Standardization and Adaptation Practices in Internationalization of Firm Operations: A Study of Italian Firms in Vietnam

Firms view internationalization as a channel for growth and value creation. However, one of the key decisions such firms face which impact their performance is whether to transfer their production processes and" organization structures to foreign countries as they are, the 'standardization approach', or whether to make adaptations depending on the host-country environment, the 'adaptation approach'. While these aspects have been studied within industrial countries context, the developing, or newly industrialized nations' perspective is largely overlooked This paper analyzes the internationalization process of transfer and adaptation in three Italian firms with manufacturing plants in Vietnam and Italy.