Suppliers ’ international strategies Svante Andersson School of Business and Engineering , Halmstad University , Halmstad , Sweden

A longitudinal study of the international behaviour of Swedish suppliers is presented. Three different types of supplier are identified: simple suppliers, advanced suppliers, and own product suppliers. Factors influencing the internationalisation of these suppliers are discussed. It is concluded that the firms’ offer and the customers’ buying strategies influence the firms’ international behaviour. However, these factors do not determine the international strategies completely. Various entrepreneurs will choose various strategies. Three different types of entrepreneurs are identified: the marketing, technical, and structural entrepreneurs. The type of entrepreneur influences the firms’ international strategies in different directions. The interest in suppliers has grown during the last few decades (Andersen et al., 1997). The main interest, however, has been from the procurement side, where key words such as supply chain management, global sourcing, single sourcing and lean supply are frequently used. The growing importance of subcontracting compared with in-house production has been shown in several studies (Brandes, 1993; Lamming, 1993; Womack et al., 1990). In this article the suppliers’ view is taken, that is, how customers’ changing procurement patterns influence the suppliers’ international strategies and what other factors are important to understand suppliers’ international strategies. The study was conducted in Sweden. Sweden is a small country, which is dependent on international trade with a successful internationalised industry. The international business is, however, dominated by rather few very large companies, such as Volvo, Ericsson, Astra, Electrolux, Stora, Tetra-Laval, ABB (50 percent Swedish, 50 percent Swiss), Saab, Scania etc. These large firms are highly internationalised. Smaller industrial firms, often suppliers to the large Swedish firms, are often doing business mainly in Sweden. Changes in the environment of Swedish suppliers, such as Sweden’s close relationship and later membership of the EC, technical improvement in communication, and changing buyer behaviour in the larger firms (for example, global sourcing), have made internationalisation easier. However, many Swedish suppliers still focus on the Swedish home market. The situation of Swedish suppliers and the need for internationalisation are themes which have been thoroughly discussed in Sweden for a long time (Brege and Moberg, 1982; Lilliecreutz, 1996). However, questions still remain. Why have not these changes in the firms’ environment led to more dramatic changes in their international strategies? What factors influence the choice of strategies in Swedish supplier companies? The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm