Challenging the Uppsala Internationalization Model: A Contingent Approach to the Internationalization of Services‪.‬

INTRODUCTION The Uppsala model (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977, 1990) is one of most frequently cited models in the internationalization literature (c.f. Andersen, 1993; Langhoff, 1997; Oviatt & McDougall, 1994). The model states that firms will tend to internationalize first to psychically close countries and gradually move to more psychically distant markets. The model also states that, as a firm chooses a new foreign country, it will start from a low resource-commitment mode and only move to higher commitment modes as it gains experiential knowledge in the foreign market.