ABSTRACT
This chapter views strategy formation as patterns of executive decisions made on the basis of future expectations regarding the environment, future expectations that are formed by concurrent market knowledge and market commitment. It elaborates how specific foreign local markets and appurtenant regulatory environments have affected the Swedish bank Swedbank's executives' strategy formation in its internationalization process by comparing the bank's expansion in the Baltic region and Russia, side by side. The chapter continues with an account of the methods used in writing the case of the Swedish bank Swedbank's expansion in the Baltic region and in Russia. It sees the environment as two interdependent parts, one being the business side including the bank's customers, suppliers, and competitors forming the market conditions, the other being the regulatory conditions in the specific market, affected by regulators and legislators at the national, regional, and international level.
