sustainability Article Sustainable International Expansion via Cooperation Networks in the Manufacturing Industries Anderson Rei Galvão 1,2, * , Carla Mascarenhas 1 , Carla Susana Marques 1 , Vitor Braga 3 , Luis Moreira 2 , Pedro Ferreira 2 and Tiago Castro 2   Citation: Galvão, A.R.; Mascarenhas, C.; Marques, C.S.; Braga, V.; Moreira, L.; Ferreira, P.; Castro, T. Sustainable International Expansion via Cooperation Networks in the Manufacturing Industries. Sustainability 2021, 13, 14013. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su132414013 Academic Editor: Simon Elias Bibri Received: 16 November 2021 Accepted: 16 December 2021 Published: 19 December 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Economics Sociology and Management, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro & CETRAD Research Center, 5000 Vila Real, Portugal; carlam@utad.pt (C.M.); smarques@utad.pt (C.S.M.) 2 Department of Business Internationalization, Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão, Polytechnic of Porto, 4610 Felgueiras, Portugal; luismiguelmoreira@gmail.com (L.M.); pedrooooferreiraaaa@gmail.com (P.F.); tiago-g@hotmail.com (T.C.) 3 The Center for Innovation and Research in Business Sciences and Information Systems, Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão, Polytechnic of Porto, 4610 Felgueiras, Portugal; vbraga@estgf.ipp.pt * Correspondence: anderson@utad.pt Abstract: For the manufacturing industry in particular, networks lead to an increasing interaction between different actors representing a complementary response to insecurity arising from interna- tionalization subjects. The aim of this study is to understand how cooperation networks contribute to the international sustainability of the manufacturing industry. To carry out this study, a qualitative methodology was chosen through semi-structured interviews with eight companies in the manu- facturing sector from different areas. The interviews were handled with NVIVO software support. Regarding the findings, it is unanimous that cooperation networks are essential for the internation- alization of the manufacturing industry. In general, the companies that participated in the study believe that the networks helped to reduce costs and to have access to certain resources that were essential for the success of internationalization. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the size of the country and the low purchasing power were some of the substantial factors that triggered the process of searching for new markets. It also became evident that there are barriers that need to be taken into account at the time of internationalization and that cooperation with other companies can help to overcome them. This study provides empirical evidence on the importance of cooperation networks for the internationalization of companies in the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the main motivations, strategies and barriers for these companies to internationalize. Keywords: cooperation networks; internationalization; sustainability; manufacturing 1. Introduction In recent years, globalization has led to a restructuring of business, mainly in the manufacturing industry [1,2]. According to some authors [3–6], networks of cooperation are an essential component for the sustainability of the manufacturing industry because they help to create and maintain competitive advantages in an increasingly global market. The cooperation networks that many companies look for in order to reach international markets allow them to obtain resources, detailed information, technologies, economies of scale and to share risks with other companies in order to make companies better able to seize new opportunities and market challenges [7]. In the internationalization process, networks are crucial for recognizing opportuni- ties [8]. According to Chetty and Wilson [9], some studies showed that mainly SMEs (due to lack of resources) take into account their networks to educate themselves about internationalization, select the internationalization method, and obtain resources and information to internationalize. For Olhager and Feldmann [1], cooperation between com- panies encourages innovation, allows for learning, and facilitates new combinations of inter-organizational resources. Sustainability 2021, 13, 14013. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132414013 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability