Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1986. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [532]-550.

Market globalisation has led globalised companies and corporations to increase focus on synchronised and centralised business operations management to enjoy new and apparently boundless opportunities for growth and profit. The role of supplying companies as partners who provide globally consistent, coordinated and competitive support has been commonly recognised. However, supply base consolidation, increased bargaining power and imposed global competition have increasingly shifted power to the buyers. In order to reinforce balanced and sustainable business dyads, this thesis addresses global account management (GAM), one of the most discussed paradigms within recent sales and customer relationship management literature. Besides this fact, academics and practitioners still struggle to fully capture the dynamic and complex nature of GAM, not least due to the high degree of internal and external interdependence. Hence, the presented work followed an interdisciplinary aggregation of knowledge in the area of key account management (KAM), GAM and corporate culture. Further, best practice mixed-methods research contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the interrelations and corresponding factors that determine suppliers’ success within global business relationships. Against this background, the case of a globally leading automotive supplier with long established and sophisticated GAM structures was analysed to gain exclusive primary research insights and add to the existing knowledge base. Thereby King’s (1998) template analysis technique found use to evaluate data from 21 semistructured interviews across operational, management and executive experts from global customer organisations (GCOs), supporting the development of a conceptual, novel and unique global account management performance model: the GPM. Moreover, to cope with the boundaries of purely qualitative research, structural equation modelling based on 199 data sets from an international online survey added to the refinement, statistical validation and generalisation of the findings. Through this process, the concept of structural, strategic and (corporate) cultural fit between global suppliers and customers have been revealed as key domains of the GPM, influencing relational and financial GAM performance outcomes. Subsequently, the contributions of the presented thesis are manifold: First, they extend the scope of current GAM performance models, as the GPM provides a more comprehensive view on structural and strategic aspects traditionally in the focus of GAM research. Second, they supplement prior account management research with empirical confirmation and complement earlier work in the field of corporate culture by illuminating the role of corporate culture for the first time in an international business context. Third, the study outcomes provide exclusive evidence for raising customer awareness of suppliers’ culture and cultural compatibility and explicitly outline cultural fit as a critical performance moderator of global account management. This study therefore offers new perspectives on performance determinants of GAM. Academics benefit from original theoretical and practical insights into the underlying mechanisms of global supplier-customer relationships and the GPM enables decision makers to build stronger relationships with a wider range of individual, multi-national and global customers.

The research problem addressed in this study is to determine the potential of selling and marketing consumer goods by Multinational Enterprises (MNE) within the African markets. The mode of entry, the timing of entry, the different modes of entry, selection of the entry mode, the political and economic risks, core competencies of the company and strategic alliance was researched. To achieve this, research was executed on the above areas of importance using relevant literature in which an understanding of the international markets and their options of modes of entry were highlighted. In this way one is able to understand the importance of the international markets and the concerns of doing business in Africa in order to select the entry mode that could best suit the company and the country or countries in Africa. The literature study was then used to develop a questionnaire to test the degree to which managers in MNE in South Africa (SA) and Central East Africa (CEA) concur with regard to the decisions, risks, procedure, modes of entry and selection of modes of entry into Africa. The empirical results obtained indicate a strong concurrence with the analysis of the modes of entry into CEA market for an MNE. The analysis of the literature study, Chapter 2 and 3, gives business a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the problems and opportunities associated with the entry decisions into CEA. Many other companies are entering the African markets from other parts of the world and SA has also been seen as a launching pad into Africa. The analysis will give companies the edge in seeing the problems and opportunities in African markets and the way forward when deciding to enter.

