The internationalization of Portuguese companies in the Irish market: the impacto f business digitzation as a facilitator of internationalization processes – study applied to AICEP

Abstract

This paper aims to show the impact of business digitization as a facilitator in the internationalization process of that same business. It focuses on the internationalization process of Portuguese companies in the Irish market. This internship report is part of a curricular internship to obtain a Master's degree in Marketing and Digital Business. The intern held the training in the AICEP'S (Trade and Investment Agency of Portugal) delegation in Ireland from 1th of October 2021 to 31st of March 2022. The Internship report has three main parts: The Literature Review, the Methodology, and The Presentation and Discussion of the Results. In this paper, the methodology used is the exploratory research. It was researched all published information about the new market and then tried to state specific strategies and find some conclusions allowing an international business project to be put into practice. We were able to conclude that digitization can be a facilitator for companies wanting to go international. Still, there is a lot of information and knowledge that they also need to have access to plan all the steps required, involving products/services, price, place, and promotion. The main limitations of this work are related to the fact that we had some difficulties getting access to specific market information. Also, time constraints did not allow us to apply a questionnaire to study the genuine opinion of many companies. As practical implications, one may say that further studies on how to go international and take advantage of the internet and social media need to be done, because this topic is critical to businesses and government agencies trying to boost their country's economy, like AICEP in Portugal..