Drawing on the Network Theory, this research had the objective to analyse the influence of networks within the life cycle stages of a Born Global company. By developing a framework that consisted of a pre-inception phase, start-up phase and the growth phase, the study proposed to identify which types of networks were used within the development of the BG, and how they influenced on the internationalisation speed. By conducting an in-depth interview, data has been collected to be analysed as a single-case study. Our findings indicate that the company made active use of networks in every phase of its life cycle in terms of acquiring market knowledge, financial support and access to customers in which directly influenced in its internationalisation process and speed. Moreover, we observed that the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the product and also the mechanism of networking contributed to both of the development within the life cycle stages of the company as the internationalisation speed.

Après une orientation privilégiant l’exportation et les IDE entrants, la Chine continue à poursuivre son intégration à l’économie mondiale en abordant une projection accélérée de son économie vers l’international marquée par les investissements directs à l’étranger des entreprises chinoises. En très peu de temps, la Chine est devenu la principale source de flux d’IDE parmi les pays en développement. Ce phénomène présente des caractéristiques spécifiques et a pris une ampleur inattendue. L’économie étatique de la Chine nous amène à conclure souvent qu’il existe derrière ces mouvements les motivations politiques et la mise en place d’une stratégie d’État au sein de ces activités. Néanmoins, le gouvernement n’a pas vraiment joué un rôle décisif dans ce phénomène. Le comportement du gouvernement du pays d’origine est en fait un des facteurs exogènes qui peuvent affecter la configuration OLI! [Dunning, 1993a] de ses entreprises et donc les caractéristiques des activités d’investissement à l’étranger de ses entreprises. Le dynamisme et les spécificités des investisseurs chinois sont plutôt à l’origine d’une forte volonté entrepreneuriale qui coïncide avec une maturation des entreprises chinoises grâce au développement économique du pays. Une étude approfondie sur les motivations des entreprises chinoises nous montre que la recherche du marché a été la motivation principale des entreprises chinoises et qu’elles possèdent des avantages spécifiques ex ante qui sont à l’origine de sa nationalité, tels que l’imperfection du marché de capital, la flexibilité et le réseautage des entreprises chinoises. / After an orientation focusing on export and inward FDI, China continues its integration into worldeconomy by an accelerated projection of its economy to the world, which is demonstrated by Chinesecompanies’ outward direct investment. In a very short time, China has become the main source of FDI flow among developing countries. This phonomenon has shown particular characteristics and has taken off at an unexpected scale and speed. The state economy of China leads us to conclude usually that there is any political motivation and national strategy behind these activities. Nevertheless, the government didn’t play a decisive role in this phenomenon. The behaviors of home country’s government is in fact one of the exogenious factors that can affect the OLI configuration [Dunning, 1993a] of its companies and therefore the characteristics of the outward investment activities of its companies. The dynamic and the specificities of Chinese investors are rather derived from a strong entrepreneurial desire which coincides with a maturation of Chinese companies thanks to the economic development of China. An in-depth study on Chinese companies’ motivations has shown us tha! t market-seeking is the principal motivation of Chinese companie’ outwart investment and they possess ex ante specific advantages derived from their nationality,such as capital market imperfection, flexibility and networking capacity.

The rapid growth in internationalisation of education has led to the point where Australia has become a world leader in transnational education. Simultaneously, the provision of hospitality and tourism management education has developed rapidly from its inception in 1974 with numbers of international students rising steadily. Although robust research into the international student experience has been conducted, the impact of these changes upon tertiary academics has received little attention from researchers. Within this context, this research project aims to develop a better understanding of academics’ experiences of teaching tourism and hospitality in transcultural settings. More specifically, the study seeks to discover the impacts of working in a multicultural, multinational and multilingual environment on the tourism and hospitality academic (Objective One), and to explore the concept of competence in multicultural and transnational teaching (Objective Two). This thesis is presented in five stages. The first stage considers the formative background to the research, and explores literature and concepts surrounding transcultural contexts of higher education. The current state of internationalisation of tourism and hospitality higher education in Australia is outlined, and gaps in the research field are highlighted. This section observes a need for transcultural competence in teaching. Stage Two addresses methodological considerations and explores the use of interpretive phenomenological methodology for gaining a greater understanding of the lived experiences of academics teaching in transcultural contexts. The practice and philosophies surrounding phenomenology, interviewing, and transcribing talk are critically examined. This stage also proposes the use of mind mapping as a tool for qualitative research analysis. Employing the interpretive methodologies outlined in the previous stage, Stage Three considers Objective One by addressing the research question ‘What are the concerns and constraints experienced by academics teaching in transnational and multicultural contexts?’ In keeping with a phenomenological approach which encourages testing initial intuitions by subjecting them to critical evaluation, this section incorporates a peer-reviewed paper written by the researcher. Findings showed that academics experienced concerns and constraints relating to their sense of self, the intercultural other (the students) and the temporal and education environment in which they are situated. Stage Three also addresses the second research question, ‘What influences the positive experiences of academics teaching in transnational and multicultural contexts?’ Findings showed that travel and journeying (both physical and metaphorical) were highly significant, beneficial, and contributed greatly to emotional well-being as they allowed the academics to experience joy in transcultural teaching. Stage Four addresses the second research objective and incorporates two research questions. The question ‘How are academics’ intercultural competences in multicultural education formed?’ involved the theoretical delineation of the specific research area through an in-depth systematic literature review in order to develop a holistic explanatory model. The model considers epistemology and ontology of teaching practice, and contains four quadrants: self-knowledge, values, knowledge and skills. The final research question, ‘How do successful international tourism and hospitality educators embody and integrate competence in their teaching within multicultural and transnational classrooms?’ entailed close phenomenological analysis of the narrated experiences of four academics who had not only derived much enjoyment from their transcultural teaching, but had been publicly recognised by peers and by their universities as being successful teachers. The narrated experiences, approaches and opinions of these academics are analysed and organised according to the model and are explored under the headings Epistemology – which includes ‘cultural knowledge’ and ‘skills’; and Ontology, which covers ‘values’ and ‘self’. Stage Five considers the implications and significance of this research for higher education. The thesis contributes not only to research into teaching and internationalisation of education, but also makes original contributions to qualitative research methodology.

