Conceptual guidelines for the international expansion of SMEs from Curaçao

Internationalization and moving to new markets can create many opportunities for small businesses across the globe, but also presents a number of new challenges they will face, which may influence their competitive advantage in the global market -- Present paper aims to provide an internationalization guide for SMEs from Curaçao -- Also the determinants that can impact internationalization will be discussed -- In this paper, three widely researched internationalization models form the basis of the theoretical perspectives of this paper; the traditional Uppsala model, the Network model and the Linkage, Leverage and Learning model

A internacionalização do setor bancário português

O processo de globalização, na esfera dos mercados financeiros, exigiu às instituições bancárias opções de investimento estratégico na plataforma internacional. O movimento de implantação dos bancos portugueses no estrangeiro acompanhou esse processo, permitindo a oferta de serviços bancários de captação e financiamento nos principais mercados de destino das exportações e emigração. A presente dissertação tem como objetivo o estudo do processo de internacionalização do setor bancário português centrado na seguinte questão geral de investigação: “Quais os fatores determinantes das variáveis que caraterizam a evolução do setor bancário português no exterior?” O desenvolvimento desta questão é conduzido através da construção de um modelo explicativo dos impactos de um conjunto de determinantes, selecionados a partir da revisão de literatura, sobre os indicadores que traduzem a dinâmica do negócio bancário no exterior. Neste contexto, pretendeu-se obter evidência empírica desses efeitos através de uma metodologia que consiste na estimação de modelos de dados em painel, utilizando uma amostra de seis bancos com relevância ao nível de investimento no mercado externo relativos ao período compreendido entre 2004 e 2014. Os resultados empíricos sugerem a existência de relações estatisticamente significativas entre as variáveis consideradas nos modelos. Foram encontrados indícios que associam consistentemente as variáveis emigração, Investimento Direto Estrangeiro, Produto Interno Bruto em Portugal e nos países de acolhimento, ativo bancário e inflação, com a evolução da atividade bancária no exterior. Adicionalmente, os resultados revelam que o desemprego e o rácio do crédito em relação ao ativo são estatisticamente significativos na sua influência sobre o indicador da rendibilidade dos bancos. Conclui-se que a significância dos fatores selecionados permite explicar o comportamento dos indicadores de negócio no exterior para os bancos estudados e, consequentemente, a validade do modelo de análise proposto. No entanto, não se exclui que outros elementos explicativos não ponderados no estudo tenham igualmente preponderância explicativa no processo de internacionalização do setor bancário.

Reweaving the Silk Road through outsourcing and offshoring: The need for an externalisation theory

The reweaving and repaving of the modern Silk Road passes through outsourcing and offshoring activities that have a profound impact on both global business psyche and landscape. Firms, in particular, and their global value chain are being shaped and reshaped through a complex concoction of vertical integration and disintegration. The boundary of the firm and the firm/market interface has been of interest to students of organisation and economics for some time. It has provided the context for Internalisation Theory. Within the new economy, the twin trends of globalisation and advancing technologies are giving rise to a hitherto unknown “worldwide market for market transactions? and increased opportunities for international expansion by firms via market-based modes of organisation. We describe these trends and offer an early modeling approach for explaining why some firm’s externalise the marginal transaction in the so-called new economy. The paper further draws attention on the need to articulate an “Externalisation Theory? that adequately accounts for the firm’s offshoring and outsourcing activities, and that parallels as well as complement “Internalisation Theory? for a full explanation of today’s firms behaviour.

