Purpose - The purpose of the thesis is “To explore the Thai ICT market and identify differences with the leading market” Where the research questions are: 1. How are the main actors influencing the ICT market in Thailand? 2. How can the ICT market in Thailand be improved by identifying the gaps to the leading market? Method – For reaching the purpose a qualitative case study has been carried out, methods that are used are interviews, observations, document studies and literature study. Secondary data has been collected from document studies and was compiled in excel documents. Primary data has been collected from interviews, employees at Ericsson in Thailand has contributed when gather data about organizational culture. Interview with representatives from institutions in Thailand were made to achieve current data. Interviews were made to receive a primary source of information with high focus on the thesis subject and strengthen by secondary data. Findings – The most urgent problem to improve the ICT market in Thailand is to develop the infrastructure. The infrastructure needs to be developed in rural areas and urban areas. Institutions in ICT need to do active work on the market in order to expand and develop the market. Service operator’s needs to standardise and offer less price plans in order to minimize confusion among the consumers. The consumers need to increase their usage of ICT services in order to decrease the gap to the leading ICT market. One solution could be that the government push the development with all actors on the ICT market. Changing the foreign business act can lead to investments needed to expand the infrastructure. Further, creating a demand of higher technology from the consumer’s perspective will pressure the actors to develop robust network of high technology and benefit future development of technology. Implications – This study has been carried out on location in Thailand but communication has not been made in the national language in Thailand, which can contribute to misunderstandings of data. The study´s result is strengthened by being on location in Thailand, gathering primary data by interviews and do observations on place in the target environment. Delimitations – The delimitations have been made to look at the ICT market from Thailand’s perspective with learning’s from Sweden. Further, delimitations to explore the main actors that are influencing the market has been done. A market has many environmental forces and they needed to be restricted in this study.

The internationalization of SMEs has been recognized as one of the important paths to growth in SMEs. However, internationalization is also a resource and competence-demanding process. This is especially true for smaller-sized SMEs – the small and micro-sized firms – which have a large resource constraint, making internationalization even more challenging. Although this group of small firms counts for an average of over 98% of the total population of enterprises in EU countries, extant research on the internationalization of this group is still limited. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of evolving patterns of internationalization in the smaller-sized SMEs. The study uses emerging market entry along the internationalization of small firms as a context to probe the dynamics of perceived risk (uncertainty) and perceived opportunity in different foreign markets which influence the important decisions of small firms during their internationalization. The main study takes a longitudinal approach and uses mixed methods to investigate the features in both the initial period and the continued period of internationalization. It mainly builds on a multiple-case study of 12 Swedish firms, which have/had emerging market entry experience and/or involvement. This study illustrates influences from the environmental, organizational and individual levels on evolving patterns of internationalization in the investigated firms. This dissertation concludes that critical decisions and actions taken in the internationalization process depend on interactions among the influence and resources from the three levels. Such interactions form a conditional preference on perceived risk (uncertainty) and perceived opportunity during the internationalization of small firms. The study further proposes that the dynamics in the internationalization process are caused by a prospect-guided change mechanism. This dissertation contributes to the literature by: differentiating patterns of internationalization; enriching the study of “born global” in the continued period of internationalization; introducing a new perspective on the interpretation of dynamics in the internationalization; and increasing the understanding on the interactions of resources from three levels on the internationalization of small firms.

This study explored how international offices engage in entrepreneurial internationalization. Thirty Senior International Officers (SIOs) at public U.S. universities were interviewed to understand why and how their offices seek to generate revenue through their international strategies and activities. This study found that SIOs are engaging in entrepreneurialism for the following reasons: funding cuts, expectations of their institutions, and growing student demand for international services. These drivers have resulted in targeted international activities, such as the delivery of U.S. credit to foreign students in their home country (without a branch campus) and the growth of dual degree programs. International offices are also developing strategic partnerships with enrollment management in trying to attract more international students to campus. This study found entrepreneurialism to largely align with the educational priorities of international offices, though a misalignment of incentives and priorities seems to exist within many international offices.

This study traces the internationalization of Singapore universities from a historical and developmental perspective. The main Research Question is: “Why and how have Singapore universities internationalized since the beginning of nationhood in the early 1960’s to the globalized economy of today?” It seeks an in-depth understanding of (a) the meanings of internationalization, (b) the rationales for it; and (c) the approaches to it - from the Singapore government’s and universities’ perspectives. The study is located within the interpretative paradigm with a qualitative research approach using documentary analysis as the sole data collection method. The focus is on the three publicly-funded universities, namely NUS, NTU and SMU in Singapore. Being publicly-funded, the rationales for internationalising and the strategies used are more likely to be influenced by governmental policies and direction. Relevant sources examined include published government and university documents available from university libraries, web-sites and government archival records. Among the key findings are - that the internationalization of Singapore universities is inevitable given 21st century globalization and knowledge-based economies; and the government’s tight instrumental interdependence between education and economic development. The term ‘internationalization’ of universities is interpreted as ‘going global’ by the government; and ‘to be a global university’ by the three case universities. Singapore‘s universities are used as key ‘instruments’ to foster and attract talent, both local and foreign – to overcome a scarcity of skilled labour. Hence, the ‘internationalization’ of Singapore universities aims to – produce ‘world ready’ graduates, enhance ‘global competitiveness’, and talent augmentation (attracting foreign talent). Some of the Internationalization strategies adopted by the government and universities are unique. Two analytical models of internationalization of universities are developed from the study as its theoretical contribution.

