ABSTRACT
Increasingly, firms are moving away from being insular and localized in a particular market to spreading their operations outside their market of origin, and varying factors are responsible for this. As the global economy becomes more and more interconnected, businesses are taking advantage of internationalization opportunities to expand their operations to foreign markets, but the question arises as to what is the resultant end of this internationalization process.
Situating our work within internationalization studies, we argue that internationalization is an important strategy in the change management process. Therefore, we discuss the concept of the internationalization process, examining the motives and methods by which firms internationalize, especially within the African context. Supporting our argument with examples of Africa-2-Africa internationalization, we use Ghemawat’s (2001) CAGE framework to discuss how internationalization enhances change. Then we highlight the importance of understanding and managing the relationship between the cultural distance of the foreign market and the organizational culture, in order for internationalization to be an effective strategy leading to organizational change.
