Morten Rask

Often internationalization of the firm refers to the process of increasing involvement in international operations. In relation to e-business many authors have argued that e-business will change the internationalization processes. E-business is about digitalization of processes, products and actors and many think that because these digitalisations, the importance of localization diminish, especially for what we call digital product providers that sells digitized products and services. The empirical foundation of this paper consists of an inductive explorative case-study that serves as a challenger and supporter of this understanding. The case describes an example of a successful e-marketplace where customers doing reverse auctions. A recent study found that most e-marketplaces are based in Europe and the USA and operated mostly domestically even though a few (14%) e-marketplaces operate worldwide (Fredsted, 2003). The case study gives insight into one of the few international marketplaces. Scanmarket has expanded to the English, German, American and Swedish markets. Essentially the case raises the question: "To what extent does the Internet supersede firms' need for local, physical presence?"