Diplomová práce se zabývá návrhem marketingové strategie slovenské společnosti Shirt Up, s.r.o. pro vstup na český trh. Společnost je malým producentem triček s potiskem a v současné době má zastoupení výhradně na Slovensku. Cílem této práce je připravit možnou marketingovou strategii pro vstup na český trh, která bude vycházet z teoretických základů a analýzy současné situace.

As firms intend on entering low-income markets as a result of stagnation in developed economies, they face numerous organisational barriers within their firms and external that hinder entry and ensure continued success in these markets. In order to successfully serve these BoP consumers in emerging markets, new innovative business models are required; however there are entities that are currently serving the BoP successfully – these are Small and Medium Enterprises.The purpose of this study was to deepen our understanding of why small and medium sized businesses have been successful in low-income markets through an understanding of their business models and their competitive advantages over MNCs.The objective of this report, hence, was to explore the business models for firms that are currently serving the BoP successfully and what their competitive advantages are as compared to their MNC counterparts within the South African context. Using the grounded theory approach of building theory from data that offers a new perspective on the BoP for MNCs a framework resulted and was theorized from the data from interviews with owners of SMEs in the FMCG manufacturing domain. The BoP Blueprint is a framework that describes elements of business models of SMEs in the context of SME Fundamentals – basic business fundamentals and the Customer Core – focus on the customer. Eleven in-depth interviews were conducted with owners from 11 different companies to test the research questions that were derived from the literature.As a result of the grounded theory, no unique or innovative business models were discovered that made these SMEs successful contrary to the literature and the essence of the findings is that MNCs need to focus on fundamental business practises with the customer as the centre of their decisions when entering BoP markets. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Entering a new market is one of the most important strategic decisions a company makes, and being an external player can make it possible to reveal opportunities not apparent to the industry players. The key is to not take industry structures for granted, but to think outside the box when formulating the entering strategy. This study rests on the assumption that there are factors in industries that are more path dependent than others, hence they are rigid and difficult to change. These factors could eventually prevent the industry from evolving even though new technology and processes are available. By first identifying factors strongly governed by path dependency and then delving deeper to understand the reason why they have not changed, this study argue that new business opportunities can evolve. The approach developed in this paper is particularly beneficial when the product or service is not yet developed and the company has many different resources, enabling a more diversified product portfolio, in which opportunities can be prioritized against the company resources. This enables matching a product or service to the industry rather than pushing it out on the market. In this report the path dependency approach is applied on the banana market, which has features governed by path dependency, and the entering company is a subsidiary to an established company and thereby has multiple resources as well as products and services. Since the subsidiary chose to proceed with the strategy formulated by using the path dependency approach the findings from the case study show that the approach can be useful when entering a new market. The report concludes that the concept of path dependency is ambiguous and subjective but could be useful when formulating an entry strategy into a new market. However, further research is needed to evaluate the application of the approach and the path dependency approach should primarily be seen as a complement to existing market entry strategies.

In business, acquisitioning is a tool that can be used to prosper growth. With all acquisitions comes a responsibility to fit the brand(s) into the existing organization. The purpose of this thesis has been to conduct a market research of the dehumidifier industry in Sweden and to develop a marketing plan for Telcho, a declining brand that recently was acquired by the Baffin Delker group. An explanatory case study was conducted and revealed that the Swedish market is attractive to enter. The entry should be focused on the construction segment and the products distributed foremost through rental companies. The aftermarket network should be expanded and outsourced to repair shops throughout the country. The goal for the future will be to meet the two core needs of the customers which is product quality and minimum downtime. If managed properly this time, Telcho has all the potential to increase its market share and be a strong player on the market again.

Increased competition by new market entries has long been studied with defensive marketing strategies (DMS) being identified as one of the ways of combating a new competitor. There is limited research concerning the Swedish eCommerce business landscape and its competitive environment and adding the fact that Amazon, in late 2020, launched in Sweden this study aims to outline what DMS Swedish eCommerce businesses have implemented as a result of Amazon’s entry. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were held with respondents in key positions of firms, where the individual either was working with or consulting eCommerce businesses. The findings suggested that, in its generality, that no new DMS has been implemented as a result of the market entry. Amazon is expressed to have a weak position and lack in several aspects compared to Swedish eCommerce. The biggest fear lies in Amazon’s future with many potential “strong cards” left to play in their sleeve. However, the entry of Amazon increased the focus of some areas, as they were seen to become more important for survival and competing.

