<p>Business has changed and developed fast and drastically through internationalization, which has drawn many scholars’ attentions. The dissertation will focus on the firm-specific advantages (FSAs) which allow firms to go to the international markets.</p><p>The theoretical framework of this dissertation contains four proxies of the firm’s specific advantages, including entrepreneur, market knowledge, network, and technology. In this dissertation, this framework will guide us to collect and analyze the empirical data.</p><p>The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case study, we choose two sample companies, both from Halmstad. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured personal interviews. Data was also supplemented with secondary data, such as web pages and scientific articles.</p><p>The finding of this dissertation is that market knowledge and experience is a crucial, firm-specific advantage, which facilitates firm’s international expansion. In addition, the entrepreneur and network variables also have an impact on the internationalization process in direct or indirect ways. However, the study does not find obvious evidence that technology does help firms go to the foreign markets a lot.</p>

<p>Business has changed and developed fast and drastically through internationalization, which has drawn many scholars’ attentions. The dissertation will focus on the firm-specific advantages (FSAs) which allow firms to go to the international markets.</p><p>The theoretical framework of this dissertation contains four proxies of the firm’s specific advantages, including entrepreneur, market knowledge, network, and technology. In this dissertation, this framework will guide us to collect and analyze the empirical data.</p><p>The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case study, we choose two sample companies, both from Halmstad. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured personal interviews. Data was also supplemented with secondary data, such as web pages and scientific articles.</p><p>The finding of this dissertation is that market knowledge and experience is a crucial, firm-specific advantage, which facilitates firm’s international expansion. In addition, the entrepreneur and network variables also have an impact on the internationalization process in direct or indirect ways. However, the study does not find obvious evidence that technology does help firms go to the foreign markets a lot.</p>

Business has changed and developed fast and drastically through internationalization, which has drawn many scholars’ attentions. The dissertation will focus on the firm-specific advantages (FSAs) which allow firms to go to the international markets. The theoretical framework of this dissertation contains four proxies of the firm’s specific advantages, including entrepreneur, market knowledge, network, and technology. In this dissertation, this framework will guide us to collect and analyze the empirical data. The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case study, we choose two sample companies, both from Halmstad. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured personal interviews. Data was also supplemented with secondary data, such as web pages and scientific articles. The finding of this dissertation is that market knowledge and experience is a crucial, firm-specific advantage, which facilitates firm’s international expansion. In addition, the entrepreneur and network variables also have an impact on the internationalization process in direct or indirect ways. However, the study does not find obvious evidence that technology does help firms go to the foreign markets a lot.

Business has changed and developed fast and drastically through internationalization, which has drawn many scholars’ attentions. The dissertation will focus on the firm-specific advantages (FSAs) which allow firms to go to the international markets. The theoretical framework of this dissertation contains four proxies of the firm’s specific advantages, including entrepreneur, market knowledge, network, and technology. In this dissertation, this framework will guide us to collect and analyze the empirical data. The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case study, we choose two sample companies, both from Halmstad. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured personal interviews. Data was also supplemented with secondary data, such as web pages and scientific articles. The finding of this dissertation is that market knowledge and experience is a crucial, firm-specific advantage, which facilitates firm’s international expansion. In addition, the entrepreneur and network variables also have an impact on the internationalization process in direct or indirect ways. However, the study does not find obvious evidence that technology does help firms go to the foreign markets a lot.

Internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been a considerable concern for international business (IB) scholars. Particularly, for those economies such as Sweden with small local markets, internationalization of SMEs could be fundamental. The firm-specific advantages (FSAs), including what the firm has and does, are crucial for SMEs to overcome in the face of their numerous different obstacles such as liability of smallness (LOS) and liability of foreignness (LOF). Examining the extant literature on the evolution of IB theories indicates that over time, IB scholars have been reaching to dynamic-based FSAs (what the firm does) as the source of developing and protecting sustainable competitive advantages (SCA) across national borders in a changing business environment. The nature of dynamic-based FSAs could be similar to dynamic capabilities. But, when it comes to determining specific component factors  of dynamic-based  FSAs  (as dynamic  capabilities),  there has been little agreement between IB researchers. In other words, the room of the dynamic capabilities is still dark. In this respect, shedding light into this room, particularly in the area of IB studies, is crucial. In addition, after determining the component factors of the dynamic-based FSAs, it is also critical to know the likely relationships between the identified component factors as well as their impact on the SMEs’ international performance (IP) as an important outcome of the internationalization. This means that there is a potential theoretical gap associated with the conceptualization of the component factors of the dynamic-based FSAs on one hand, and a potential empirical gap on the other. Given both theoretical and empirical research gaps, the purpose of this study is to examine, from a theoretical perspective, the nature of the dynamic-based FSA and its related component factors in the IB context, as well as empirically explore how SMEs’ IP is influenced by the identified component factors of the dynamic-based FSAs. To perform this study, first of all, based on lenses of the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability view (DCV), the literature on organizational capability in the context of the IB studies was systematically reviewed to fill the theoretical gap. Consequently, three component factors of dynamic-based FSAs including networking capability (NC) as a relational-based FSA, innovative capability (IC) as an innovative-based FSA and absorptive capacity (ACAP) as a learning-based FSA were identified, all of which are pluripotent and dynamic in nature. Then, a deductive approach was followed to develop several hypotheses and the associated conceptual model. Furthermore, a survey strategy, collecting data from 330 Swedish internationalized manufacturing SMEs, was applied to accomplish the purpose of the study. Then, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) as a quantitative method was used to analyze the collected data. The results of the PLS-SEM analysis show that the SMEs’ international performance (IP) is positively influenced by the three identified component factors, whether directly or indirectly. In this regard, ACAP and NC are the two reliable predictors (directly) of the SMEs’ IP. The results indicate that innovative capability (IC) does not have direct impact on the SMEs’ IP, and that its effect is fully transmitted on IP only by the mediating effect of the networking capability (NC). Further analysis showed that ACAP, as an endogenous latent variable, additionally has a positive indirect association with SMEs’ international performance (IP). Moreover, the results also indicate that innovative capability is directly and positively affected by ACAP (innovating-by-learning effect). It was also empirically revealed that ACAP is a very strong predictor for networking capability, which is labeled as the networking-by-learning effect. Another major finding was that in internationalized SMEs, NC is strongly, directly and positively affected by IC; this effect also is termed as the networking-by-innovating effect. The overall picture resulting from the PLS- SEM analysis indicates that ACAP in internationalized SMEs is a wellspring to develop both innovative capability and networking capability, as well as influence SMEs’ IP. Furthermore, these results suggest that the networking capability is a vital gateway to transmit the effect of the other two component factors on IP and, at the same time, directly influence IP.

Submitted by Robson Campos (rcampos@uol.com.br) on 2016-02-22T12:19:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Master's Thesis_CIM2_RobsonCampos_Final Version_uploaded281215.pdf: 956324 bytes, checksum: efa8185ebe5e8bc92dbd2d369654082e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2016-02-25T14:14:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Master's Thesis_CIM2_RobsonCampos_Final Version_uploaded281215.pdf: 956324 bytes, checksum: efa8185ebe5e8bc92dbd2d369654082e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2016-02-29T12:18:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Master's Thesis_CIM2_RobsonCampos_Final Version_uploaded281215.pdf: 956324 bytes, checksum: efa8185ebe5e8bc92dbd2d369654082e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-29T12:19:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Master's Thesis_CIM2_RobsonCampos_Final Version_uploaded281215.pdf: 956324 bytes, checksum: efa8185ebe5e8bc92dbd2d369654082e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-28 / One of the challenges presented by the current conjecture in Global Companies is to recognize and understand that the culture and levels in structure of the Power Distance in Organizations in different countries contribute, significantly, toward the failure or success of their strategies. The alignment between the implementation and execution of new strategies for projects intended for the success of the Organization as a whole, rather than as an individual part thereof, is an important step towards reducing the impacts of Power Distance (PDI) on the success of business strategies. A position at odds with this understanding by Companies creates boundaries that increase organizational chasms, also taking into consideration relevant aspects such as, FSAs (Firm-Specific Advantages) and CSAs (Country-Specific Advantages). It is also important that the Organizations based in countries or regions of low Power Distance (PDI) between its individuals be more flexible and prepared to ask and to hear the suggestions from Regional and Local Offices. Thus, the purpose of this study is to highlight the elements of effective strategy implementation considering the relevant aspects at all levels of global corporate culture that justify the influences of power distance when implementing new strategies and also to minimize the impacts of this internal business relationship. This study also recognizes that other corporate and cultural aspects are relevant for the success of business strategies so consider, for instance, the lack of alignment between global and regional/local organizations, the need for competent leadership resources, as well as the challenges that indicate the distance between the hierarchical levels ─ Headquarters and Regional Office ─ as some of the various causes that prevent the successful execution of global strategies. Finally, we show that the execution of the strategy cannot be treated as a construction solely created by the Headquarters or by only one Board and that it needs to be understood as a system aimed at interacting with the surroundings.