The diploma thesis „Proposals for company improvement on the Slovak market“ is focused on company ABC, producing special feed intended for animals. Theoretical part deals with the importace of international trade, posibility for businesses how to enter into foreign markets as well as theory analysis of internal and external business environment. Second part of the thesis analyses these environment from the practical point of view. Third part consists of suggestions how to improve ABC company´s business model on the Slovak market.

Since 1989 Austria's investment activities in Central and Eastern Europe has intensified. Investments are concentrated in adjacent countries. Geographical proximity and close historical and cultural ties have enabled even small and medium-sized Austrian enterprises to achieve a 'first mover advantage'. Investments have been performed to a large extent in industries that are typically not connected with outsourcing activities (trade, finance and insurance, construction). Market-driven factors and strategic considerations are the ultimate objective of these investments. Only a few sectors, in particular a so-called 'core' industrial sector (metal products, mechanical products, electrical and electronic equipment), indicate that low labour costs are of importance. Trade and sales data of the affiliates support the dominance of the local market. Whilst on average 66% of the affiliates output was sold locally this share was only 39% for the "core" industrial sector. This sector indicates particular patterns of relocation. Nevertheless, until now this part of Austria's FDI has only been of minor importance. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Since the early 1960s the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has had several urban development strategies that have been designed to spearhead development through the deployment of internationally recognised architects and urban planners. The adoption of this strategy has opened debate on the paradigm shift away from restrictive planning regulations at both national and regional levels. The process has enabled foreign policies and ideas based on internationalisation to drive the new urban centre developments in Saudi cities including Riyadh and Dammam. In 2008, this key shift saw the traditional restrictive urban development strategies, which prescribed – among other things – the number of storeys a building could have, being replaced by a strategy permitting an unlimited number of storeys. This dissertation examines the role played by international firms of architects and developers in shaping how architecture is practised in the Kingdom. The process has led to the adoption of modern architectural styles and has advanced a modernised planning approach, whereby traditional architectural structures and the use of local materials have gradually been replaced by modern styles, high-tech buildings and the use of new foreign materials, causing the loss of historic buildings throughout the country. This is seen by many to constitute an injury to national culture and could lead to cultural conflicts that may be exacerbated by the possible importation of planning principles and regulations. A chronological review of internationalisation and how international architectural practices have been mobilised to work in the KSA reveals the impact of this process on the Kingdom’s urban development. While this may be desired by the authorities, it has been argued that the process does not seem to provide any clear strategy for the implementation of the desired sustainable urban centre development in the KSA. Hence, in the absence of clear directives, international architectural firms operate their own set of sustainability criteria to deliver the desired urban centres in the Kingdom. There has been little or no research into the mobilisation of international firms and foreign policies, nor into the impact of internationalisation on the development of planning codes, the modernisation of urban centres and the sustainability approach espoused by the KSA’s planning development strategy. This study investigates the impact of the participation of international firms in Saudi Arabia’s urban development. Government planning regulations and master plans are reviewed and a case study is conducted to identify the factors behind the engagement of international firms in the delivery of two capital projects: the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh and the Central Business District in Dammam. The study also explores the concept of sustainability and the engagement of foreign firms from the perspectives of various stakeholders through face-to-face interviews and a structured questionnaire. It establishes how the role of internationalisation as a driver of policy mobility has impacted on the new sustainable urban centres and in addition, how internationalisation has been operationalised through the notion of sustainability. Although planning codes and regulations may have been developed with good intent by the international firms concerned, their implementation has not yielded the desired result of delivering sustainable urban centres in the KSA. Thus, there is a conflict between a rapid urban development which seeks to integrate historical and traditional contexts on one hand, and the continual import and impact of globalised morphologies on the other. This leads to clear demarcations in urban evolution, making this conflict one of the key characteristics of emerging urban centres in the KSA.

