Tata has been successfully trading in Africa for over 35 years in diverse industries and countries. This case study focuses specifically on Tata Africa’s strategies and operational innovations.In African countries, institutional voids exist — the absence of conventional mechanisms that make business work — which present a significant challenge for businesses operating on the continent. The objective of this case study is to understand how Tata has had to adapt its strategies in Africa to overcome these institutional voids in a way that has allowed it to operate successfully in multiple countries and industries.The case study format has been used because it enables a deep analysis of the strategies adopted by Tata. It also provides a means for classroom teaching methods that will enable students to better understand the challenges of doing business in Africa and how to overcome them.Two central questions posed to students of Africa are: 1.) Why has Tata developed activities that are so different from its core businesses? 2.) Instead of allowing the challenges it found to prevent Tata from trading in Africa, the company has devised strategies to ensure long-term success. What are they?Based on the findings, the answers to these questions lie firstly in the “five context framework” proposed by Khanna, Palepu and Sinha (2005) to identify the existence of institutional voids, and secondly in a model derived from the research into the strategy of Tata in Africa that offers solutions to overcome the institutional voids.Other issues for class debate and discussion are also offered. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Business relationships have been studied as a driver for firm competitiveness through relationship marketing, but not as a strategic advantage when entering an economy. Prior research has identified several dimensions of market entry drivers from host country, home-location, sector-related as well as firm-level perspectives. This research study takes a managerial perspective and argues that relationships and their benefits are pivotal during market entry strategy formulation. It asserts that firms should alter their market entry strategies, specifically for emerging economies, taking into consideration the net gains of a client. This study used a mixed method design involving exploratory research and explanatory research. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to make sense of the use of relationship benefits when entering the African market. An online self-administrative questionnaire was also used to gather further insights of attributes that individuals use when entering the East African Community (EAC) market. The findings revealed that institutions do stipulate the rules of the game in an emerging market. Although the research results were not conclusive regarding a wholly owned subsidiary being favoured for entry into an emerging market with stronger institutions, it was conclusive in indicating that firms still favour joint ventures into the EAC. Relationship building is time consuming and many who are given the opportunity to interact with clients still do not grasp the merits of building these relationships. This could be the reason why in general individuals still rely on social benefits like friendships; interactions beyond business relationships; sharing of information and knowledge with the client as opposed to psychological benefits. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Multinational corporations operating in emerging markets have to be able to operate within the institutional context of those markets. Emerging markets institutions are mostly in transition or remain undeveloped and create a variety of institutional voids. International Business scholars have also been grappling with understanding how multinational corporations deal with liability of foreignness in the host environments in which they operate. The research canvassed the views from multinationals operating in South Africa as an emerging market. This study relies on institutional theory to understand how the institutional voids in emerging markets create specific liabilities of foreignness for the multinational corporations. How multinational corporations respond to these liabilities of foreignness is investigated. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MPhil (International Business) / Unrestricted

Emerging market enterprises (EMMs) are on the rise and are quickly becoming significant contributors to the global economy. The fast-paced growth of EMMs generates an interest in understanding the impact of home country advantages that EMMs have and how they use them. Emerging markets, in different ways and forms, experience institutional voids within their markets. This can be in the form of, among others, an inefficient regulatory system, a lack of skilled labor force or poor infrastructure. The different advantages and disadvantages the EMMs have can be explored by applying the OLI framework. Which details different advantages in the form of ownership-specific, location-specific and internalization advantages. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding how different EMMs use their OLI advantages in order to more effectively plug institutional voids. This has been answered through a semi-structured interview and collected transcripts from EMM leaders. The findings of this study indicates that EMMs most important advantage is the knowledge and inventive thinking possessed by the managers.