Entrepreneurship is the key to a functioning society and global economy. To be entrepreneurial means not only to see and discover opportunities, but also to develop and refine these opportunities. There is evidence saying that entrepreneurship is not equal for men and women. Sweden is considered a strong and stable country with values that promote gender equality, but even in this country there are societal structures and phenomena that sometimes hinders female entrepreneurs from reaching the same success as male entrepreneurs. The aim of this thesis is therefore to explore Swedish female entrepreneurs and the challenges they face when conducting international business. Furthermore the thesis will try to explore what challenges they face in foreign market entry due to their gender as well as try to provide future female entrepreneurs with information on how to avoid or handle the challenges they might face due to their gender. There is a gap in literature regarding this subject.  The reviewed literature presents the international business environment and internationalization as well as entrepreneurship and the opportunities thereof. It also presents the occurrence of gender inequality in business. The conceptual framework is to illustrate how all parts are connected to the subject and to each other like a circular cycle. To ensure thorough research a qualitative method with an abductive approach is used. Both primary and secondary data have been used. The empirical data was collected through interviews with five Swedish international female entrepreneurs from different industries. The analysis was made by cross examination of the empirical data and the literature. Female entrepreneurs face challenges in international business but can often choose to use it as an advantage. There are social structures that need to change for the business environment to become more equal both in Sweden and internationally.

All countries have their own national culture, with their own norms, beliefs, attitudes, and values. Every organisation in the world also has their own organisational culture, just like any other social group. Because of the increased globalization throughout the world, more companies are becoming multinational corporations. This means that they go through a market entry process when they enter a foreign market. This can lead to their already established organisational culture being affected by the national culture in the foreign country. The effect of national culture on organisations is a well-researched area. However, the research on how the organisational culture is affected by national culture as an organisation goes through international market entry leaves much to be discovered.  The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how, and if the organisational culture of Swedish organisations is affected by national culture when they establish themselves on the United States market. It was also investigated how Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture can aid in the explanation of the potential organisational culture change, and if the index scores of the five dimensions for Sweden and the United States correspond to the differences later indicated by our research. The effect of leadership and market entry strategy on the organisational culture was also investigated. The qualitative data collection in this thesis comes from semi-structured interviews with companies who help Swedish companies in their market entry process, managers of Swedish companies who have established themselves on the United States market, and one human resource manager within a Swedish company which has moved to the United States. This data lays the basis for the results of this study, and we identify themes relevant to the purpose and research question of this study.  The conclusion of this thesis shows that the organisational culture of all the companies we have interviewed has been influenced by national culture to some extent. The factors which are identified to have had the largest impact on the organisational culture of these companies are market entry strategy, leadership, and the newly found themes; culture-carriers and laws and legislation. It is also concluded how Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions within organisational culture are affected by the national culture.  In the conclusion of this thesis, the importance of the cultural knowledge and awareness of the factors which influence organisational culture possessed by managers is emphasised. Practical and theoretical implications are also provided both for organisations and future research.

Il s’avère difficile d’expliquer pourquoi certains individus décident de devenir entrepreneurs malgré le risque encouru. Dans cette thèse, j’analyse les effets de plusieurs mécanismes comportementaux sur la décision d’entrée en entrepreneuriat. Le premier essai propose de séparer les effets sur la décision d’entrer sur un marché de deux mécanismes comportementaux qui ont parfois pu être confondus : la confiance en soi et l’attitude envers l’ambiguïté. Cet essai met en avant le rôle fondamental de l’attitude envers l’ambiguïté dans la décision d’entrer sur un marché, en particulier quand les résultats de l’entrée dépendent directement des compétences du décideur, comme dans le cas de l’entrepreneuriat. La nature même de l’entrepreneuriat est d’investir du capital et du temps dans le but d’obtenir des bénéfices financiers dans le futur. Comprendre les préférences temporelles pour le temps et l’argent des entrepreneurs peut permettre d’améliorer notre compréhension des facteurs déterminants de l’entrée en entrepreneuriat. Alors que de nombreuses études analysent le choix inter-temporel pour l’argent, très peu d’études se sont intéressées à comment les individus escomptent leur futur temps, malgré le fait que le temps soit une ressource limitée et de valeur. Le deuxième essai examine cette question dans une expérience en laboratoire avec incitations réelles. A l’aide d’une expérience en ligne, le troisième essai analyse les préférences temporelles pour le temps et l’argent d’un échantillon de futurs entrepreneurs et de futurs managers. / Explaining why individuals enter into entrepreneurship has been challenging. In this thesis, I take a behavioral perspective and analyze the effects on entrepreneurial entry of behavioral mechanisms that have been understudied in the entrepreneurship literature. The first essay proposes to disentangle the effects on market entry of two mechanisms that may have been confounded: overconfidence and attitude toward ambiguity. This essay highlights the critical role of ambiguity attitude on the decision to enter a market, particularly when the result depends on one’s skills, such as entry into entrepreneurship. The very nature of entrepreneurship is to invest capital and time with the hope of receiving future financial benefits. I therefore argue that understanding entrepreneurs’ temporal preferences for time and money can provide new insights on the determinants of entry into entrepreneurship. While intertemporal choice involving money has been studied extensively in the behavioral literature, very few studies have analyzed the way people discount time, despite the fact that it is a scarce and valuable resource. The second essay investigates this issue in a laboratory experiment. Finally, using a lab-in-the-field experiment, the third essay analyzes temporal preferences for money and time of a comparable sample of future entrepreneurs and future managers.

