Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 607-641).

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / China Area Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

In this dissertation, I study the behavior and the factors that impact the performance of firms in developing countries. Chapter 1 and 3 investigate the determinants of patterns of trade in Myanmar, a country which over the past decade has been undergoing an extraordinary transition, from military control and diplomatic isolation to political and economic liberalization. Chapter 2 studies how firms upgrade the quality of their output to increase sales abroad. Specifically, in Chapter 1, I investigate the hypothesis that if matching frictions in international trade are important, a seller’s ability to connect with buyers could explain a substantial part of exporters heterogeneity in size. I do so in Myanmar’s bean export market. Despite beans having all the attributes of a commodity, there is significant transaction price dispersion across both exporters and foreign buyers. Empirical patterns are consistent with foreign buyers facing search costs to find exporters. I estimate a model of search and auctions, where foreign buyers first search for a set of exporters, and then run a competitive bidding process between exporters within that set. In the model, exporters are described by two parameters: a visibility parameter that impacts their likelihood of being found by foreign buyers and a cost parameter that drives the level of their price quotes and thus their market share with each foreign buyer. Visibility explains an important part of the firm size distribution. On the buyer side, searching for an additional exporter has an estimated cost of about $2,000. Moving to a centralized market would lead to a five percent decrease in transaction prices. Chapter 2 looks at the relationship between firms’ output quality and their organizational structure. Using data on the production and transaction chain that makes up Peruvian fishmeal manufacturing, we establish three results. First, firms integrate existing suppliers when the quality premium rises for exogenous reasons. Second, suppliers change their behavior to better maintain input quality when vertically integrated. Third, firms produce a higher share of high-quality output when supplier availability constraints shift them into using integrated suppliers. Overall, our results indicate that quality upgrading is an important motive for integrating suppliers facing a quantity-quality trade-off, as classical theories of the firm predict. Chapter 3 quantifies the impact of import license liberalization in Myanmar’s unique political economy environment. By contrast to previous literature on the issue, we find that liberalization did not lead to substantial entry in the sectors populated by firms connected to the party in power. We document two facts that rationalize these findings. First, connected firms tend to import products subject to important economies of scale, which provide opportunities for rent-seeking and act as a “natural” barrier to entry for small firms. Second, we show that a subset of the products liberalized de jure were not liberalized de facto. Products not liberalized de facto are more likely to be sectors where connected firms are present and where economies of scale are less important. This last result suggests that institutional arrangements were made to protect connected firms in the sectors where they faced higher potential competition.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2015 / The global market is a dynamic, competitive environment offering business growth and development, and as such a pull towards international activities exists for firms. Despite this globalisation of markets, international entrepreneurship research has not focussed on the opportunity recognition process in an international context. In addition, the cross-national differences that may exist, and the validation of perspectives to emerging economies, is poorly understood. This research was conducted in South Africa, a country considered to be an emerging economy, with the purpose of ascertaining how local entrepreneurial firms recognise international opportunities, and the main factors influencing this process. This was done using a quantitative statistical research methodology, in the form of a cross-sectional study. An online self-administered survey was utilised for data collection, which was then subjected to the research selection criteria. Prior experiential knowledge and the levels of entrepreneurial orientation, in terms of proactiveness, risk-taking and innovativeness, did not seem to have a significant effect on the international recognition process by South African firms. The effect of organisational learning could not be conclusively drawn. However, international social networks, in relation to the amount of time invested in interacting with contacts, and developing and maintaining contacts, seemed to have a significant effect on this process. This research provides the initial insights into an under-researched area, and contributes to international entrepreneurship research with empirical testing of a sample from South Africa.

by Leung Wei-chuen Daniel. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 80-83.

by Ma Wing-Kin. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [57-58]). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / PREFACE --- p.xxv / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Current Situation Facing Multinational Corporations --- p.1 / Methodology of the Study --- p.19 / Chapter II. --- FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY AND TRENDS IDENTIFIED --- p.24 / General Findings and Analysis --- p.24 / Correlation findings --- p.35 / Chapter III. --- SUMMARY OF TRENDS --- p.43 / Chapter IV. --- RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION --- p.46 / APPENDIX --- p.54 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.i

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