This study explores the development of a Western firm's subsidiary in the Ukraine and sets out to contribute to the theoretical development about the managing of subsidiaries in the Post-Soviet market. The cross-institutional approach to analyse the subsidiary has been adopted to explore influence from the institutional setting of the parent firm and from local institutions. In the theoretical framework, special attention is directed to studies analysing the challenges that Western firms encounter when operating in the Post-Soviet market. Institutional theory therefore serves as a framework for theories on market entries, networks and management transfers.The empirical study is based on a case study conducted in connection to a training project for local employees of a Western firm's subsidiary operating in the Ukraine. Besides being a source of inspiration, the training project provided good access to respondents and insights about the challenges that the subsidiary faced.The analysis shows that the introduction of the Western firm's management in the subsidiary reflects in the local employees' forming of identities. A clear pattern is that local employees' development of identities in line with the Western firm's norms is supported by socialisation in settings dominated by the Western firm. A setting dominated by conflicts between Western and local norms, in contrast, resulted in developments of conflict identities. The analysis of the subsidiary's managing of influences from the local institutional setting indicates that this concerned filtering. Striking was that the subsidiary was successful in managing influences when the filtering conditions were characterised by consonance. Looking into aspects making the filtering of external influences difficult, the analysis points out barter trade and local actors' boundary spanning towards authorities in the Ukrainian society as aspects creating dissonances and vacuum. Thus, influences characterised by dissonance and/or vacuum made it particularly difficult for the subsidiary to manage these influences.One of the major contributions of this thesis is the cross-institutional approach to analyse developments in a subsidiary in the Post-Soviet market. By applying this approach the study suggests that the managing of a cross-institutional setting concerns both internal and external boundary spanning. Of vital importance for the internal boundary spanning are issues influencing local employees' forming of a 'we' with the Western firm's representatives. The standpoint is that this concerns local employees' identity identification, which is a new perspective on management transfers towards a subsidiary in the Post-Soviet market. Concerning the managing of external boundary spanning, the study points towards the importance of observing local actors' ways of dealing with dissonances and vacuum in local networks. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis investigates Swedish trade promotion in Lebanon from 1920 to 1975. The aim is to increase knowledge about how actors in a small open western economy tried to develop their economic interests in an emerging market characterized by great uncertainty. Here, the promising economic outlook coincided with a high degree of political instability. The study analyzes the interactions between Swedish trade related authorities, organizations and companies in their efforts to develop Swedish business interests in Lebanon: a developing country in a conflict-affected area with potentially large and emerging markets, where the cultural distance to Sweden was significant. In this study a model, which is known as the Uppsala model, forms an analytical interpretative framework for studying the actions and strategies of the trade related authorities and organizations despite the model's specific perspective on the establishment process of firms abroad. Based on the taxonomy, which is the basis of this interpretative model, this interpretative framwork has been possible to apply because of the assumed interactions between trade related authorities/organizations and companies when establishing commercial presence in new markets. The assumption is that the trade related authorities and organizations enhance for companies in various ways, while there is an economic-political interest that the state strives to reach by encouraging companies to set up business in new markets. By using this model, the events have been systematized through a historical generalization and periodization of Swedish trade promotion and organization. Added with the type of knowledge development that has taken place. In this way, the role of authorities and organizations in trade promotion and organizational build-up abroad has been highlighted. The results show that Swedish trade promotion attempts and organization in Lebanon took place in close cooperation with Swedish trade related authorities and organizations through their information inflows. In practice the companies' needs for information and assistance were reflected in the work that has been exercised by the authorities and organizations. By playing an important role in information building, escalating network positions and at the same time providing the companies with specific information, the trade related authorities and organizations became key actors in the development of Swedish trade relations with Lebanon. The study concludes that new perspectives can be obtained by including trade related authorities and organizations when using the Uppsala model in future studies. / Denna avhandling studerar svenska handelsfrämjande åtgärder i Libanon 1920-1975. Syftet är att öka kunskapen om hur aktörer i en liten öppen västekonomi försökte utveckla sina ekonomiska intressen på en ny framväxande marknad präglad av stor osäkerhet, där lovande ekonomiska utsikter sammanföll med en hög grad av politisk instabilitet. I studien analyseras samspelet mellan svenska handelsrelaterade myndigheter, organisationer och företag i deras strävan att utveckla svenska handels- och affärsintressen i Libanon: ett land som betraktas här som ett utvecklingsland i ett konfliktdrabbat område med potentiellt stora och nya marknader med ett betydande kulturellt avstånd till Sverige. I studien utgör den så kallade Uppsalamodellen den analytiska tolkningsramen för att studera myndigheternas och intresseorganisationernas agerande och strategier, trots att modellens perspektiv bygger på företagens utlandsetablering. Med utgångspunkt i den taxonomi som är grunden i modellen har denna tolkningsram varit möjlig på grund av det samspel som antas finnas mellan företag och myndigheter, särskilt när det gäller etablerandet av en affärsmässig närvaro på en ny och osäker marknad. Antaganden är att myndigheterna på olika sätt underlättar för företagen, samtidigt som det finns ett statligt ekonomisk-politiskt intresse att få företag att etablera sig på nya marknader. Med hjälp av modellen har händelseförloppen systematiserats genom en historisk generalisering och periodisering av svenska handelsfrämjande åtgärder med avseende på organisation och den typ av kunskapsuppbyggnad som skett. Därmed belyses också myndigheternas och organisationernas roll vid företagsetableringar i utlandet. Resultaten visar att företagsetableringsförsöken och organisationen av svensk handel i Libanon skedde i nära samarbete mellan svenska myndigheter och organisationer genom utbyte av information. I praktiken avspeglades företagens behov av information och hjälp i myndigheternas och organisationernas arbete. I och med att myndigheterna/organisationerna deltog i informationsuppbyggnaden, skapandet av nätverkspositioner och samtidigt förmedlade information mellan företagen var dessa betingade som centrala aktörer vid etableringen av svenska handelsförbindelser med Libanon. Studiens slutsats är att nya perspektiv gällande företagsetableringar på utländska marknader kan erhållas genom att inkludera myndigheters och organisationers agerande vid tillämpningen av Uppsala modellen i framtida studier.