The internationalisation of higher education in the past decade has brought about dramatic changes in the profiles of staff and students in UK universities. The number of international students are estimated to rise to 7 million by 2020 by the OECD (2011) at all levels of education in many parts of the world and particularly in English speaking countries (Davies, 2003; Jackson, 2010). Also, one in four academics had a non-UK nationality in 2010-11 according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE, 2012: 4) apart from the linguistically and culturally diverse, latecomer UK-domiciled academics. In such an atmosphere, there is an increasing trend in research on international students and teachers who are speakers of English as an additional language (EAL) especially in TESOL. Nevertheless, there are few studies into the experiences of the academic staff as speakers of EAL who are working at a UK university. Therefore, this research examined the linguistic, professional and intercultural experiences of ‘international’ academics from different disciplines in the internationalising contexts of higher education in the UK. Fifteen academics who are speakers of EAL at an intercultural UK university were interviewed with a semi-structured format. The participants shared their stories and experiences of the phenomenon “being an ‘international’ academic/lecturer”, which contributed to the development of a deeper understanding of the experiences and challenges they underwent in terms of language, academia and interculturality. The participants shared their language-related experiences and attitudes towards the “(non)native-like” language use as bi-/multi-lingual speakers, the challenges of teaching and researching at an internationalising university and their accounts of experience of interculturality and approaches to (non-)essentialist cultural descriptions as “international” academics.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study is an investigation into the scope, role, and function of student development and support (SDS) within higher education in South Africa. The underpinnings and frameworks of SDS were explored during the research, as well as its integration into the institution and into organisational structures, the relationship between SDS and the policies of the Department of Higher Education and Training, and the influences from the national and international context of SDS. Policies emerging from the Department of Higher Education and Training heralded dramatic changes after the first democratically elected government in South Africa. The changes were amplified by the shifts in the international context of global explosion of knowledge production and neo-liberal influences on higher education in general and SDS in particular. The higher education system in South Africa has changed from an elite system to broad “massification”, which addresses issues of equity, access, participation and relevant skills development at medium and high level (DoE, 1997, p. 4). Changes have not only been in terms of governance and institutional mergers but also in terms of notions and discourses in education, teaching and learning, student development, and student support. The higher education system has become open, responsive, and relevant, and knowledge is understood to be relative and context-bound, co-created within the relationship to a heterogeneous group of students who have a range of capabilities and challenge traditional notions of inclusivity and diversity. The findings are extensive and liberal use of quotations from the participants substantiates the emerging themes. The key themes that emerged are clustered under the headings of: scope, role and function; theoretical framework; professionalisation; paradigms and alignments; SDS integration into the organisational structure; SDS in relation to the Department of Higher Education and Training; and SDS within the national and international context of globalisation. The discussion synthesises the findings and reveals that SDS is facing many challenges which require attention. Some challenges concern the lack of clarity around scope, role, and function, as well as issues around the lack of theoretical grounding and the paucity in local theory development. Challenges also surfaced regarding the integration of SDS into the academic life of the institution. Similar concerns appeared around the exclusion of SDS from governance issues. Tensions emerged from discussions on the need for a guiding framework for SDS, while preserving autonomy and acknowledging the heterogeneous character of institutions. The findings also suggest that non-elective operational standards and some kind of monitoring and evaluation systems for SDS are required. Despite these challenges, it appears that SDS is perceived as a key contributor to the shared goal of student success and that an expressed commitment to and alignment with national and institutional goals exists. This utilisation-oriented study, it is hoped, will make significant contributions to the understanding of the scope, role and function of student development and support within higher education. It may help illuminate the challenges and provide suggestions to enable more articulated contributions to the shared goals of higher education in South Africa. Recommendations include the development of an epistemic community which can generate contextual and constructivist paradigms for SDS in South Africa. This research study reveals the pressing need for a normative framework for SDS and identifies areas which need to be given serious consideration when developing such a framework.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the service sector have gained highly important roles in the strive for growth and economic welfare. World economy changes creates both international business opportunities and pressure for small and medium enterprises to internationalise. International market selection (IMS) is considered the most vital decision when creating an internationalisation strategy. Nevertheless, the lack of both research attention and empirical insights has created a knowledge gap. Investigate how Swedish SMEs in the knowledge-intensive service sector perform their IMS. By answering the research question, this study will contribute to greater understanding in both theory and practice. The purpose is to add to theory in the field as well as contribute with an additional IMS model for this specific firm type. Through examination of previous research, three main approaches to IMS have been identified: systematic, non-systematic and relationship. The research was assessed through a qualitative design, using semi- structured interviews with five representatives from different companies. The results demonstrates the importance of maintaining and creating relationships for the IMS-process. Combining previous research, insights from practitioners and empirical findings, a size and industry specific IMS- model was developed named the Boarding Step Model.

