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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / International competitiveness is the ability of a firm to sustain its international performance relative to competitors over time and in the future. This research examined the firm level factors that contribute to competitiveness of international new ventures (INVs). Specifically, the study investigated whether entrepreneurial and branding resources and capabilities greatly contribute to competitiveness of INVs. The study followed a positivist and quantitative methodological approach to establish the causalities and social order of competitiveness of INVs in Uganda. The purpose of the study was actualized through adopting a cross-sectional survey design. The study focused on INVs which are firms that internationalized their operations within the first ten (10) years of their establishment. These firms were drawn from the three major business sectors in Uganda including agribusiness, manufacturing and service firms involved in international activities ranging from exports, input sourcing (imports), foreign subsidiaries, franchises to international subcontracting. The survey instrument was delivered to 405 firms and information required was provided by three different groups of respondents in each firm. Owners-managers and employees assessed their firm’s entrepreneurial and branding resources and capabilities and international competitiveness in the last five (5) years and for the next three (3) years whereas customers evaluated brand advantage of firms and their products or services. The data collection process achieved a 77 percent response rate to the study. The study was non-experimental and adopted structural equation modelling and Average Moments of Structures (AMOS) to establish the causal relationships between the study variables. The study results reveal that brand orientation greatly contributes to international competitiveness whereas the interaction between entrepreneurial and branding resources and capabilities significantly enhances brand advantage of INVs. In addition, the study indicates that in the short run, brand advantage constrains the contribution of entrepreneurial and branding capabilities to competitiveness of INVs. The findings of this research provide knowledge on building and sustaining international competitiveness with specific implications for improving marketing and/or branding capabilities and utilization of entrepreneurial resources. The findings further support the dynamic capabilities theory in explaining competitiveness of INVs in Uganda. Keywords: Competitiveness, Entrepreneurial Capital, Entrepreneurial orientation, Brand orientation, Brand Advantage, International New Ventures, Uganda

A widely held belief is that resource constraints and industry conditions pose severe threats to the performance of entrepreneurial firms. While previous research links resources controlled by these firms to different performance outcomes, extant research on organizational performance often assumes away contextual differences in the allocation of scarce resources by firms to develop and leverage different organizational capabilities. Further, no research has explored the performance implications of resource use, especially for new ventures. The purpose of this study is to bring capabilities to the foreground in the examination of organizational performance for new ventures following an initial public offering (IPO). Building from resource-based theory and contingency theory, I examine the indirect (through capability formation and use) effects that occur within the ‘black box’ between resources and performance for a sample of entrepreneurial firms undertaking an IPO. New theory is offered to explain the formation and performance outcomes of two configurations of organizational capabilities: market-managing capabilities and market-creating capabilities. Human capital is considered, bringing agency into theory explaining capability formation and use. Further, I consider how underlying routines allow resources to be managed for greater value across different industries—conditions that make resources valuable in some contexts and not in others. I find that resource endowments at IPO affect the formation and use of organizational capabilities and that this relationship varies across different industry contexts. Further, I find support for the indirect effect of resources on performance outcomes through capability formation and use. More specifically, I find that adjustments to the configuration of organizational capabilities affect performance prospects over time. Results confirm that capability configurations compete for scarce resources, necessitating tradeoffs in allocation decisions between them. I also find that industry conditions moderate this relationship. By employing an integrative, multidisciplinary approach, this dissertation extends research on the performance effects of resource endowments and capability formation and use for entrepreneurial firms. Further, it contributes to growing research on IPO firms in strategic management and entrepreneurship, especially theoretical and empirical research examining the different firm and industry conditions that affect organizational performance during the period following a firm’s transition into the public arena.

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Yes / Purpose The purpose of this article was to examine the joint effects of regulatory focus, entrepreneurial persistence, and institutional support on new venture performance. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a random survey approach to sample 204 new ventures from Ghana. The moderated mediation method was used to analyze the survey data. Findings The findings from this paper show that entrepreneurs’ promotion focus positively relates to persistence whiles prevent focus negatively influences persistence. Besides, persistence mediates the link between regulatory focus (promotion and prevention focus) and new venture performance. These relationships are positively moderated by perceived institutional support. Research limitations/implications Using data from only the manufacturing sector in Ghana limits the generalisability of this paper. Also, persistence was not observed or measured directly in this paper but was only used as a self-reporting variable that captures an individual’s tendency to persist. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this paper contributes to regulatory focus literature by enhancing our knowledge of how self-regulation could help explain entrepreneurial decision-making. Second, this paper broadens self-regulation literature by adding institutional context as a moderating variable. Third, this paper helps clarify the potential role of persistence in entrepreneurship.

This thesis explores how the resources of marketing capabilities, business networks, and financial resources, influence the marketing approach of international new ventures. Building on the resource based view, the market entry of firms and how they compete is analyzed by exploring the resources and capabilities of INVs. By using a qualitative research method, this thesis identifies the three resources of marketing capabilities, business networks, and financial resources to be highly influential for INVs’ marketing approach. Also there has been shown to be a synergetic effect between the resources, and that the cross-industrial and cross-business type sampling did not entail any divergences, but rather similar patterns. Four main findings can be identified as a result of our analysis. First, market knowledge prior to internationalization is shown to be key. Second, the creation of trust through transparency in business networks spark business network opportunities and long-term relationships. Third, utilizing technological tools for marketing endeavors becomes highly efficient. Fourth, tackling financial limitations through the implementation of a low-cost strategy is shown to be essential. The findings of this research has great potential of contributing to managerial practice when working with marketing aspirations, as well as being a starting point for future research in the field of INVs and the resource based view theory. The study has limitations in regards to the scope of the research.