This research focuses on the use of marketing data as a tool with which to evaluate potential in emerging markets. The literature reviewed gave valuable insight into existing approaches to evaluation of market potential, and some of the limitations these approaches face in emerging markets. Specifically, these focus on the data deficit in emerging markets, and lack of granularity in the data that exist. The literature also highlights the expertise and information which is available within the marketing fraternity, which has failed to be translated into strategic business insight in the context of new market entry. The integration of the two disciplines of marketing and market entry provides market-seeking firms with valuable new data on which to base decisions, as well as offering marketers with an opportunity to demonstrate their value as a source of strategic insight. The literature reviewed resulted in the formulation of hypotheses predicting a relationship between the independent variable, marketing data, and the dependent variable, market potential. These were further evaluated in terms of relative strength when compared to existing tools: macro economic data, and the Market Potential Index. Finally the data was analysed at a regional level to determine whether marketing data could be used to analyse market potential at a finer level of granularity than was previously possible. The study relied on secondary data, collected from a number of freely available online databases covering ten African countries over a period of six-years. This was in line with the objectives of the study, which aim to provide market-seeking firms with an alternative tool for evaluating potential without making significant investments in upfront data gathering. Regression analysis was conducted to determine the nature of each of the relationships specified in the hypotheses, and the results were assessed to determine statistical significance and the strength of correlation. It was found that marketing data shows a strong, and statistically significant relationship with market potential. This exhibited greater correlation than either of the existing tools – as well as be applied at a regional level. This finding indicates the value of adding marketing data to the set of tools used for market evaluation, and demonstrates the value that exists within the marketing fraternity as a source of relevant and reliable data and strategic insight. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / pagibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Research into whether the medium-long term impact on shareholders’ value of acquiring companies engaged in cross-border merger and acquisition transactions (CBMA) into Sub-Saharan Africa. By focussing on companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (“JSE”) and testing the general hypothesis whether the shareholders of acquiring companies earn statistically significant positive or negative returns within the medium-long term after the announcement date of a cross-border merger and acquisition transaction. Out of a total of 10,167 merger and acquisition transactions over the eight-year period between 2000 and 2007, only 12 cross-border mergers and acquisitions into Sub-Saharan Africa satisfied all the selection criteria. By exhaustive application of the single-factor market model to calculate the regression formula using 4 years of historical share price performance data, the results suggested that statistically significant negative weighted average abnormal returns for shareholders are consistently present over the event window. The study on the medium-long term event window starting 21 days prior to the first public announce of the transactions and continued up to 252 trading days after the announcement date. Thus it satisfied common critique by researchers about the true value of short term event studies for companies and their shareholders. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study reflects an investigation into four elements that could affect global expansion strategies within the hotel industry. In both emerging and developed economies, the increased growth within the services sector has become more apparent. There is considerable knowledge and literature available on the process of internationalisation, globalisation and expansion within the services sector and as this information is important to understand the internationalisation process itself, the decision to expand (cross border) presents a number of opportunities and challenges to the hotel industry. Hotels are comprised of a number of divisions and departments, which collectively offer unique services and facilities to various markets. Within this context, careful consideration is required with respect to an organisation‟s overall strategic objectives, the internal structure and how government and cultural influences and differences affect global expansion. Organisational matters such as strategic objectives as well as operational functions such as financial, marketing and sales, human resources and organisational design must also be considered as hotels require synergy within each of these various components in order to function optimally. When international or globalisation opportunities present themselves or are proactively sought, organisations need to ensure that various factors are clearly understood, analysed and identified. These include the most appropriate strategy required, the organisations own internal capacity levels, governmental influences and cultural dynamics. An in-depth literature review regarding the internationalisation process was conducted where-after a review was compiled and interviews set up with directors of hotel groups who are responsible for global expansion within their respective organisations. The sample included three local South African and two international hotel groups who either were contemplating or who had already expanded internationally. It is evident that hotel companies have a preference to non-equity based expansion either through management contracts or joint ventures. In addition, expansion into emerging markets required a different approach to that of developed markets and a unique understanding of the government and cultural influences of the host country was required.

This thesis comprises three essays on international business strategy with regards to services and technology. The first essay investigates why the average expense ratio paid by Canadian mutual fund investors is 50% higher than that paid in U.S. This discrepancy is commonly thought to exist because Canadian funds do not take advantage of economies of scale and have less competition. A monopolistic competition framework is used to develop a model for the mutual fund industry. By allowing each fund to have different attributes, the model permits funds to charge different expense ratios in equilibrium and is found to strongly fit the North American mutual fund market. Empirical analysis indicates that these two common explanations and measurable fund attributes account for 15% of the discrepancy. The second essay analyses the U.S. mutual fund decision to enter the Canadian market through either foreign direct investment (FDI) or trade in advisement services. The total value of U.S.-controlled funds amounts to 18% of the Canadian equity fund market. This paper investigates how the fund-level and firm-level characteristics affect the channel used to enter the Canadian market. Empirical results indicate that the funds offered through FDI are not especially successful in the U.S. market but are associated with companies with large market shares, whereas the funds offered through trade in advisement services are highly successful in the U.S. market and are from companies with relatively few successful funds. The third essay compares the motivation for acquisition between foreign and domestic acquirers of U.S. drug companies, especially with regard to technology transfer. An estimation of the acquisition decision reveals that foreign acquirers choose targets with high research intensity more as their own intensity decreases while domestic acquirers choose targets with high research intensity more as their own intensity increases. Domestic acquirers' post-acquisition innovative productivity increases mostly due to efficiency of knowledge synthesis because the targets are usually have familiar product lines. Foreign acquirers' innovative productivity does not increase after acquisition because they tend to take over firms in unfamiliar research areas that are usually highly technical and require a long-term commitment of R&D. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

As we all know, economic globalization and internationalization have sparked off countless studies and arguments in the past years. Some of the conventional theories about the internationalization of firms, however, are repeatedly challenged when they are applied to the less developed countries. The internationalization of firms from less developed countries has been a topic of growing interest in the international business and economics literature. In our study, we consider the influence of institutions from both the host and home country on entry modes of Chinese firms expanding overseas. Based on a sample of 314 China’s MNCs, the results support our hypotheses that both home and host institutions have significant effects on entry modes. Meanwhile, there are significant interactions between institutional quality of the host country and the government support of the home country and ownership type. At last, we find that both home and host institutional factors also affect the entry mode for a certain investment type, especially for the R&D investment. These findings have meaningful implications for understanding the internationalization behaviors of Chinese firms and the effect of dual institutional factors in studying the foreign entry modes of MNCs.