“Vattenfrågan har alltid varit viktig på Gotland” (Bastani et al. 2015, p. 25)  - “Water questions have always been important on Gotland”. Contrary to the common perception that water shortage does not pose a problem to northern European countries, the case on Gotland provides the example that it is a real issue. Due to several factors, the Swedish island faces severe water shortages during the summer and is in urgent need to address this in the light of an expected growing number of people coming to Gotland. Since water is a topic affecting a wide range of stakeholders, the water issue is already in the focus of attention and occasionally passionately discussed on the island. The aim of this paper was to identify with the help of qualitative research how relevant stakeholder groups perceive and address the water shortage on Gotland. The identified stakeholder groups were from the administrative/political sectors, industrial/business sectors, the research sector as well as engaged citizens. During the research it became clear that the water shortage can be characterized as a wicked problem, which in its nature is impossible to solve but only manageable due to its complexity. Yet, the majority of stakeholders did not recognize the wicked problem as such which explains the multiplicity of existent strategies for how to deal with it. The different approaches lead to outcomes that seem to only address parts of the problem but fail to manage it in its entirety. The study suggests that institutional voids, meaning a lack of clear responsibilities regarding who should manage the problem and how seem to both arise from and contribute to the complexity of the problem. As result of this research, it seems crucial to firstly gain a comprehensive understanding of the situation and then work with multi stakeholder communication and cooperation against prevailing institutional voids in order to address the water shortage effectively.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2017-09-26T13:05:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Silva de Souza_.pdf: 989483 bytes, checksum: 54a4ff4a17ced1ad3c89fe08ea1cc911 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-26T13:05:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Silva de Souza_.pdf: 989483 bytes, checksum: 54a4ff4a17ced1ad3c89fe08ea1cc911 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-14 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Institutional voids are typically found in emerging economies. When governments lack in essential facilities, in order to ensure the well function of their supply chains, companies have to properly deal with this situation by themselves. An example is a situation happening in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, since 2013, where a sequence of investigations focused on the dairy industry. Due to a lack of regulation, milk was the target of adulterations throughout the supply chain processes of the companies. The frauds affected processes of companies from different sizes and nationalities. However, in this context, a local cooperative called Cooperativa Languiru, one of the leader dairy companies in the state, has different practices with its suppliers and was not affected by this contingency. Thus, the purpose of this research, through a case study, was to analyze the relationship between a dairy buying company and its suppliers in this environment of regulatory institutional voids. Aiming to have a wider perspective, this qualitative study explored how the lack of institutions affected the sector. As results, it was verified that political and economic interferences affect the chain as well as political lobby acts. Likewise, the lack of inspectors and infrastructure impact the well-functioning of it. Nevertheless, the close relation between the Cooperativa Languiru with its suppliers abled the company to have record results without having situations in terms of adulteration. Thus, this study proposed a research framework conceptualizing that firms must closely manage their relations with suppliers in order to deal with institutional voids.

The classical approach to strategy defines strategy as a process of planned calculation and analysis to design long-term advantages. The Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) model argues that firms perform and develop strategies based on market structures. These approaches have been seen as the “norm” but are today criticised as outdated since they do not fully suit new emerging markets. The aim of the study is to investigate whether these approaches need modifications for emerging markets and if unique factors need to be emphasized when developing sale strategies for the Chinese market.  The empirical findings are based on two Scandinavian firms with long experience in China. A qualitative exploratory research design is conducted trough the study. As a conclusion a guideline of vital factors for the Chinese market is provided: market knowledge, political and social system, relationships and branding. The knowledge of these factors can help other companies to master the complex environment of the Chinese market.

