Many hedge funds are believed to yield considerable returns to investors; there is an assumption that suggests hedge funds seem uncorrelated with market fluctuations and have relatively low volatility. In recent years, emerging market hedge funds have experienced a higher capital inflow in periods when the diversification benefits of investing in emerging markets are higher. However, the strategy‟s share of the hedge fund industry‟s total capital flows has decreased significantly during the same periods: this might imply that investors have reallocated capital to other hedge fund strategies. This paper investigates whether emerging markets hedge funds have been as consistent in performance as the benchmark indices by presenting results of comparative analysis of two sample emerging markets hedge fund indices and two standard emerging markets benchmarks performance. The empirical study ranges from the period of January 2006 to December 2010.

The internationalization process of emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) has been the focus of study of several studies on the recent decades. Importance was given as well to differentiate the patters of those from the multinationals coming from developed countries (MNCs). This study investigates specificities in the path of a Brazilian steel industry, Gerdau, into foreign production in developed countries, Canada and United States. By pointing out the different theories, the case of Gerdau can be better understood not only as an internationalization process, but as well as a company that could reach opportunities in a sector going through a problematic period by acquiring regional players, instead of using exports to reach those markets. Some authors states managerial capabilities being understood as second most important competitive advantage of Brazilian firms, loosing only to differentiated access of natural resources. In this study, we go through the understanding of how this capabilities played important role in a company outside of the natural resources business, supporting Gerdau's successful path.

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the challenges faced by Pakistan Textiles industry as an emerging market from MNCs of Bangladesh, China and India and to find out the appropriate strategies which should adopted by the managers of this industry to counter these challenges. Method: In this research qualitative data is used that is gathered through unstructured interview and questioners have been used to have desirable results. Results & Conclusion: It is reflected from results that internal problems of Pakistan textiles industry such as energy crisis, high input cost, political instability, low return on investment are the main problems of this industry. To counter these challenges, their strategic approach should be Collaboration in product development and strategic alliance with attacking firms. Suggestion for Future Research: This research is focused on the Problems and challenges faced by Pakistan Textiles Industry. For the future studies research could be done to find out the strategies for the firms from Pakistan Textiles industry to do the business in international market and how these companies can compete in International Market with presence of other MNCs of the world. Contribution of the Thesis: This study provides action plans for the managers of Pakistan textiles industry to design and implement the strategies that build core competencies such as high quality products for their firms. It can also be helpful for researchers and students those are interested to develop the strategies for the firms from emerging markets.

CROSS-BORDER BANK ACQUISITIONS AND COMPANY PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF EMERGING MARKETS Demir, Mert MBA, Department of Business Administration Supervisor : Assist. Prof. Dr. Seza DaniSoglu May 2008, 103 pages In recent years, cross-border mergers and acquisitions have spurred in the global economy. With the breaking down of barriers around national economies, those economies that used to be centrally-planned and closed in the past have emerged as economies that offer invaluable investment and risk diversification opportunities that investors seek. As a natural result of this change, these economies become major targets for foreign investors. This thesis examines the impact of this foreign investment trend specifically for those bank mergers and acquisitions that take place in emerging economies. The impact of these transactions on the acquirer and target company shareholders and firm performance are analyzed and it is found that neither parties&rsquo / shareholders receive a significantly positive benefit in the short-term but there are significant benefits in the long-term. Moreover, while these bank consolidations resulted in improved profitability, efficiency and asset size for the target firms, no significant change is observed in deposit size, market share and capital adequacy of the targets. Similarly, improvement in profitability is evidenced for the acquirers while no major change in leverage risk is observed.

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{page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} --> <!--[endif]--></p><p>The overall purpose of the paper is to see how crediting institutions assess risks in emerging market countries. The paper describes prevalent economic and social conditions for each of the selected emerging market countries (Brazil, China, Kazakhstan, India, Russia and Ukraine) as examples of recent attractive investment locations in quest of higher returns.  Second, recognizing the importance of ratings for risk management in credit institutions, the authors show what determines country ratings made by main rating agencies by running a linear regression on several macroeconomic indicators and the country ratings. It is also explained what the most widely-used ratings mean and described the correlation between the ratings as well as between the macroeconomic indicators and the ratings. The authors also describe the characteristic approach of a Scandinavian bank towards dealing with risk factors in emerging market countries. Concluding comments: risks happen to be inbound in the bank interest rates; there is no common pattern for banks to apply to all the emerging market countries and each market should be analyzed separately. Nordic banks have a relatively safe and careful strategy concerning lending in the emerging markets.</p><p> </p>