BACKGROUND. The relaxation of the global conditions, mainly but not reduced to the introduction of the Internet, and the demanding competitive pressures have triggered the expansionary phenomenon of startups that seek to compete internationally right after its birth. This urge for a mechanism to facilitate the internationalisation process, namely the business model. In this regard, there is a need to elaborate on the field of the business model in combination to the internationalization literature, which has tended to develop in isolation. PURPOSE. The purpose of this master thesis is to expand the knowledge about the process of designing the business model of a new international venture and how the drivers of internationalisation affect this process. METHODOLOGY. The research problem was identified by exploring two major streams of theory, the business model and the internationalisation, which were developed jointly in a visual representation. In the next step, from two Sweden-based international new ventures, named Againity AB and MIMSI Materials AB, empirical information was collected from diverse stakeholders. The technique was qualitative research method, which was scrutinized following a process model approach. Finally, a model proposition was constructed by analysing the realities of the practical and theoretical phenomenon to serve the purpose of enhancing knowledge. RESULT. The BMD process is composed by three stages, namely initiating, generating and refining, of iterative and interdependent nature. Each driver of internationalization, when scrutinized using the empirical realities of the INVs, tends to have different influential roles at different stages of the business model. This is integrated into a conceptual model of the key internationalization drivers and BMD stages, which reflects the strategic fit from which new ventures benefit.

The notion of International New Ventures, or INVs, emerged in academia in the early-to-mid 1990s and generally refers to entrepreneurial firms that tend to internationalize very early in their life-cycle, and whose expansion into foreign markets occurs much more quickly than predicted by earlier theories of the incremental internationalization process. Previous literature proposes effective networking with market partners and, more recently, internationally viable business model among key distinguishing features of INVs that allow for such early and rapid entry into international markets. Nevertheless, little is yet known regarding how these younger firms develop over time and how they could sustain international growth. With the purpose of filling this gap, this doctoral dissertation scrutinizes business models and business model innovation of INVs beyond their early internationalization, with a particular emphasis on INVs’ external relationships configurations.   The dissertation consists of four self-contained essays that represent a methodological mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches and incorporate longitudinal case studies, surveys and register-based data encompassing nine years of Swedish INVs’ development. The findings highlight the importance of the business model as an initial market entry tool, and of business model innovation as a potential growth vehicle over time. Findings also display that INVs work with a broader range of external partners compared to other firms for innovative purposes, and that INVs have different business model innovation patterns compared to other types of internationalized firms. Moreover, INVs focus more heavily on value capture innovations in their business models as they mature and seek to obtain a more centralized position in their industry ecosystem by re-configuring the parameters of existing external relationships or developing new ones.   Overall, this dissertation contributes to the international entrepreneurship and business model literature by explicating how maturing INVs need to operate under different business model configurations as compared to emerging INVs, as the original business model might lack scalability after a certain point in time. Furthermore, the dissertation suggests how INVs can pursue a dynamic business model approach and utilize dynamic capabilities to design business models that put the focal firm more in control of the surrounding ecosystem, and reduce constraints that can limit the value capturing potential and thus the growth and development of INVs.

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[pt] Algumas das principais competências que surgem como necessárias em um cenário de crescimento, são as que permitem a realização de novos negócios e parcerias interorganizacionais. As empresas que estiverem preparadas para a realização destes movimentos poderão obter uma vantagem competitiva em relação às suas concorrentes. A criação destas novas competências se dá através da análise, ajuste e desenvolvimento dos aspectos organizacionais a elas relacionados. O estudo teve como objetivo final gerar um quadro de referência listando estes aspectos. Para alcançar este objetivo, foi realizado um estudo de caso na Petrobras, empresa que vem investindo no desenvolvimento destas competências. Para tanto, realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica incluindo as teorias sobre gerência estratégica, competências centrais, visão baseada em recursos, design organizacional, redes, parcerias, empreendedorismo, aquisições e novos negócios. Desta revisão bibliográfica, foi possível extrair diversas questões para a exploração do contexto organizacional em que o processo de construção de novos negócios e parcerias interorganizacionais está imerso. Estas questões, organizadas em categorias, geraram um questionário para a realização de entrevistas com profissionais envolvidos nestes processos. Foi possível verificar que a empresa deve desenvolver alguns aspectoschave, como a integração da estratégia, a perpetuação destas atividades, a adaptação das estruturas, o uso dos recursos e competências, o relacionamento entre áreas, o alinhamento dos processos e sistemas, a adequação das pessoas, a interação com os parceiros e o aprendizado organizacional. O estudo contribui assim para que as empresas possam, através da análise das questões identificadas, se preparar para a realização dos processos de novos negócios e parcerias. / [en] Some of the most important competences that are necessary in a growth scenario are the ones that allow new ventures and interorganizational partnerships to happen. Companies that are prepared to make these movements will be able to benefit from a competitive advantage against its competitors. The creation of these competencies becomes possible through analysis, adjustment and development of the organizational aspects related to them. This study had as its final objective to construct a framework listing these aspects. To achieve this objective, a case study was carried out at Petrobras, a company that is investing in the development of these competencies. For this purpose, a bibliographic revision was carried out, including the theories about strategic management, core competencies, resource-based view, organizational design, networks, partnerships, entrepreneurship, acquisitions and new ventures. From this bibliographic revision, it was possible to extract some issues to explore the organizational context where the process of construction of new ventures and interorganizational partnerships is immersed. These issues, organized in categories, generated a questionnaire to be used in the interviews with the professionals working in this process. It was possible to verify that a company shall develop some key-aspects, as strategic integration, survival of these activities, structure adjustment, use of resources and competences, relationship between areas, alignment of the processes and systems, fit of people, interaction with partners and organizational learning. The study contributes for the companies to prepare itself, through the analysis of the listed issues, to make new ventures and partnerships happen.