Participate (or not) in international trade fairs? Decision factors of Portuguese managers

Portugal is a small economy, with an open domestic market that needs competitive exporters to prosper. Trade fairs are an international promotion tool that can be used by firms when considering export development and expansion. This study identifies and evaluates the critical factors that influenced the decision making process of Portuguese SME’s (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) managers to participate (or not) in international trade fairs. The results indicate that the firm’s critical decisions factors to select an international trade fair were value for money and the stand (location, typology and size)

Internationalization strategy: HOLOS Mobile - Angola

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Internationalization strategies and methods of construction firms – a comparative study between Hong Kong - Chinese and Portuguese – European approaches

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau Mestre em Engenharia Civil – Perfil de Construção

Political market and regulatory uncertainty: Insights and implications for integrated strategy

Managers can craft effective integrated strategy by properly assessing regulatory uncertainty. Leveraging the existing political markets literature, we predict regulatory uncertainty from the novel interaction of demand and supply side rivalries across a range of political markets. We argue for two primary drivers of regulatory uncertainty: ideology-motivated interests opposed to the firm and a lack of competition for power among political actors supplying public policy. We align three, previously disparate dimensions of nonmarket strategy - profile level, coalition breadth, and pivotal target - to levels of regulatory uncertainty. Through this framework, we demonstrate how and when firms employ different nonmarket strategies. To illustrate variation in nonmarket strategy across levels of regulatory uncertainty, we analyze several market entry decisions of foreign firms operating in the global telecommunications sector.

Análisis de los procesos de internacionalización en el sector petrolero : Ecopetrol, Petrobras Y Exxonmobil

El presente trabajo se centra en el fenómeno de la internacionalización dentro del sector petrolero. Para esto, se escogió a tres empresas: Ecopetrol, por ser la empresa colombiana más grande; Petrobras, el mayor representante de Latinoamérica; y Exxon Mobil, un gigante del petróleo a nivel mundial. Estas empresas, que se encuentran en diferentes etapas dentro de su proceso de la internacionalización, muestran comportamientos estratégicos similares. Son precisamente estas similitudes las que permitieron proponer un modelo de internacionalización generalizado para las diferentes empresas que componen dicho sector económico. Para alcanzar dicho modelo, se recurrió a diferentes teorías de internacionalización desarrolladas por varias escuelas de negocios en el mundo, tales como el Modelo Ecléctico, el de Uppsala o la Teoría de Redes. Cabe destacar que dicho modelo propuesto es una aproximación teórica a la realidad empresarial de las compañías petroleras, usando como marco de referencia una muestra pequeña de este tipo de organizaciones. Dentro de este modelo, los altos matices de complejidad propios del fenómeno de la internacionalización se ven reducidos de manera considerable, como parte del ejercicio académico propuesto en el presente estudio.

El Outsourcing en la dinámica de sistemas hacia mercados extranjeros

Este trabajo recopila literatura académica relevante sobre estrategias de entrada y metodologías para la toma de decisión sobre la contratación de servicios de Outsourcing para el caso de empresas que planean expandirse hacia mercados extranjeros. La manera en que una empresa planifica su entrada a un mercado extranjero, y realiza la consideración y evaluación de información relevante y el diseño de la estrategia, determina el éxito o no de la misma. De otro lado, las metodologías consideradas se concentran en el nivel estratégico de la pirámide organizacional. Se parte de métodos simples para llegar a aquellos basados en la Teoría de Decisión Multicriterio, tanto individuales como híbridos. Finalmente, se presenta la Dinámica de Sistemas como herramienta valiosa en el proceso, por cuanto puede combinarse con métodos multicriterio.

Do we need different frameworks to explain infant MNEs from developing countries?

I argue that the initial set of firm-specific assets (FSAs) act as an envelope for the early stages of internationalization of multinational enterprises (MNEs) (of whatever nationality) AND THAT there is a threshold LEVEL of FSAs that IT must possess for such international expansion to be SUCCESSFUL. I also argue that the initial FSAs of an MNE tend to be constrained by the location-specific (L) assets of the home country. However, beyond different initial conditions, there are few obvious reasons to insist that INFANT developing country MNEs are of unique character THAN ADVANCED ECONOMY MNEs, and I predict that as they evolve, the observable differences between the two groups will diminish. Successful firms will increasingly explore internationalization, but there is also no reason to believe that this is likely to happen disproportionately from the developing countries.