This dissertation is a qualitative investigation into international postdoctoral employment in life science and engineering fields at universities in the United States and United Kingdom. Data were gathered through 49 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with international postdocs, faculty members who have supervised international postdocs from abroad at two universities in the US and two universities in the UK. The number of postdoctoral appointments has increased dramatically over the past decade, as has the share of these appointees who come from aboard. Yet few studies have investigated what is underlying this growing trend. By examining interactions between structure and agency at local, global and national levels, this study explored the roles that international postdocs play in academic production and the process by which they become mobile. Theory on globalization, higher education policy and models of academic production guide this study. Findings show that international postdocs are becoming scientific employees, rather than trainees, who are incorporated into capitalist modes of academic production as low-cost, high-yield scientific workers. Universities and individual faculty members seek international postdocs because of their contributions to research production; however, few postdocs have the opportunity to move into tenure-tracked faculty jobs. For international postdocs, becoming mobile is an individual process that is often constructed by individuals who negotiate home country academic policies in a global academic market. Mobility is a multi-stage process that begins with the potential to become mobile and is realized by actual mobility, which occurs through a transnational space produced by international journals that define global science.

Internationalization is a key concept in today’s globalized world. Globalization has brought about a major shift in the way firms internationalize. Previously, large firms were thought to follow an incremental internationalization process. However, as a result of the rise of international new ventures, the internationalization process has seen a dramatic shift in the internationalization process of firms. Firms no longer follow the traditional models of internationalization. Instead, there are three general phases an international new venture may pass through which are identified by Leonidou and Katsikeas (1996, p. 524): namely: pre-engagement, initial, and advanced.   The change in the internationalization process of firms has led firms access networks to internationalize. The use of networks have been shown to help international new ventures to skip the traditional phases of internationalization  and expand rapidly by linking themselves to established networks (Coviello & Munro, 1995, p. 53). Participation in networks, among other benefits, includes acquiring the necessary knowledge for international operations.   Several important network forms have been identified by different authors. This raises the question what effect these network forms have at the phases of the internationalization process. Three major networks were identified, namely, social, business and intermediaries where each form has its own benefits in the internationalization process of an Small-to-Medium-Size Enterprise (SME). The forms of networks are often described as positive drivers for internationalization. We, however, think that there might also be negative aspects concerning the use of network for internationalization. This study sets out to find what the benefits of each form of network is and also how the networks are used in the internationalization process of an SME. We take into account the perspective of the entrepreneurs as to how they perceive network forms affecting SMEs’ performance at each phase of the internationalization process.  Along with that, we also aim to find out how the forms of networks interact with each other and how they evolve from one network to the other.   We use qualitative methods, in our study, by interviewing six SMEs located in northern Sweden. Multiple case studies were developed, in order to analyse the collected data from the semi-structured interviews. The collected data was transcribed and categorized in order to find the phases of internationalization, benefits of networks, interaction between networks and the negative aspects of networks. It was then analysed using the three predefined forms of networks: social, business and intermediaries.   The findings of the study show that business networks were the most widely used network form throughout the phases of the internationalization process. Social networks and intermediaries were used equally. However, social networks had a greater influence than intermediaries. Our research also identified three phases in the internationalization process. Networks were found to influence each other at all the phases of internationalization and therefore cannot be seperated from each other.

The thesis provides an analysis, from the institutional perspective, of the factors that are contributing towards mutually beneficial participation in European University Networks. Previous research about institutional networks has concentrated on the networks' perspective on beneficial operational factors. Joining institutional university networks has been stated to be a recent strategic trend in Europe. Therefore it is important to provide detailed data from the institutional point of view to enable other institutions to make informed decisions about joining such networks. The University of Tartu provides an interesting case study on its experience of participation in the Coimbra Group and the Utrecht Network. Strategic management theory was used as a theoretical framework for this analysis. Relevant documents were reviewed. Twenty three e-mail interviews were conducted among the University of Tartu administrators, faculty members and representatives of both networks. Ten cross-cutting themes were identified as having impact on network participation.