The internationalization of SMEs has been recognized as one of the important paths to growth in SMEs. However, internationalization is also a resource and competence-demanding process. This is especially true for smaller-sized SMEs – the small and micro-sized firms – which have a large resource constraint, making internationalization even more challenging. Although this group of small firms counts for an average of over 98% of the total population of enterprises in EU countries, extant research on the internationalization of this group is still limited. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of evolving patterns of internationalization in the smaller-sized SMEs. The study uses emerging market entry along the internationalization of small firms as a context to probe the dynamics of perceived risk (uncertainty) and perceived opportunity in different foreign markets which influence the important decisions of small firms during their internationalization. The main study takes a longitudinal approach and uses mixed methods to investigate the features in both the initial period and the continued period of internationalization. It mainly builds on a multiple-case study of 12 Swedish firms, which have/had emerging market entry experience and/or involvement. This study illustrates influences from the environmental, organizational and individual levels on evolving patterns of internationalization in the investigated firms. This dissertation concludes that critical decisions and actions taken in the internationalization process depend on interactions among the influence and resources from the three levels. Such interactions form a conditional preference on perceived risk (uncertainty) and perceived opportunity during the internationalization of small firms. The study further proposes that the dynamics in the internationalization process are caused by a prospect-guided change mechanism. This dissertation contributes to the literature by: differentiating patterns of internationalization; enriching the study of “born global” in the continued period of internationalization; introducing a new perspective on the interpretation of dynamics in the internationalization; and increasing the understanding on the interactions of resources from three levels on the internationalization of small firms.

Many studies have recognised the importance of a variety of factors in the internationalisation of firms. Only a few, however, have attempted to integrate these factors into a comprehensive framework. In this study, taking the network approach as its main analytical foundation, an integrative theoretical framework is developed and tested empirically to assess the impact of a wide range of factors on the internationalisation of firms. The internationalisation phenomenon is examined in a more comprehensive manner than in many previous studies, as a two-sided process of both inward and outward international operations. Using logistic regressions in the analysis of empirical evidence gathered through a national survey sample of 148 Brazilian software firms, the theoretical framework proposed in this study obtained substantial support. The findings expand previous knowledge through a comprehensive explanation that incorporates determinant factors from four distinct dimensions - contextual, organisational, network, and entrepreneurial - in examining the internationalisation of firms from emerging markets. The findings indicate that business networks are indeed strategic mechanisms for a firm in developing its internationalisation trajectory, as hypothesised. The results of this research suggest that studies based on the business-network model of internationalisation can no longer ignore the impact of other factors at the contextual, organisational, and entrepreneurial level. Incorporating these elements into research that seeks to explain the internationalisation of firms could provide a more sophisticated understanding through new insights and allow scholars to go beyond one-dimensional and static theorising.

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Research Question: Which factors impact the purchase decision of consumers within emerging markets when shopping online? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between e-commerce factors and the consumer purchase decision within e-commerce on emerging markets to unravel how certain factors impact the consumer purchase decision. The aim is to provide knowledge regarding consumer purchase decision making for retailers entering an emerging e-commerce market, this by carrying out a survey to consumers on a representative emerging market. Hypotheses: H1: E-logistics has a positive impact on the e-consumer purchase decision. H2: E-marketing activities have a positive impact on the e-consumer purchase decision. H3: Online integrity has a positive impact on the e-consumer purchase decision. H4: E-vendor contact alternatives have a positive impact on the e-consumer purchase decision. H5: Web site design has a positive impact on the e-consumer purchase decision. Method: This study has a deductive research approach combined with a quantitative research method. The primary data consists of data collected through carrying out a survey in Warsaw, Poland. The data was later on analyzed using the statistics software programme SPSS. Conclusion: In order for e-vendors to gain market shares and utilize the market capacity of the hyper-competitive emerging markets the factors web site design, e- marketing and e-vendor contact alternatives are essential to address due to their positive impact on the consumers purchase decision.

This research is empirical and exploratory in nature. It examines the emergence of a market of underserviced consumers within the U.S. banking subsector of the financial services industry. The aim of this research is to introduce generalizable sociological theory that explains the formation of an underserviced consumer market. This new social theory called Underserviced Consumer Market Formation Theory (UCMFT) is then applied to the U.S. banking subsector of the financial services industry in order to address the research question of, Why has an emerging market of underserviced consumers formed within the U.S. banking subsector of the financial services industry? In addition to introducing UCMFT to academia, other contributions to knowledge have materialized as a means of explaining this phenomenon and answering the research question of this study. These additional contributions to knowledge are: introducing the term underserviced consumer within the U.S. banking subsector of the financial services industry and introducing a theoretically based explanatory model specific to this subject matter of this research termed the model of underserviced consumer market formation within the U.S. banking subsector of the financial services industry. Positioning UCMFT for future research and generalizability includes clearly defining the industry being studied, clearly defining the term underserviced consumers in the context of the industry being studied, and empirically identifying and linking the unique psychosocial characteristics to the predominant consumers (buyers) within the industry being studied or encompassed by the research. Potential industries that could be included for future research grounding in UCMFT are healthcare, technology, telecommunications, education, as well as other subsectors within the financial services industry. Overall, the empirical findings support the creation of the theory and its applicability to the U.S. banking subsector of the financial services industry as scoped for this research.