In this study l investigate the Singaporean characteristics of broadcast media internationalisation. I ask the question &quote Does Internationalisation lead to homogenisation and commercialisation of the television culture in Singapore or does it give way to more diversity, thus stimulating cultural differentiation?&quote . I articulate the constraints and/or tensions of supranational regulation, foreign policy, regional and intraregional alliances upon communication and the cultural and social effects as they impact on and respond to production, programming, scheduling and output in Singapore. I explain how Singaporean Television media culture takes part in the processes of globalisation, and how it challenges existing cultures and creates new and alternative symbolic and cultural communities, within the context of regional communication. In this thesis 1 conclude that whilst Singapore definitely does not have equity in information, wealth or resource flows it is attempting to liberalise. To do so, the government recognises that serious inadequacies and imbalances must be addressed and that the path to greater political and economic growth is through an actively informed public. Despite regulatory restrictions on data flow and technical and service ownership, Singapore is encouraging regional alliances, depoliticising cultural differences and concentrating on economic imperatives to build mutual knowledge and understanding, multilateral agreements, collective ownership, mutual exchange and cooperative dissemination.

Depuis les années 1990, à l'instar des autres capitales méditerranéennes, Tunis s'oriente vers une programmation plus stratégique de son développement, dont le projet urbain est la clef de voûte. Parmi les aménagements urbains les plus visibles de ces dernières années, l'urbanisation de la lagune constitue le chantier le plus important du Monde Arabe : 2 600 ha de réserves foncières, situées en coeur de capitale et en majorité gagnées sur le plan d'eau, sont en cours de lotissement, et ce, jusqu'en 2040-2050 pour les dernières tranches opérationnelles ! <br />De façon à réactualiser et à compléter un certain nombre d'analyses publiées sur Tunis au cours des années 1980, la thèse de Pierre-Arnaud Barthel brosse à grands traits les dynamiques urbaines actuelles de cette métropole émergente marquée par une franche accélération de la fabrication de la ville légale et illégale, mais aussi par une recomposition des modes d'action de l'État liée à l'implication croissante des acteurs privés et internationaux. <br />Ce travail s'adresse à un public intéressé par les questions urbaines et d'aménagement pour lequel des clés de compréhension des enjeux actuels dans le Grand Tunis sont proposées. Il constituera une ouverture sur un contexte métropolitain d'une capitale du Sud. En proposant une analyse fouillée de la mise en projet de la lagune qui est emblématique de nouveaux modes de faire la ville, ce mémoire fournit également l'occasion de contribuer à la thématique du " waterfront development " très bien connue dans la littérature existante au sujet des ports maritimes et villes fluviales des pays riches, mais relativement méconnue pour les fronts d'eau sud-méditerranéens.

Cette thèse explore l'influence de l'internationalisation de l'enseignement supérieur européen dans la construction d'une Université «contingente ». En partant de l'analyse de Richard Bagnall – qui identifie une «tendance des universités à mieux répondre aux exigences et aux attentes immédiates de ceux qu'elles servent, à mieux répondre aux préférences expresses de leurs marchés respectifs, à mieux répondre au désir collectif et individuel, à dépendre plus directement des contextes culturels dans lesquels elles s'insèrent», cette étude essaie de présenter une approche critique du rôle de l'internationalisation en tant que moteur et conséquence de cette situation de dépendance quelque peu nouvelle que semble vivre l'Université actuellement. Le cadre de Bagnall est élargi pour inclure l'examen de Bill Reading qui constate l'université en ruines (University in Ruins ) et la possibilité de développer une « nouvelle idée » de l'Université par le biais d'une approche «éthique » différente de l'internationalisation de l'enseignement supérieur. La recherche analyse les différentes définitions de l'internationalisation dans le contexte de l'enseignement supérieur. De plus, à travers le rapport de l'enquête menée en 2005 par l'AIU (2005 IAU Global Survey ), elle essaie de comprendre les différentes motivations (raisons d'être) présentées par les établissements d'enseignement supérieur (EES) pour développer des politiques/stratégies internationales. Ces différentes approches de l'internationalisation sont considérées dans le contexte de la mondialisation et de l'européanisation en ce qui concerne les politiques d'enseignement supérieur.