<p>Background: The Uppsala model is the most accepted paradigm regarding the internationalisation process of the firm. This thesis tries to complement the Uppsala model with Porter's theories regarding internationalisation. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the Uppsala model is applicable to a small manufacturing firm, and to see if the theory, combined with the Porterian framework, can provide a more solid framework for the description of the internationalisation process of the firm. </p><p>Method: The master thesis is based on one personal interview with the CEO of the study object, Bukowski design. </p><p>Results: The internationalisation process of the firm can to some extent be explained using the Uppsala model. It is, however, valuable to complete the picture with, for example, Porter’s theories, that permit a deeper understanding.</p>

Background: The Uppsala model is the most accepted paradigm regarding the internationalisation process of the firm. This thesis tries to complement the Uppsala model with Porter's theories regarding internationalisation. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the Uppsala model is applicable to a small manufacturing firm, and to see if the theory, combined with the Porterian framework, can provide a more solid framework for the description of the internationalisation process of the firm. Method: The master thesis is based on one personal interview with the CEO of the study object, Bukowski design. Results: The internationalisation process of the firm can to some extent be explained using the Uppsala model. It is, however, valuable to complete the picture with, for example, Porter’s theories, that permit a deeper understanding.

The privileges of integration with the global economy have led developing countries to embark on a path of liberalisation and globalisation. This resulted in rapid growth of inward and outward foreign direct investment from developing countries. In the last two decades there is an increasing trend of outward FDI from developing countries to both developed and developing countries. This dissertation focuses on exploring the literature on outward FDI from developing countries, and internationalisation process of developing country multinationals which are considered to be carriers to investment across international borders. The study has examined the two main strands of literature on outward FDI from developing countries – determinants of outward FDI and internationalisation process. Findings of the systematic review show that there is a dearth of studies in this area of research. Except a number of studies on China and countries of East and South East Asia, there is very limited evidence on outward FDI from developing countries. There is a set of studies on Africa that examine South-South investment flows. Studies on other major developing countries are either non-existent or lack in comprehensiveness. Some studies resulted in contradictory findings about the determinants of outward FDI. This raises the question of sensitivity of variables across geographical locations and time periods, which has not been researched before. Studies on outward FDI also do not make a clear distinction between South-South and South-North FDI flows. Other aspects like sovereign wealth funds and commodity price boom have been ignored in the literature. It is important to investigate outward FDI flows from the major developing economies because of its sheer scope to contribute to academic literature, its policy implications, and also because of its potential to bring development to some of the most impoverished parts of the world.

An industry is constantly affected by its environment and the changes that occur within it. These environmental forces are the drivers of the industry’s evolution and throughout its life an industry undergoes irreversible transformations, which creates an industry life cycle. The competitive pressure on firms has increased the importance of developing competitive strategies throughout the industry’s life. This becomes especially important when the industry reaches the decline stage. There are different strategies that are suggested for firms to undertake in a declining industry. However, these strategies do not consider small and medium-sized enterprises, thus they might not be the most suitable for these firms to undertake. In addition, international activities have not been seen as a way to increase performance in a declining industry. The purpose of this study is therefore to fill this gap by investigating how small and medium-sized enterprises seek to increase their performance in a declining industry. To fulfil this purpose, we have conducted a qualitative case study of four SMEs currently operating in a declining industry. The empirical data was collected through interviews at each case company.The theoretical framework includes the theoretical concept of the industry life cycle, strategies specific for declining industries, theories regarding how firm chooses to compete, and different theories regarding international activities. The chapter ends with a theoretical synthesis that is developed from the theories presented earlier in the chapter. The empirical chapter presents the findings from the interviews with the case companies.In the analysis, the theoretical framework is connected to the empirical data, and is the basis for our conclusions. After conducting this study we can conclude that small and medium-sized enterprises seek to increase their performance by undertaking a niche strategy as their end-game strategy, compete with a differentiations strategy, and by a large scope of international markets, which enables them to shift their market focus from unbeneficial markets to more beneficial markets.

