THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SERVICES

The book will explain and sort out the complexity within the internationalization process of services, which is not well understood within existing internationalization literature. This complexity refers to a number of factors: the type of service in terms of knowledge intensity; cultural and institutional embeddedness of services; the entwinement of services and manufacturing; intra firm division of labor; and the heterogeneity of the service experience. The intended audience is executive education students and business professionals that have an interest in the internationalization of services. The style therefore is concise and reliable but not overly theoretical. All firms, including manufacturing firms, need to be more sophisticated in their service offering to generate loyalty, control switching, and enhance performance. By thinking about services internationalization in a more holistic way managers can be better equipped to deal with continually morphing global challenges and opportunities.