Submitted by Christian Albrecht (caalbi@gmail.com) on 2015-10-16T13:23:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis Final.pdf: 4173794 bytes, checksum: a9280e81c4ca963baebf914fcf34bdd7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Luiza Holme (ana.holme@fgv.br) on 2015-10-16T13:30:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis Final.pdf: 4173794 bytes, checksum: a9280e81c4ca963baebf914fcf34bdd7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-16T14:07:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis Final.pdf: 4173794 bytes, checksum: a9280e81c4ca963baebf914fcf34bdd7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-08 / The master thesis for the achievement of the academic status master of science in international management (MPGI) will aim to solve the research question of how institutional voids affect the entry decision-making process of foreign venture capital firms coming to Brazil. This is a timely matter since in the past years there has been a sudden eruption of foreign VC involvement in Brazil. Based on the actionable framework by Khanna and Palpeu (2010) we conducted quantitative as well as qualitative research with two sets of interview partners in a two-phase analysis. We interviewed experts from VC firms, foreign VC firms based in Brazil and perspective VC firms that are looking to come to Brazil. We started with the former, derived lessons learned and analyzed how they affect the latter in reaching a decision. As we expected we found that depending on the industry that ventures are in, institutional voids can either pose an opportunity or a threat and hence attract or push away potential VC firms entering Brazil. Opportunities exist especially when exploiting institutional voids, for example through ventures in the marketplace efficiency. Threats are posed by investments in for instance hard infrastructure, where the economic, political and judicial systems as well as corruption and bureaucracy play demanding roles. / A tese de mestrado para a realização do acadêmico estado Master of Science in International Management (MPGI) terá como objectivo resolver a questão de como vazios institucionais afetar a decisão entrada de empresas de capital de risco estrangeiro que vêm ao Brasil a pesquisa. Esta é uma matéria oportuna uma vez que nos últimos anos tem havido uma súbita erupção de envolvimento VC estrangeiros no Brasil. Com base no quadro acionável por Khanna e Palpeu (2010) realizamos quantitativa bem como qualitativa re-pesquisa com dois conjuntos de parceiros de entrevista em uma análise em duas fases. Entrevistamos especialistas de empresas de VC, VC empresas estrangeiras sediadas no Brasil e as empresas de capital de risco perspectiva que estão olhando para vir ao Brasil. Começamos com as antigas lições aprendidas, derivados e analisados como eles afetam o último em chegar a uma decisão. À medida que experado descobrimos que dependendo da indústria que estão em ventures, vazios institucionais pode representar uma oportunidade ou uma ameaça e, portanto, atrair ou afastar potenciais empresas de capital de risco que entram Brasil. As oportunidades existem, especialmente quando explorando vazios institucionais, por exemplo através de empreendimentos na eficiência de mercado. Ameaças provenientes de investimentos em infraestrutura para o disco exemplo, onde os sistemas econômicos, políticos e judiciais, bem como a corrupção ea burocracia desempenham papéis exigentes.

Yes / Much of the existing scholarly works portray institutional voids (IVs) in emerging economies as impeding forces against the development of new ventures. However, little attention has been paid to how such voids generate positive outcomes in emerging market new ventures. Drawing on the institutional theory, we propose IVs as crucial enablers of new venture internationalization. In addition, we investigate both how and when IVs enhance the degree to which new ventures internationalize by examining international learning effort (ILE) as a mediator and two domestic market environmental factors (i.e., environmental dynamism and competitive intensity) as important contingencies. We test our moderated mediation model using primary data gathered from 211 new ventures from Ghana. We found that ILE mediates the relationship between IVs and new venture internationalization and that both environmental dynamism and competitive intensity moderate the indirect relationship between home-country IVs and new venture internationalization. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study.

Yes / This study examines the governance attributes of post-IPO (initial public offering) retained ownership of private equity in business group constituent firms in contrast to their unaffiliated counterparts, in 202 newly listed firms in 22 emerging African economies. We adopt an actor centered institutional-theoretic perspective in rationalizing institutional voids and the advantages of maintained governance by both business angels (BA) and venture capital (VC) private equity. Our findings reveal private equity retain higher post-IPO ownership in business group constituents compared to unaffiliated firms and that this is inversely moderated in the context of improving institutional quality – where this is particularly strong in case of foreign VC as opposed to domestic VC or BA. Our result adds to the literature on multifocal corporate governance mechanisms and the institutional determinants of private equity investment.