Abstract
This chapter addresses the disconnect between the international business (IB) field view of foreign operation modes and how companies choose and modify their modes of operation. The multiple modes used by a company in a foreign market are not always directly linked. The distinct modes might be employed in different product or market segments, or in different parts of the value chain. The chapter demonstrates the wide array of modes of operation that companies may use to expand in foreign markets, including forms of within-mode change, by turning to how the Finnish multinational Kone entered the Japanese market. Kone's comprehensive mode package in Japan in 2005 was substantially different from the starting point in 1995, albeit that it might have been loosely described as being under an overall Kone-Toshiba alliance umbrella. Emerging research on post-alliance dynamics and international joint venture (IJV) evolution shows that alliances and IJVs evolve in response to changes affecting the foreign market and parent firms.