International Business Management: The Management of Geographical Diversification of Czech Companies at the Beginning of Internationalization Process

The target foreign market selection has a highly significant influence on the company's future performance. Selecting the appropriate foreign market is an important decision for company management and it demands a lot of resources and thorough planning. There is a wide range of factors that influence the company's choice of a target foreign market. The objective of this paper is to outline a geographical diversification of Czech companies at their initial stage of internationalization process and to determine factors that influence the choice of a target foreign market by the selected Czech entrepreneurial subjects. The data set comprises a total of 297 enterprises that participated in the research. The research was carried out via oral questioning and the main instrument was a questionnaire. The research has shown that the most commonly applied diversification strategy of Czech companies is a concentration strategy. Furthermore, it was found out that the majority of Czech companies operate in the geographical sub-region of Eastern Europe. When choosing the target foreign market Czech companies are influenced by many factors. The greatest influence on the choice of a target foreign market has market variables.