Businesses are seeking international market opportunities more than ever before. The growing activities of international business has given rise to the globalisation of markets which in turn creates more economic, political, social and cultural interconnectedness among countries. A few decades ago, most Swedish companies had limited trade with African countries due to the sluggish economic growth, low market size, political instability and redundant regulations. However, there have been recent developments in Africa and the continent is now home to growing economies. Today, Swedish companies trade with African countries such as Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. Africa is the most heterogeneous continent; culturally, linguistically and ethnically. In order to successfully operate in African markets, foreign businesses need to develop an understanding of the African cultural value system. The purpose of this degree project is to explore how two multinational Swedish companies; Electrolux and Scania adapt their business culture when operating in African markets. We chose a qualitative research strategy with an inductive approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with Electrolux and Scania, which are currently active in Africa. The respondents hold various positions within these companies. A thematic analysis was used to analyse our data.  Our empirical findings suggest that Electrolux and Scania are very similar in how they adapt their business cultures in African markets. Although there are some commonalities, business culture can vary widely from country to country in Africa and what is true in one country might not be true in another. African markets have a relationship-based business culture and Electrolux and Scania have been successful in Africa by building good and long lasting relationships with business entities. Building relations, coupled with strong company core values, help both companies tackle corruption related issues. Our findings also indicate that Electrolux and Scania have an understanding that Africans have different time perception and consequently, adapt by understanding, accommodating, and being flexible and patient towards their business counterparts. The only major difference about how the two companies adapt their business culture in African markets regard how local talents are used. Whereas Electrolux appoint local people to take leadership positions, Scania send expatriates to the countries they have business operations in. In conclusion, Africa has a unique business culture environment that requires foreign business people to have a sense of flexibility and freedom to respond to subtle or major difference in the various and diverse African countries.

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Information Communication Technologies are increasingly used in organisations’ market expansion strategies. These Information communication technologies provide organisations with opportunities such as ease of communication and movement of resources, making the entry into new markets a faster and less resource heavy process. When expanding throughout the African continent, the challenge presented in using this approach is that many African markets have underdeveloped information communication technology infrastructure. In considering this barrier, the extent to which information communication technology enables market expansion throughout the African continent is the topic which has been fully analysed and discussed. An exploratory research design and a qualitative method have been used in this study. The subjects of the data collection were three key individuals selected from a large South African retailer. These three individuals job roles spanned across the marketing and IT departments and were influential in the organisation’s expansion efforts throughout Africa. The findings of this study show that the levels of information communication technology infrastructure vary vastly from country to country on the African continent, noting South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Botswana as the more advanced nations with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda lagging in development. The findings also show that for retailers, the retail focused technology available in South Africa is not yet available in other African nations which causes challenges in offering the same value to consumers across the board. However, the finding show that the development of cloud-based systems has assisted in the widespread use of technologies without the need of heavy investments into physical locations.

Face à la forte concurrence internationale, de nombreuses entreprises manufacturières orientent leurs investissements vers les marchés africains pour accroître leur part de marché et rester compétitives sur le marché mondial. Ces marchés sont effet en plein essor mais demandent des produits de grande diversité. En dépit de cette attractivité, les flux commerciaux en Afrique demeurent faibles en raison de la faible qualité des infrastructures et de l’absence d’écosystèmes logistiques régionaux connectant les pays africains de manière fiable et efficace.C’est pourquoi cette thèse de doctorat s’intéresse à la modélisation et à la résolution du problème de conception de réseaux de distribution hybrides en Afrique, intégrant des plateformes de distribution et de personnalisation finale des produits. Ces réseaux incluent, en amont, des hubs régionaux servant de porte d’entrée vers les marchés d’une région continentale. Le report de la personnalisation finale en aval du réseau logistique permet de réduire les délais de livraison aux marchés et le coût de distribution tout en maintenant une économie d’échelle. La méthodologie que nous proposons repose sur deux grands axes de recherche :▪ Le premier axe vise à définir la localisation des hubs logistiques régionaux, sur la base d’une analyse multicritères floue, version améliorée de TOPSIS floue et d'AHP ;▪ Le deuxième axe aborde conception de réseaux de distribution hybrides servant des marchés fortement diversifiés (exemple : marchés des engrais). Nous avons proposé deux nouveaux modèles d'optimisation multi-objectifs minimisant le coût total d’exploitation et d’investissement, maximisant la proximité des produits aux marchés et minimisant les dommages sur les produits finis durant leur distribution. Le premier modèle est déterministe tandis que le deuxième propose une conception flexible alignée sur la dynamique et l’incertitude de l’évolution des marchés africains. / In the context of intense international competition, many manufacturing firms are directing their investments toward African markets to increase their market share and maintain their competitiveness in the global market. These markets are rapidly growing but require customized products. Despite their attractivity, trade flows in Africa remain low due to the poor quality of infrastructure and the lack of regional logistic ecosystems, connecting African countries through reliable and efficient services.This doctoral thesis therefore focuses on modelling and solving the problem of designing hybrid distribution networks in Africa, integrating distribution and final customization platforms. These networks incorporate, upstream, regional hubs that serve as gateways to regional markets. The postponement of final customization downstream of the logistics network reduces the delivery times and downstream distribution costs while maintaining upstream economies of scale.The methodology we suggest is based on two main areas of research:▪ The first axis aims to define the location of regional logistics hubs, based on a fuzzy multi-criteria analysis approach, which is an improved version of TOPSIS fuzzy and AHP;▪ The second axis focuses on the design of hybrid distribution networks serving highly diversified markets in Africa (for example: fertilizer markets). To this aim, we propose two new multi-objective optimization models minimizing total operating and investment costs, maximizing product proximity to markets and minimizing damage to finished products during their distribution. The first model is deterministic while the second one proposes a flexible design in response to the dynamics and uncertainty of the evolution of African markets.