The expansion model of the major Chilean retail chains

Includes bibliography

IINTERNATIONAL STRATEGY FOR AN EMERGING MULTINATIONAL IN BRAZIL: THE CASE OF JBS

The focus of this study is on questioning whether the traditional theories of internationalization are adequate to explain the international expansion of multinationals from emerging countries. Looking forward on this issue, we investigate the internationalization strategies adopted by JBS, a Brazilian multinational of the beef industry. The results show that the company adopted two of the five generic strategies specific to the context of emerging countries suggested by Ramamurti and Singh (2009): global consolidator and vertical integrator. Moreover, when analyzing the internationalization of the company under study, the speed of the process is highlighted when compared to traditional multinationals. It is concluded that the main mode of entry that allowed the international expansion was the acquisition and that this strategy has advantages to the company, such as access to strategic resources and rapid growth, possibly overcoming the liability of foreignness, the opportunity to compete globally and the diversification of segments that generate synergies to the company's activities.

Export Behavior and Board Independence in Colombian Family Firms: The Reverse Causality Relationship

In the context of greater market liberalization in Latin America, one issue that merits greater attention for empirical investigation is the international expansion of family-owned business. Specifically, the relationship between export behavior, family control and board composition in the Latin American context is absent in the literature. Using a large and unique database from Colombian firms (33,249 firms in the period of 2008 to 2013), we provide insightful information on the determinants of export behavior of family firms in emerging markets. Our empirical test confirms an endogenous relation between boards’ composition (specifically the presence of independent members) and export behavior in family firms. Firms with a higher participation of independent board members are more likely to exhibit higher levels of exports. A "virtuous cycle" was also detected whereby the introduction of independent members on the board can be expected to boost export behavior, which in turn will encourage the increase of independent members on the board of private firms.

The significant role of third-party logistics (3pl) operators as fosterers of organizational performance in colombian companies

La eliminación de barreras entre países es una consecuencia que llega con la globalización y con los acuerdos de TLC firmados en los últimos años. Esto implica un crecimiento significativo del comercio exterior, lo cual se ve reflejado en un aumento de la complejidad de la cadena de suministro de las empresas. Debido a lo anterior, se hace necesaria la búsqueda de alternativas para obtener altos niveles de productividad y competitividad dentro de las empresas en Colombia, ya que el entorno se ha vuelto cada vez más complejo, saturado de competencia no sólo nacional, sino también internacional. Para mantenerse en una posición competitiva favorable, las compañías deben enfocarse en las actividades que le agregan valor a su negocio, por lo cual una de las alternativas que se están adoptando hoy en día es la tercerización de funciones logísticas a empresas especializadas en el manejo de estos servicios. Tales empresas son los Proveedores de servicios logísticos (LSP), quienes actúan como agentes externos a la organización al gestionar, controlar y proporcionar actividades logísticas en nombre de un contratante. Las actividades realizadas pueden incluir todas o parte de las actividades logísticas, pero como mínimo la gestión y ejecución del transporte y almacenamiento deben estar incluidos (Berglund, 2000). El propósito del documento es analizar el papel de los Operadores Logísticos de Tercer nivel (3PL) como promotores del desempeño organizacional en las empresas colombianas, con el fin de informar a las MIPYMES acerca de los beneficios que se obtienen al trabajar con LSP como un medio para mejorar la posición competitiva del país.

Análise proposicional quantitativa aplicada à pesquisa em administração

The analysis of interviews with open-ended questions is a common practice amongst researchers in the field of Management. The difficulty therein is to convert the linguistic data into categories or quantitative values for subsequent statistical treatment. Proposals made to this end generally entail counting lexical occurrences which, since they are founded on previously established meanings, fail to include semantic associations made by interviews. This article aims to present an analysis tool comprising a set of techniques apt to generate linguistic units that can be statistically described, compared, modeled and inferred: the Quantitative Propositional Analysis (QPA), Its main difference from other such methods lies in the choice of a proposition - and not the lexical unit - as analysis unit. We present the application of this method through a study about the international expansion of retail firms.