Abstract
In order for a company to internationalise, the accumulation of knowledge about foreign markets is a crucial process. The lack of foreign market knowledge, as for example a lack of knowledge in foreign markets and foreign customers, is regarded as an obstacle in the company’s internationalisation (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977; Eriksson, Johanson, Majkgård, & Sharma, 1997). For small, entrepreneurial companies that sell high-technological products in new, emerging and specialised niche markets, international business is often a crucial consideration from the first day of a company’s establishment, or soon thereafter (Crick & Jones, 2000; Yli-Renko, Autio, & Tontti, 2002; Saarenketo, Puumalainen, Kuivalainen, & Kyläheiko, 2003; Sharma & Blomstermo, 2003; Melén, Rovira, & Sharma, 2004; Rovira, Melén, & Sharma , 2005). The process of acquiring foreign market knowledge is, therefore, an important but also a challenging process for these companies, when a company must start to acquire knowledge about foreign markets soon after it is established.