<p>Background: During the past years the increasing internationalisation has not only affected companies but also universities. This development is due to the Bologna Declaration which prescribes a harmonisation of the higher education in Europe. The declaration implies a tougher competition, but also a higher degree of co-operation among European universities. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how LiU can make use of thenetwork approach in the process of internationalisation, in order to cope with the changes that the Bologna Declaration implies. </p><p>Realisation: We have carried out a total amount of 17 interviews. To complement these interviews, secondary data about the Bologna Process and LiU have been extracted from the internet and other information material. </p><p>Results: LiU should take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Bologna Process in order to further internationalise. The most favourable way of networking for LiU would be to be a part of relatively small and complementary networks. The promotion and facilitation of the communication between partners, but also within the university, is crucial. Use, and constantly develop, the competitive advantages in order to seek possible network partners and to attract students, teachers and researchers.</p>

<p>Do the corporate cultures have to integrate in an international merger? In March 1999, the two large Nordic IT companies, Tieto of Finland and Enator of Sweden, announced their intentions to combine their businesses. The new entity was to have over 10,000 employees and net sales of more than 1 billion Euro. TietoEnator (TE) was to become one of the leading suppliers of IT services on the European market. The combination was announced as a Merger of Equals – the merging companies being of about the same size, and operating mainly in their respective home markets, thus avoiding competition with each other. The authors´ interest to this case has emerged from the fact that company fusions generally, and international mergers of equal partners in particular, are considered as high- risk projects. </p><p>The issues discussed in this paper are expected cultural differences between Finland and Sweden, and between Tieto and Enator; differences in management style and market structure and buyer behaviour between the two companies, and differences in the industry environments and business climates of Finland and Sweden. </p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the TietoEnator´s merger process from two perspectives: the cultural perspective and the strategy perspective. The main objective is to exemplify some theories in organizational and strategic research by connecting the theories to the significant events of the TietoEnator merger case. Five executive employees of TietoEnator in Sweden give their personal view on the merger and the development of the company. The strategic (vision, mission, and strategy objectives) statements of the company before, during, and after the merger are compared and analyzed. </p><p>Conclusions: the cultural distance should not only be considered as a negative issue. The paradox of cultural proximity, where two neighbouring cultures show significant cultural differences, is according to our findings not expected to lead to serious problems if handled in a constructive manner. Selective integration and leveraging the positive tensions between the different cultures is the key to success in internationalisation through merger.</p>

<p>The organisational forms of companies have undergone a transformation from a hierarchal structure towards a network based form. The network form has proven to be the best structure for the current competitive environment. With technological advancements in almost every area it has become almost impossible to produce everything “in-house” and still stay competitive. This has caused an increase in the degree of outsourcing parts of the value chain to suppliers. Therefore, the competition has now moved from between companies to between entire value chains. For a manufacturing company, with a large part of the value chain outsourced to suppliers the task of setting up production in a new market brings forth new questions such as: is it possible to move an entire value chain to a new country? The purpose of this thesis is to explore what factors influence the construction of a strategic network of suppliers of a manufacturing company when entering a new market. The purpose was divided into two research questions: How is the internationalisation process performed in a strategic network situation and what factors influence the construction of a supplier structure in a world based on networks? Three multinational companies with a large part of their value chain outsourced to suppliers were chosen for interviews: Ericsson, Scania and Volvo Truck Corporation.</p><p>The internationalisation process of a manufacturing company is conducted as follows: the first step is the decision to enter a new market followed by a rather quick set up of a production plant. In this initial phase of the establishment, everything or almost everything is imported which is possible due to a global network of suppliers. The last step depends on the strategic objective with the establishment, either importing will continue or a complete organisation will be established in the country. A complete organisation is in this aspect when the company makes large investments inthe market and starts constructing a supplier network, surrounding sales and marketing functions. Factors influencing the internationalising process are: degree of networking, the type and structure of the network surrounding the company; level of knowledge, the accumulated experience of operating in foreign markets; type of market, the characteristics of the market and degree of commitment i.e. will an entire organisation be built up or will importing suffice.</p>

