Abstract
The question “What is the relationship between internationalization and performance of the firm?” remains during more than three recent decades in the heart of the debates without final conclusion in the world of researchers in strategic management, international business. Nine general camps - (i) negative model, (ii) positive and linear model, (iii) positive but with decreasing performance model, (iv) positive and negative model, (v) undetermined relationship, (vi) standard-U-shaped relationship, (vii) inverted-U-shaped relationship, (viii) horizontal-S-shaped relationship, (ix) inverted-S-shaped relationship - explaining the relationship between internationalization and performance were built in the former studies. In this paper, basing primarily on organisational learning and resource-based theories, we develop an integrator model which permits to specify the nature of the relationship. The construction of our integrator model is carried out from two research perspectives, one being deterministic and the other, dynamic.<br /><br /> At the conceptual level, the results of our work allow: (a) to clarify the different effects of the individual dimensions of the degree of internationalization on financial performance; (b) to determine the joint effects of various degrees and directions of internationalization on performance, and thus to reconcile the dispersed results of prior research; (c) to understand the crucial role of human capability and motivation in the conduct of internationalization.