International growth of finnish software firms: Starting points, pathways and outcomes

Internationalization cannot be seen as an isolated activity within growth-oriented SMEs. Indeed, internationalization and growth are very often intertwined, especially in knowledge-intensive industries such as software. Consequently, the aims of this paper are the following: First, to present a conceptual growth model with typical starting points, pathways and outcomes of international growth; and second, to try to demonstrate its validity with short case examples from the domain of software industry in Finland. Because of the special context, also the characteristics of the industry and the specific challenges software firms are facing are presented. Suggestions for future research directions are also given.