Background: Family Businesses represent the highest proportion of businesses in the world (Lin, 2012). Globalisation offers new business opportunities for growth and in-ternational diversification. Generally the internationalisation of family businesses is a well-studied field in family business research (Kontinen &amp; Ojala, 2009). Still, there are certain shortcomings when it comes to the specific area of corporate governance adapta-tion in family firms that open subsidiaries (Calabro &amp; Mussolino, 2011). Hence, this paper analyses the proceedings of family firms that internationalise through a subsidi-ary. From a methodological standpoint, existing studies concerned with family business internationalisation focus on quantitative research approaches. The results of these in-clude some limitations, since they cannot account for questions such as how and why family firms proceed during diversification (Kontinen &amp; Ojala, 2009). Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the rationale behind corporate gov-ernance structures in family businesses, focusing on the special case of internationalisa-tion through a subsidiary. Frame of Reference: A summary of recent research regarding the three main issues family businesses, internationalisation, and corporate governance will be given in the frame of reference. This theoretical background will serve as the basis for a solid analy-sis of our empirical data. Method: A qualitative approach with an extensive literature review and a case study based on in-depth interviews with employees of the company Väderstad-Verken AB was chosen in order to fulfil the purpose. Conclusion: The rationale behind corporate governance structures when setting up a subsidiary abroad is driven by the ambition to preserve a family firms’ stewardship ori-ented culture and its informal structures. The result of this is better collaboration, which serves the mission of the business.

Författarna har genom studien funnit att faktorerna engagemang, tidigare internationell erfarenhet, systematiskt tillvägagångssätt, företagets storlek,nätverk och kunskap haft tydligast påverkan på de studerade svenska företagens internationalisering och framgång i Ryssland. Dessa framgångsfaktorer tycks även likna de faktorer som generellt framträder i tidigare forskning. Dock framstår möjliga marknadsspecifika element som kan kopplas specifikt till den ryska marknaden. Dessa framgångsfaktorer kan inte enskilt förklara företagens framgång, utan ger en nyanserad bild av de studerade företagens främsta attribut vid etableringen. / It can be concluded that commitment, previous international experience, systematic approach, company size, network and knowledge has had the most prevailing outcomes in regards to successful companies in this study. These success factors tend to be in line with previous research conducted on the area. However these factors cannot alone account for the success for the individual companies, but can give guidance of important attributes that influenced the internationalisation for the enterprises in this study.

Nous étudions les méthodes de management stratégique de l’entreprise familiale qui favorisent l’internationalisation performante et durable. Sur base de quatre cadres théoriques, la création de valeur économique durable, le socle stratégique, le modèle séquentiel d’Uppsala et l’apprentissage organisationnel, nous avons émis l’hypothèse qu’une stratégie d’internationalisation est performante et durable si les méthodes de management stratégique de l’entreprise familiale reposent sur des variables endogènes sociales et économiques. Au travers d’un cas longitudinal de recherche-intervention qualimétrique, nous avons ainsi identifié et mesuré les facteurs endogènes de performance durable de son internationalisation. Deux facteurs dominants de performance et deux de durabilité lui procurent un avantage concurrentiel : des pratiques de pilotage et de contrôle de trois natures incrémentales managériale, organisationnelle et informationnelle, la renégociation fréquente du « pacte organisationnel de vie commune », la mesure de ces facteurs incorporels et endogènes mobilisés et l’organisation de l’apprentissage tiré de l’expérience. / We study family businesses’ strategic management methods that promote sustainable and efficient internationalization. Based on four theoretical frameworks, sustainable economic value creation, strategic base, Uppsala’s sequential model, and organizational learning, we have ventured the following research hypothesis: the internationalization strategy boosts sustainable performance if family businesses’ strategic management methods rely on social and economic endogenous variables. Through a longitudinal intervention-research case, we have identified and measured its internationalization sustainable performance endogenous factors. Two main performance factors and two main sustainability factors provide competitive advantage for it: steering and controlling practices with three incremental functions (management, organization, and information), regular negotiation on “how to live together organizational agreement”, measurement of intangible and endogenous factors, and organization of experience-based learning.