaterials And Methods
The global field of this study is identified with the entire wine sector of the DDR, from the perspective of business internationalization. In this work context, Quivy and Van Campenhoudt (1998) consider that the main methods of information collection are: the survey by questionnaire, the interview, the direct observation, and the collection of pre-existing data (secondary and documentary data).
In this context, the adopted methodological approach of a qualitative nature is divided into two parts: the part corresponding to the theoretical study and the part that concerns the empirical work. In the first part, a survey of the main existing publications (papers, studies, theses, university papers, and other published works) was carried out, as well as exploratory research, with the literature review on the theme of internationalization and the DDR, the exposition of theories and the modes of entry into international markets. The objective of this survey was to try to find out a little more about what has already been written, studied, and debated, as well as the main interpretations or theoretical constructs on the subject.
As for the fieldwork, methods and techniques were used to collect data that was later analyzed, namely in-depth interviews. The technique to be used was to collect information through interviews with members of the selected companies in the DDR wine sector and the collection of pre-existing data from them (on-site, via the internet), in order to understand their internationalization process.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Douro Vineyards: Wine has been produced by traditional landholders in the Douro region for some 2,000 years. Since the 18 th century, its main product, port wine, has been world famous for its quality. This long tradition of viticulture has produced a cultural landscape of outstanding beauty that reflects its technological, social and economic evolution (UNESCO).
Companies: Company, corporation or enterprise are legal entities formed by a group of individuals to engage in and operate a profit business and creating value for shareholders.
Douro Valley: The Douro Valley, up to Barca de Alva, is the oldest demarcated wine region in the world. First, the river carved the deep valleys out of the land and then Man transformed the schist mountains into soil and walls and planted the vines, green in summer, flame-coloured in autumn.
Market: From the business perspective market means a group of individuals or organizations that make up the pool of actual and potential customers for their goods and services, distributed for different categories: geographic, demographic or socioeconomic, psychographic, behavioural or sectoral.
Wine Demarcated Region: Part of a regulatory geographical indication system used for wine produced in a delimitated region.
Internationalization: From an economic point of view, internationalization can be defined as process of increasing involvement of companies in international markets.
Globalization: In economic terms, globalization can be defined as: “(…) the increasing interdependence of world economies as a result of the growing scale of cross-border trade of commodities and services, the flow of international capital and the wide and rapid spread of technologies. It reflects the continuing expansion and mutual integration of market frontiers (…) and the rapid growing significance of information in all types of productive activities and marketization are the two major driving forces for economic globalization.” (Committee for Development Policy)
Internationalization Models: Economic theory that explains how firms gradually intensify their activities in foreign markets.