This thesis was initiated because of the extremely interesting and fairly unexplored topic – the
internationalization process of Estonian ICT companies. Applying the Porters Diamond Model
to collect and interpret the secondary data from the internet, books, journals and statistical
sources to find the external factors that influence the internationalization of Estonian ICT
industry and identify the competitiveness of the industry.
To be able to describe the internationalization phenomena this chapter was divided into the
theories related to firms regardless of the nature of the firms (Uppsala Model, The Product lifecycle
theory) and into theories related to MNEs (OLI Model). Following theories were used as
theoretical framework, while taking the SMEs perspective.
The main findings of the project were, that Estonia is one of the best environments to start ICT
related business, because of the free and highly developed infrastructure environment and the
competitiveness of the industry is one of the highest in Eastern-Europe.
We can expect, that ICT industry and software sector of Estonia will remain and become even
more competitive during the near future.