<p>The retail sector is at the forefront of internationalisation activities. It is especially the case for German and French retailers that operate respectively 27,8% and 20,6% of non domestic outlets in Western Europe. Stating this, the grocery retailers have also drastically changed their orientation, from domestic to multinational players since two decades: a relatively new and important subject that needs to be taken into account. Within this frame, Casino and REWE Group are good examples of internationalisation since both have the same size internationally but do not operate in the same area and do not seem to have the same strategy regarding their global activities.</p><p>The aim of the research is to find outstanding characteristics in the internationalisation strategy of European grocery retailers, via the case of Casino and REWE Group. In order to illuminate this aim, Porter's (1980) ‘Structural Analysis of Industries’ is going to be used to the grocery retailing sector following a previous demonstration of Colla (2003) and other field-specific theories. After pointing out the similitude between the two companies in their domestic markets, several dimensions have been taken into account to analyse the differences when going international such as geographical spread, branding, channel selection, and ownership.</p><p>We have identified two different internationalisation strategies, through the case of these retailers. Thus, we have drawn a dichotomy in the European food retailing industry internationalisation strategy between what we named ‘umbrella organisation’ and ‘unifying organisation’. The latter is characterised by a unified branding strategy, operating few formats, looking for full control of its operation abroad via direct takeovers or organic growth, and looking for harmonisation of its operations abroad. On the opposite, an umbrella organisation operates numerous banners abroad. It is mostly looking for a multi-format offer, enters countries via overtime capital acquisition and gives more independence to its affiliates worldwide.</p>

<p>Historically the research of International Business and the internationalisation of companies have been concentrated to large, mature companies with extensive resources to deploy in new markets. Since the 90’s a big field of research has though been on so called born globals, or international new ventures. In this thesis I will take up where this research is today and I will deal with the issue of new entrepreneurial ventures that internationalise from a very early stage of their existence From the theory five factors are retracted; 1) The Entrepreneur; 2) Identified Opportunities; 3) Entry/ Establishing mode; 4) Deployed Resources and 5) Local Challenges and from this the theoretical model is created. The following empirical study is made on Swedish entrepreneurs that have established in China during the last decade and the model seeks to answer why and how the entrepreneur established in China. The model is constructed to be usable for research on entrepreneurs from any market entering any other market. This specific study on Swedish entrepreneur in China merely fills the function of illustrating the use of the model, as the sample is too small to generalize.</p>

