Hi Erika,

Historically, the patterns of internationalization of the car industry have been rather complex, especially if your concept of internationalization also includes inward internationalization (e.g. licensing) and outward internationalization that is not equity based, e.g. export sales. For example, BMW's car production begun in the late 1920s when BMW (which had till then produced motorcycles and airplane engines) obtained the licence from Austin (UK car manufacturer, now defunct) to produce the BMW Dixi. In terms of export, the car industry was international almost from inception, as companies had to sell abroad to find enough (wealthy) customers.

The first foreign direct investment (FDI) is the car industry was probably done by Daimler (producer of Mercedes-Benz cars) already in 1899, when it established a subsidiary in Austria; Austro-Daimler. 

For an overview and discussion of WV's internationalization, the following article can be useful: http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/medwelljournals/pjssci/2005/761-775.pdf.

Good luck with your project!

Gabriel

Hallo Erika,

why not start with analyzing what's at your finger tips? Eg. starting with

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_AG

Some carefull reading should show you the very beginning of internationalization of VW. And there are a lot of links for further research, eg.

http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/content/de/the_group/history.html

Wish you success

A main part of internationalization is the personell strategy: You have to send the people (especially managers) aournd to really internationalize a company.