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Purpose – This article addresses the internationalization processes focusing on changes of firms' internal structures, systems, and culture over time. These changes are analyzed in relation to the firms' developments in the last 10 years along a country and/or mode dimension, comparing firms with county or mode increase, two-dimensional expansions, stagnation/reduction, as well as comparing incremental one step versus multistep developments in a holistic way.

Methodology/approach – Conceptually, the changes in country dimension and establishment chain form a primary level, and structure, systems, and culture a secondary level of the framework. Managers of family-owned firms, able to evaluate the past, were asked about these dimensions in terms of their situation today and 10 years ago.

Findings – This study shows that internationalization causes changes in internal systems in particular, followed by changes in internal structural and slowest by changes in leadership and firm's culture. Even if stagnations or reductions take place, they are related to changes in internal structure, systems, and culture.

Research limitations/implications – Limitations are related to the retrospective design based on managerial perceptions, the use of less proven scales, as well as the analyses of family-owned firms. This exploratory study suggests more empirical insights on dynamic internationalization processes.

Practical implications – The study provides insights for managers into structural, systemic, and cultural changes when future internationalization steps are planned.

Originality/value of the paper – This paper shows holistic evidence of changes in 20 partial dimensions of internal structures, systems, and culture within the internationalization process over time empirically.

This volume of Progress in International Business Research comprises of a selection of 12 competitive papers from the 34th EIBA (European International Business Academy) annual conference, which was held in Tallinn, Estonia in December 2008 with the theme “International Business and the Catching-up Economies: Challenges and Opportunities”. It addresses two main issues – (1) the internationalization process and (2) the role of knowledge and innovation for internationalization – that are important in the current economic slowdown both for catching-up and for other economies, scholars, and practitioners.