Internationalization of the Service Sector - Marketing Approach

The main purpose of this article is to indicate the progressive phenomenon of internationalization in the service sector in the context of dynamism of changes concerning economic, technological, legal and social determinants. The first part of this article makes reference to new legal regulations in EU, which fully binding, create special conditions for development of service companies SMB (small and medium businesses) prevailing in the service sector. Further, specific features of services (formula 5 I's) and their marketing typology are discussed. Depending on a sector (a group) of discussing services and their particular characteristic we can point out different stages of entering foreign markets by service companies, strengthening their positions there and various ways of providing customers with their services (from face to face to via technology). In this study practical operations of service firms in foreign markets both B2C and B2B have been specified. The last part shows new challenges for these companies resulting from consumers' new expectations in international markets and also from technological development in this sector.