Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1, University of Southampton, language: English, abstract: International business contact and cross-border company activities are not only trends these days, but were also detectable in the past century. "The British East-India Company" or the French "Compagnie des Isles de l'Amérique" are examples for trading companies existing in the 17th century that organized exchange of goods on a worldwide scale. Today this internationalisation of organizational economic activity occurs not only sporadic, but is part of the daily work of many businesses. The reason is the proceeding economical globalization since the 60th resulting from increasing international ties between national economies and the resulting cross-border actions and bondings of companies (Blom & Meier, 2002, p. 1). The motives of the enterprises for that development are multisided.