Finally, several important issues about international marketing of services and future research directions are highlighted. .
Literature Review.
A traditional way for service firms to start going abroad is to follow manufacturers that they are providing services in their domestic markets. When their clients internationalize, they get an opportunity to go along and sometimes almost are forced to do so (Weinstein, 1977; Vandermerwe and Chadwick, 1989). For example, banking and advertising industries, following clients was found to be a major reason for internationalizing. Now, ways of internationalizing services have become more diverse as, for example, the development of new technologies for electronic commerce has made services less dependant on local operations (Winsted and Patterson, 1998).
Most of the literature on international marketing and export strategies is designed and developed to the needs of the manufacturing sector. In 1990, Erramilli and Rao (1990) noticed that we know very little about how service firms enter foreign markets, and their observation holds true even today. "For international services, theory lags practice by a considerable degree" (Clark, 1996, p. 9). .
In the literature on international marketing of services, an internationalization strategy is often considered more risky for service firms than for manufacturers of goods. One reason for this is that the unique characteristic of service: inseparability, it refers to (1) the service provider's physical connection to the service being provide; (2) the customer's involvement in the service production process. The inseparable nature of services usually need to local presence of service provider and employees. (Hoffman and Bateson, 2002; see also Samiee, 1999) .
"In traditional international marketing models focusing on the needs of manufacturing firms, the internationalization process can start in a minor scale using indirect export channels followed by a step-by-step move towards more direct channels.
