The analysis starts with a comprehensive presentation of underlying factors of internationalisation and globalisation processes. Next, seven groups of theories of firm are analysed, leading to a conclusion that the authors of these concepts do not address directly the issues involved with internationalisation and globalisation of enterprise activity. Internationalisation topics are taken up implicitly, and it is difficult to draw from them far-reaching conclusions On the other hand, the issues of internationalisation and globalisation of enterprise activity are widely tackled by a numerous group of "lower-level theories" (meaning a lower level of generality), which are in a way specialised in this kind of problems. An attempt to draw up a "market map" of theories explaining foreign expansion of enterprises is covered by the following part of the study. The transaction cost theory has been found to be a very promising line of studies on theoretical foundations of foreign expansion of enterprises in conditions of intensive internationalisation and globalisation of activities. Its main advantage is that it allows to cover all forms of international expansion of enterprises with an analysis. The mentioned concept has certain drawbacks, which have been identified. At the same time, this allows to outline directions for further studies.