Majority of firms’ field of activity operates on local, regional, or domestic level. These firms are a part of the global economic environment. It means that they will necessarily be influenced by all the consequent changes not only in national but also in global environment. The entrepreneurial subject, who applies the growth strategy, will have to decide soon or later about the form if his/her expansion not only on the domestic market, but also on the foreign market. The internationalization of entrepreneurial activities is represented by geographic expansion of entrepreneurial activities cross national borders. Internationalization theory subsumes to two diverse approaches – stage approach and global approach. Recent years have brought a significant number of approaches to the realization of entrepreneurial activities. The most dominant and frequent seem to be two approaches distinguished according to the procedure and realization of individual stages made by entrepreneurs: the stage and global approach. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the use of stage approach in the process of internationalization entrepreneurial activities of Czech companies. The paper is based on data collected in interviews with managers and founders of 204 Czech entrepreneurial subjects. The internationalization of the entrepreneurial subjects has been researched using the method of questioning. The paper presents stage approach and defining key factors of internationalization process.
Internationalization process, stage approach, Czech companies, born global company, gradually globalizing company