Accompanying the globalisation of the world economy and the internationalisation of Chinese CBs, the research in terms of the international competitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs has become urgent and significant. The motivations and targets of this research are to understand the status quo of international competitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs; to recognise the actual gap in the aspects of international competitiveness between Chinese CBs and the Western advanced CBs; to find out the issues and main causes that existed in and determined the international competitiveness of Chinese CBs; and to work out the approaches to solve the issues and boost the international competitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs. According to the analyses of the international background, domestic context and specific situation, and the review of previous relevant literatures in terms of the international competitiveness and international competitiveness of CB, the general framework of this research is based on the fundamental theory – New Institutional Economics (NIE), especially the Institutional Change Theory (ICT), and applied four key factors – Business Scale, Profitability, Asset Quality and Overseas Business Margin, as well as some necessary macro and micro -specific determinants, to multi-dimensionally examine and comprehensivelyevaluate the real level of international competitiveness of the CBI and some Chinese CBs during the last three decades, in particular during the last decade since 2003. This basic framework established the theoretical foundation for this research; it is the general framework that is jointly consisted of the constitution, determinants and evaluation sub-frameworks of international competitiveness of CB. In this research, the international competitiveness of CB mainly includes: Business Scale International Competitiveness, Profitability International Competitiveness, Soundness International Competitiveness and Overseas Business International Competitiveness. These four aspects of international competitiveness of CB can be all measured by relative indicators that can be calculated through relative financial data; thus, the international competitiveness of CB could be then synthetically, directly andexternally evaluated and reflected. Basically, the determined framework of international competitiveness of CB is referred to reveal how the international competiveness of CB is determined. According to the value theory of dialectical-materialism, object development is decided by its internal and external causes; therefore, in this research, the scale, management, technology and international administration are considered as the major internal factors to determine the international competitiveness of CB, while the governmental functions, horizontal industrial competition, market supply and demands, and industrial trend at home and abroad are suggested as themajor external factors to reflect the international competitiveness of CB. Based on the determined framework and the internal-external cause theory, as well as considering the cross-border competition as the mainstream of the international competition for CBs, it can be seen that the deciding model and evaluation model are combined together to set up the overall models for evaluating and reflecting the international competitiveness of China’s CBs. According to the results calculated by the models, the separate and joint evaluations are made to jointly estimate the real level of international competitiveness of Chinese CBs; then the internal and external critical analyses are taken into consideration to reveal how the internal and external major factors reflect and influence the international competitiveness of CBI. Finally, a set of approaches in terms of how to further improve and boost the internationalcompetitiveness of the CBI and Chinese CBs are accordingly suggested. The findings of this research present that the historical evolution of China’s banking is fundamentally driven by the institutional changes and the shifts of administrative ideologies of the CCP; and intrinsically influenced by the dominant culture of Confucianism in China. The international competitiveness of the CBI has been increasingly improving, in particular since 2003; the development of the CBI has been actually always adhering to the reform and opening-up guideline in terms of “Crossing the River by Touching the Stones”, and the internationalisation of the CBI has been mostly suggested to insist on a strategy of “Incremental Approach”, which also represents the Way of the Golden Mean (Zhong Yong Zhi Dao) of Confucian ideology and acting philosophy. According to the evaluation results, Chinese CBs hold a very strong IC on the Business Scale and Home-base Profitability; their Soundness IC has bee also hugely improved; however, if comparing with their foreign advanced peers, such like HSBC and JP Morgan etc., their overseas business IC has been relatively much weaker; this means that the internationalisation of CBI and Chinese CB still has a long way to go to strategically catch up and explore. Additionally, other sense of the banking industry is also highly recognised. The real essence of China’s banking reform has been eventually designed by the elites and ultimately influenced by the special interest groups. The fundamental issues of the banking sector have been not completely handled; the financial ecology of the banking business has been one of the greatest factors for the banking performance; the international competitiveness of Chinese CBs has been mostly country-specific and home-based; and the whole banking system has been seemingly-seriously captured by the housing market and the municipal platform debts; hence, these huge potential operating risks have been seriously concerned. Conclusively, the international competitiveness of Chinese CBs would have been significantly damaged if the banking industry could not be further improve the regulatory regime, optimise the business environment, reform the corporate governance structure, consummate the operational system; and work out the deep and ingenerate issues such as lending mechanism, profitability model, risk management, technological innovation, political intervention, internationalising strategy, etc. Even though this researcher has taken great efforts to make his own contributions in this project, the findings and conclusions are still thought to be not sophisticate and significant enough; hence, further research of this specific theme will be more deepening and focusing, in particular on the improvement of the research methodology, the data collection and the financial ecology of the CBI.

