The tortuous road to globalization for Volvo's heavy truck business: Extending the scope of the Uppsala model

The globalization of a firm is a time-consuming and incremental process similar in nature to the internationalization process. We adapt the Uppsala Internationalization Process Model (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977 and Johanson and Vahlne, 2009) to explain the globalization process. We define globalization as an effort to optimize a business in terms of its configuration and coordination systems. Hence the globalization process is about making changes in these two aspects of firms. Globalization, like the internationalization process, is characterized by the management of complexities and uncertainties and that requires learning and commitment building. We “test” a globalization process variant of the Uppsala model on the globalization of Volvo's heavy truck business. We find support for our model, and find that the globalization process is indeed tortuous, and certainly not as easily managed as sometimes suggested by economists and management gurus.