The global market place is becoming ever more accessible. Internet and communication technologies are opening up new opportunities for firms of all configurations. Based on that, this research will focus on Born Global business-to-business (B2B small, medium enterprises (SME) entering in the German market. The aim is to answer the following two research questions: ‘What does a Born Global B2B SME’s internationalization process look like?’ and ‘Which adaptations should a Born Global B2B SME make to acquire customers in the German market?’ A review of internationalization literature, complemented by company participation and interviews furthers the body of academic research in this subject area. Qualitative research is applied through a company case study and primary interviews are conducted. A case study is employed to further understand and practically apply adaptations a firm can make to increase its chance of success in a foreign market environment, once internationalizing. The conclusions drawn that a Born Global B2B SME entering a foreign market should make adaptations in its online presence to cater to the new market. Specifically, language adaptations are required to the native tongue. This research concludes with both practical and theoretical suggestions. The key findings from the interviews show that the Born Global B2B SME’s studied have taken an ‘accidental’ internationalization process.

With a research question “How could Western companies enter the Japanese market when they promote sustainability valued products/services”, this research examined how people in Japan have awareness towards sustainability. To think about how specific marketing execution could be done to promote a product or service, a part of this project took place in Japan to capture the media landscape and current trends. Overall, consumers in Japan do not take sustainability as a top priority when they make decisions, but because of SDGs goal encouragement from the government, people’s awareness or actions have been changing gradually. Under this circumstance, the media landscape is also changing in Japan: the investment on digital channels has been increasing and it has become larger than traditional media since 2021. Observing these facts, scenario planning technique is used to forecast what type of scenario the Japan market will have, and what type of marketing execution would work with what segments to target. The scenario planning classified 4 scenarios based on 2 elements: “Fast/Slow in understanding of sustainability” and “Business first/Work-life balance first idea”. The project took an example from Greater Than’s FIA SDC app helps one to understand their driving performance and its risk, as well as CO2 reduction. / Med en forskningsfråga "Hur kunde västerländska företag komma in på den japanska marknaden när de främjar hållbarhetsvärderade produkter/tjänster", undersökte denna studie människor i Japans medvetenhet kring hållbarhet. För att undersöka hur specifika marknadsinsatser bör utföras, ägde en del av detta projekt rum för att förstå medielandskapet i Japan och nuvarande trender. Sammantaget tar konsumenter i Japan inte hållbarhet som en högsta prioritet när de fattar beslut, men på grund av SDG:s mål som stöttas av regeringen har människors medvetenhet eller handlingar gradvis förändrats. Under dessa omständigheter förändras medielandskapet också i Japan: investeringarna på digitala kanaler har ökat och de har blivit större än traditionella medier sedan 2021. Med hänsyn till dessa fakta används scenarioplaneringsteknik för att förutsäga vilken typ av scenario den japanska marknaden kommer att ha, och vilken typ av marknadsinsatser som skulle fungera med vilka segment som ska inriktas på. Den klassificerade fyra scenarier baserade på två element: "Snabb/långsam förståelse av hållbarhet" och "Business first/Work-life balance first idea". Projektet tog ett exempel från Greater Thans FIA SDC-app, som hjälper dig att förstå din kvalitet av körning och dess risk, såväl som CO2-minskning, för att tänka på inriktning och mediekanaler att välja i scenarioplaneringen.