The traditional theories developed by Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 1990) and other researchers ofinternationalisation have long been questioned because of the fast-changing environment and deregulations. In particular, for Born Global firms, namely a company that has achieved a foreign sales volume of at least 25% within three years of its inception and that seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sales of outputs in multiple countries (Andersson and Wictor, 2003, p. 254), itis a question of surviving by establishing in many markets in a short period of time.This thesis summarises five papers. Paper 1 showed that the CEO´s perception and the fast changing environment push small firms to internationalise and that younger CEOs have an important role in expanding the firm. This is often because of their experiences accumulated inthe organisation over time or because the entrepreneur has been exposed to the international arena and information technologies, which can explain why some small firms continue to expandtheir international activities.The conceptual framework in paper 2 comprises four factors that influence Born Global firms:entrepreneurs, networks, industry and globalisation. To succeed in establishing a global firm it isimportant to have certain resources, such as an entrepreneur with international experience and strong networks. A Born Global entrepreneur is distinguished by his interest and motivation todo business abroad and his vision for the future.Paper 3 focuses on the importance of Born Globals’ foreign market channel strategies. The decision to establish a new market is of great importance for the long-term survival of the company. In this comparative case study, four companies that display different foreign entrymodes are compared. We found that these companies had very different market channel strategies even though they internationalised rapidly.Paper 4 is a study of four companies that indicates that their CEOs are active and involved in making strategic decisions in all parts of a Born Global firm’s value chain activities. Decisions on localisation and outsourcing are influenced by the entrepreneur’s definition of his firm’s core competencies. However, factors outside the firm are also an influence: potential suppliers,outsourcing of manufacturing and potential partners in distribution, especially relating to the riseof new emerging markets (e.g. China). The importance of coordinating value chain activities also influences the localisation of different activities. Entrepreneurs aim to arrange value-creating networks to secure their core manufacturing processes and close relations with local suppliers when they outsource products. In such a case, the entrepreneur can be seen as an orchestrator ina virtual organisation. The ‘global factory’ concept can be adjusted to fit locally for a Born Global company and its environment. Paper 5 focuses on a Born Global company’s way to grow and is a longitudinal study of acompany over 17 years (1990–2007) and its development in the different stages in the growth/life-cycle curve. From inception, the vision is already strong to go global. During thea bove period, the founder, external CEO I and CEO II were interviewed to assess whatcharacterises the different stages of growth over time compared with the growth/life-cycle model of Smallbone and Wyer (2006). The company is still growing and very entrepreneurial. The leadership has changed from a deciding style to a more coaching way of leading. Themanagement and organisation have changed to be more professionalised and team-oriented over8time. Entrepreneurial teams have also become more and more important for transferring knowledge to individuals in the organisation.The traditional models of Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 1990) point out that learning at an organisational level is a main factor in international development over time. However, a way to speed up the development of Born Global firms is entrepreneurial background with long experience and different knowledge serving his vision for the company. Nevertheless, theknowledge transfer from the entrepreneur and his team to the organisation is important. Knight and Cavusgil (2004, p. 137) find that “Born Globals pose an important new challenge to traditional views on the internationalization of the firm”.Johanson and Vahlne (2003) study what happens in companies because of rapid changes in the environment. They suggest that the Uppsala model is still valid, but that the early stage of a firm’sinternationalisation is important to study. Organisational learning is carried out at an individual and an entrepreneurial level. Johanson and Vahlne (1977) focus on the importance of the people working in a market and their learning. In their latest published article by Schweizer et al. (2010,pp. 368–369), they argue that “it is the liability of outsidership rather than the liability offoreignness that gives rise to internationalization difficulties. Outsidership implies that the firm isnot a member of relevant networks. Internationalization can be seen then as taking steps tobecome an insider in relevant networks in focal foreign markets … In their last study it emphasizes the entrepreneurial facets of a firm’s internationalization process”. The above defined background of the entrepreneur, his entrepreneurial way of working and his experience from former jobs also means that he already has the networks necessary for international expansion.The entrepreneur and his team in a Born Global company must from the beginning have the capability and knowledge of the environment and market in a country to establish in the new market as well as the understanding of how to manage the company and organisation. If they do not have this knowledge, they must have a network from which to extract this information. The entrepreneur has to be strongly involved in building and sustaining relationships with both customers and suppliers. In the organisation, he also has to build a powerful culture with decentralisation and empowered employees. The leadership in these companies is charismatic,employees are empowered in their jobs and the teams are entrepreneurial. Employees are therefore also allowed to make their own decisions within certain limits. Networks are important to overcome “perceived barriers on cultural and regulatory issues, those associated with locating partners, plus other matters deemed important to specific management teams” (Crick, 2009, p. 466). Coviello and Cox (2006) find that a company’s network is aresource when it is working with acquisitions and important recruitments. For companies growing over many years such as the Rubber Company studied herein, networks change and the chairman’s networks can be of great importance when core individuals should be recruited as an important part of the company’s strategies.

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