Participation and success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in global markets is of strategic interest to business and public policy makers. Despite empirical evidence that generally demonstrates that performance improves with the level of internationalization mode, there is an identified problem in getting SME decision-makers to make a significant commitment to more advanced modes of internationalization. A review of international business, entrepreneurship and organizational behavior research demonstrated that the attitudes of the SME decision-maker significantly impact the decision-making process to commit to advanced modes of internationalization. Further, the factors that influence and contribute to these attitudes are not well understood. The explicit objective of this research is to determine the important factors that affect a SME decision-maker’s attitude and how they influence the decision to commit to a more advanced foreign market entry mode of internationalization. A quantitative online survey directed at 3117 Canadian manufacturing SME decision-makers who are in advanced and non-advanced modes of internationalization was undertaken. The responses from 224 participants were used for both hypothesis testing and to extend current theory that only marginally acknowledges the effect of attitude on the decision-making process. This research has demonstrated support for attitudinal factors being a differentiator between advanced and non-advanced internationalization modes; and hence these factors are supported as influencers in the complex SME decision-making process. In addition, there is full statistical support for two constructs (Knowledge of culture, Perceived benefits) and moderate support for an additional two constructs (International experience, International commitment). Cross validation further validated the results and provided confidence for the conclusions generated. This research’s conceptual framework and empirical results should make valuable additions to the literature on international business activities, specifically in the context that relates to the importance of attitudes in the decision-making process of mode choice. The research has reinforced some elements of existing international business theories and cast some doubt on the influence of other elements contained within these theories. The empirical results of this study also contribute to business practices and governmental agencies by identifying areas of improvements in internationalization support programs. / 2013/10

Abstract This research explores the problems of resource allocation during the process of internationalization by small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. The literature largely portrays a positive view of internationalization with respect to increased firm performance or growth. However, particularly for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises(SMEs), growth through internationalization increases uncertainty and may jeopardize firm performance and even threaten survival of the firm. The literature indicates that some SMEs fail during the process of expanding to foreign markets (Brewer 1981;Ramaswamy 1992; Mudambi and Zahra 2007). Many of these failures are due, in part,to the challenges of allocating limited resources during and after internationalization(Chen and Hsu 2009). Given the challenge of internationalizing, this research examines the influence of resource allocation on firm performance with the aim of providing recommendations on how entrepreneurs can make better resource allocation decisions that in turn may lead to improved performance. To address the problem of allocation of limited resources during and after internationalization, theoretical propositions are developed based on modern portfolio-theory (Markowitz 1952; 1959; 1991) that explains the risk-return tradeoffs with regards to resource allocation to domestic, U.S., and foreign markets and possible effects on firm performance. This research applies a multiple case-study approach based on critical realism, a qualitative philosophical research paradigm. Data collection is through in-depth interviews with executives of twenty-two small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms located in Canada. Within-case and cross-case analyses findings are used to confirm or modify the propositions, resulting in a descriptive model that best explains resource allocation decisions and the effects on performance. The findings indicate that resource allocations to domestic, U.S., and foreign markets have different contributions to overall firm performance. However, the way in which resource allocation trade-offs are decided between these markets is largely dependent on the firms or owners/manager’s disposition to risks and returns. Findings from this research also show that decisions by firm managers to allocate resources to a particular market depend on their assessment or anticipation of risks and the potential mitigation strategies that are required in order to maximize returns. This, consequently, determines the firm’s performance during the process of internationalization. This research contributes to the literature in international entrepreneurship, management of technology, and decision analysis. While there is an extensive body of literature that focuses on the output of internationalization (i.e., where, when, and how firms export their products), few studies have specifically examined the inputs that make this happen (one of these being the allocation of resources). Rugman et al. (2008) examines the resource allocation decision between domestic and foreign markets for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and the impact on firm performance. No known study has specifically explored resource allocation decisions between domestic, U.S., and foreign markets for SMEs and the influence on firm performance. This research fills the identified gap by making a significant theoretical contribution to this field by adopting portfolio theory to the challenge of allocating resources between domestic and foreign markets.

There are many opportunities to use engineering skills to improve the conditions for mar-ginalized communities, but our current engineering education praxis does not instruct on how engineering can be a force for human development. In a time of great inequality and exploitation, the desire to work with the impoverished is prevalent, and it has been proposed to adjust the engineering curriculum to include a larger focus on human needs. This proposed curriculum philosophy is called humanitarian engineering. Professional engineers have played an important role in the modern history of power, wealth, economic development, war, and industrialization; they have also contributed to infrastructure, sanitation, and energy sources necessary to meet human need. Engineers are currently at an important point in time when they must look back on their history in order to be more clear about how to move forward. The changing role of the engineer in history puts into context the call for a more balanced, community-centred engineering curriculum. Qualitative, phenomenographic research was conducted in order to understand the need, opportunity, benefits, and limitations of a proposed humanitarian engineering curriculum. The potential role of the engineer in marginalized communities and details regarding what a humanitarian engineering program could look like were also investigated. Thirty-two semi-structured research interviews were conducted in Canada and Ghana in order to collect a pool of understanding before a phenomenographic analysis resulted in five distinct outcome spaces. The data suggests that an effective curriculum design will include teaching technical skills in conjunction with instructing about issues of social justice, social location, cultural awareness, root causes of marginalization, a broader understanding of technology, and unlearning many elements about the role of the engineer and the dominant economic/political ideology. Cross-cultural engineering development placements are a valuable pedagogical experience but risk benefiting the student disproportionately more than the receiving community. Local development placements offer different rewards and liabilities. To conclude, a major adjustment in engineering curriculum to address human development is appropriate and this new curriculum should include both local and international placements. However, the great force of altruism must be directed towards creating meaningful and lasting change. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-25 09:04:54.722