EXPANDING UNDER PRESSURE: INTERNATIONALIZATION OF UKRAINIAN COMPANIES AFTER THE FULL-SCALE INVASION
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Date
2026-05
Authors
Kopchuk, Volodymyr
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Abstract
This study examines the post-February 2022 foreign expansion of six Ukrainian companies: Aurora, Kormotech, Lviv Croissants, Nova Post, Farmak, and Liki24. Drawing on business media sources and founder interviews, it uses a qualitative multiple-case design to assess how far these firms' internationalization behavior supports, modifies, or departs from the predictions of the Uppsala model in its 1977 and 2009 versions. Four patterns appear across the cases. First, the war accelerated pre-existing internationalization plans rather than initiating them from scratch. Second, market selection was shaped less by geographic or cultural proximity than by competitive conditions and the destinations of displaced Ukrainians. Third, the learning and commitment logic central to the Uppsala model was present in every case, although it was often compressed, reordered or both. And fourth, local teams and partner relationships were more important in reducing outsidership than any formal market-research phase. Overall, the evidence aligns more closely with the 2009 network revision than with the original stage model. The central claim of the study is that the war should be understood not as a cause of internationalization, but as the context that reshaped how internationalization unfolded, and the
cases show why that distinction matters.
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Keywords
internationalization, Uppsala model, Ukraine, wartime expansion, foreign market entry, psychic distance, outsidership, network-based internationalization
Citation
Kopchuk, Volodymyr. (2026). EXPANDING UNDER PRESSURE: INTERNATIONALIZATION OF UKRAINIAN COMPANIES AFTER THE FULL-SCALE INVASION. Kyiv: American University Kyiv. URI: https://er.auk.edu.ua/handle/234907866/199