The globalization of the world market has led to new opportunities for international business. Since the 1950s, there has been a growing interest in studying the internationalization processes of companies and a number of theories have appeared within this study field. One type of theories explains the internationalization of companies as a sequential process, while another describes economical aspects. More recently, the focus has been on theories concerning internationalization in networks as well as the appearance of organizations that has an international focus from the very beginning. This thesis aims to find out if the existing theories explain internationalization as it occurs today, or if there is an alternative way for companies to become international. Furthermore, the thesis is discussing the increasingly important role of China within the world economy. Therefore the purpose is also to find out if developing a strong presence in China can be used as a strategy for companies to become successful globally. In order to attain the purpose, empirical material consisting of interviews with one selected company, has been compared to four well-known internationalization theories. The analysis of the empirical material shows some dissimilarity to the existing theories, even though all of them to some extent are applicable to the case. The most obvious difference is that the studied company right from the beginning was founded and located in a foreign country. The particular characteristic of its internationalization pattern is therefore that the full concentration of the company on this specific market has led to the creation of a foreign home market. This discovery has inspired a new model, which we call the New Home Market model. Furthermore, we have analyzed the consequences of the fact that the company studied in this thesis has formed its home market in China. Several factors indicate that the Chinese market is difficult to enter. Therefore, succeeding at this market can presumably serve to confirm a company’s capacity. B...