This thesis deals with the internationalisation strategies of Chinese car manufacturers towards the European car market in the period 2012-2025. It starts by introducing the internationalisation framework on a theoretical level with special regards to the automotive industry. In the second part then the major characteristics of the Chinese and European car markets are identified. The conclusions from this analysis then create the base for a subsequent analysis of capabilities of Chinese car manufacturers with respect to the target European market. In the last part of the paper the identified information is used for coming up with potential entry strategies of Chinese carmakers in Europe in the specified time period as well as identifying the most probable consequences of this market entry for the current market players.

The need for Swedish SMEs to expand beyond their limited domestic market grows, spurred on by fading barriers to international trade. Often consisting mainly of engineers without marketing experience, the SMEs cannot afford to recruit expertise in internationalisation. The international business environment is complex, and attempting to internationalise through trial and error, often ends poorly. To remedy this, the objectives of this study has been: To explore and compare how Swedish SMEs expand to other markets. To identify which factors in this expansion pose the largest problems                          to Swedish SMEs. To assure that these objectives were fulfilled, two research questions were formulated: RQ1: What is the internationalisation pattern for Swedish SMEs? RQ2: What are the main problems encountered by Swedish SMEs when                                         expanding their market from domestic to international? The study has been exploratory and descriptive, taking a deductive approach. The research strategy has been multiple holistic case studies. Data was collected qualitatively through semi-structured interviews and analysed through within-case analysis and cross-case analysis. The main findings show that SMEs are increasingly strategic and systematic with time, and that advice given by the interviewed subject revolved around being strategic and systematic from an earlier stage. It also seems that SMEs are fairly systematic in market selection and customer acquisition, and that market entry occurs in many different ways. Furthermore, branding revolves around appearing trustworthy and “larger than they actually are.” Strategies for employer branding seems lacking in all but the most mature SMEs. Also, strong strategic partners are a valuable tactic for long-term success. The practical implications revolve around the importance of being systematic and strategic from the start, highlighting the importance of larger strategic partners, and focusing on relationships with customers, and what value the SME can offer them.

Au cours de notre travail doctoral nous avons étudié les stratégies d’internationalisation des franchiseurs afin de comprendre les déterminants du choix de la modalité de franchise internationale. Ces développements internationaux font émerger de nouvelles problématiques auxquelles les travaux académiques existants ne donnent pas d’analyses satisfaisantes. Pour les approfondir nous revenons sur ces questions à travers une approche dynamique des réseaux de franchise internationaux. Nous focalisons notre travail sur les problématiques de développement de l’avantage concurrentiel par les localisations étrangères des franchiseurs en proposant un cadre d’analyse basé sur l’approche des capacités des entreprises. Une méthodologie qualitative nous a permis de dimensionner le métier de franchiseur et d’interroger la mise en œuvre de métier au niveau international. Suite à une analyse thématique du discours de franchiseurs, nous avons identifié trois capacités centrales sources d’avantage concurrentiel. Par la suite, nous avons analysé des développements internationaux et mis en évidence le transfert de ces capacités à la modalité de franchise internationale. Notre cadre d’analyse nous a alors permis de souligner l’importance de l’analyse des capacités sources de l’avantage concurrentiel dans le processus du choix de la modalité d’entrée pour comprendre le développement des réseaux dans le nouveau marché. D’un point de vue dynamique, nous avons identifiés deux niveaux de dynamisme distincts et nous montrons qu’il importe de comprendre les déterminants du développement du deuxième niveau pour affiner notre compréhension de la réussite internationale des entreprises. / During our thesis we studied franchisors’ internationalization strategies in order to determine the optimum choice of organizational mode. These international developments cause new problems which existing literature does not provide satisfactory answers. In order to propose a new analysis, we choose to use a dynamic approach to international franchise systems. We focus our work on issues of competitive advantage development by foreign franchisors locations and we provide a framework based on the organizational capabilities perspective. A qualitative methodology enables us to define the competitive advantage of franchisor and questioned the implementation of this advantage into international operations. We seize the competitive advantage of franchisor with athematic analysis of franchisors practice. We identified three core capabilities. Subsequently, we analyzed international developments and highlighted the transfer of the core capabilities to the sub-franchisor. Then, our analytical framework allowed us to underline the importance of taking account of the competitive advantage in the process of choosing the organizational mode in order to understand the competitive advantage exploitation in the new market. From a dynamic perspective, we identified two levels of dynamism and we show the importance of understanding the determinants of the development of the second level to refine the knowledge of the achievement of international operation.