[pt] Este artigo estuda o impacto de um dos maiores programas de aprendizagem do mundo, o programa Jovem Aprendiz no Brasil, nas decisões de contratação das empresas. O programa teve como objetivo expandir as oportunida desde emprego para jovens, combinando incentivos fiscais e cotas de contratação para que as empresas contratem aprendizes. No entanto, esses incentivos não impedem que as empresas substituam contratos de não aprendizes por contratos de aprendizes. Para avaliar esses efeitos, utilizamos uma abordagem de diferenças em diferenças escalonadas, que aproveita um limite exógeno para a entrada no programa. Nossos resultados indicam que as empresas aumentam a contratação de aprendizes após ultrapassar o limite. No entanto, esse aumento é acompanhado por uma redução na entrada de trabalhadores entrantes que não são aprendizes, o que é consistente com a hipótese de substituição. / [en] This paper studies the impact of one of the largest apprenticeship programs in the world, the Jovem Aprendiz program in Brazil, on firms hiring decisions. The program aimed to expand job opportunities among young individuals by combining tax incentives and hiring quotas for firms to hire apprentices. However, these incentives do not prevent firms from substituting non-apprentice contracts for apprentice contracts. To assess these effects, we use a staggered differences-in-differences approach that leverages an exogenous threshold for entry into the program. Our results indicate that firms increase the hiring of apprentices after surpassing the threshold. However, this rise is accompanied by a decline in the entry of non-apprentices first-time workers, consistent with the substitution hypothesis.

ABSTRACT This master thesis examined the impact of digitalization on the speed of internationalization and explores the various foreign market entry options for a company that would like to expand from a developed market to an emerging market as part of its internationalization.  The case study analyzed in this paper is Arctic Space Technologies, a unique satellite operator company offering an all-in-one solution for sustainable satellite data handling and processing. The firm’s founders have a niche market (satellite operators) and have established business in Sweden and would like to enter an emerging market (South Africa). The firm can be classified under the high-tech industry and the study obtained valuable information that could be useful to other similar firms. The nature of technology for adoption is easily transferable for such firms regardless of geographical location. Digitalization is instrumental in facilitating earlier and faster internationalization through digitalized knowledge, network creation and decision-making processes (Coviello et al., 2017). The digitalization of new foreign market development helps such firms to efficiently identify new market opportunities in global markets and with this approach, they save resources while developing the most attractive markets (Neubert, 2018a). Qualitative research was applied through a company case study, where primary interviews and a survey were used to collect data. A case study was employed to further understand and practically apply adaptations a firm can make to increase its chances of success in a foreign market environment. The researcher also obtained information from desktop and literature review. The study findings suggested that business networking, business models, culture and geographical distance, market size are key factors that influence the choice of foreign market entry mode for a high-tech firm internationalization process from a developed market to an emerging market. In addition, the main challenges faced by born-global firm in entering an emerging market includes, lack of financial resources, management transitions and lack of proper market information for the internationalization process. The firm may need to identify information related to the market size, competitors, financial costs and entry barriers of the emerging market.  The study insight was that despite the born global firms’ nature of technology enabling faster adoption in terms of digitalization being instrumental in facilitating their internationalization process through the digitalized knowledge, network creation and decision-making processes, they still face the challenges of entry into unfamiliar emerging markets. The researcher identified the institutional voids faced, liability of foreignness and noted that it would be crucial for the firm to conduct a proper environmental analysis. This may include political and legal forces, economic forces, social-cultural forces and technological forces.  Arctic Space Technologies may need to create relevant business networks and the study identified that the ideal foreign market entry mode would be Joint venture/Partnership.  Since the South African government is keen on foreign investors/entrepreneurs entering into their market through partnership with a local business entity. The firm could establish a good network with South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and other space firms in the country. SANSA is keen on fostering international partnerships to enable unlock opportunities for the national space sector.   Further studies could investigate the time frames for high-tech firms internationalization processes. Further research is needed to analyze connections between software firms’ business models and selected entry modes by using a quantitative research method. The study could also be extended to other emerging countries in Africa and new business opportunities in the global markets for high-tech firms especially with the changing dynamics of international business in the wake of the current pandemic.

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This dissertation consists of two chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the barriers that diversifying companies could face and explore how barriers to entry differ across different types of entry. Chapter 2 turns the attention to the market competition among insurance companies that are already in a market and examines how product bundling impact insurers' market power. Chapter 1 proposes and estimates a multi-agent model of entry. The prior literature often treats the number of companies in a market as an exogenous measure of market structure. However, the number of companies is endogenously decided by the market structure and other participants. Thus, I propose a structural model of entry to address the endogenous entry decision. In addition, the estimations are conducted at each market-year level, therefore, it provides an opportunity to delineate the relative importance of barriers to entry across three dimensions: geographic, product, and time. I find that barriers to entry exist in the financial services industry, and can be quite substantial to the \textit{de novo} entrants. Overall, I find \textit{de novo} entrants are the ones most subject to barriers to entry across all markets. Expanding within a state is as costly as expanding within a product line. Upon further examination, I discover that product-specific knowledge, such as underwriting expertise, pricing schemes, and coverage designs, plays a critical role in a successful expansion. This information is also relatively more important than state-specific connections, such as how well the company knows its customers and connections with distribution channels. Among all product lines, I find that expertise in mortgage guaranty insurance creates the most barriers, and these barriers are most subject to impacts of the financial crisis. In Chapter 2, I turn the focus to the market competition \emph{within} a market and explore the impact of product bundling on market power. Product bundling is a popular way for companies to retain their customers and keep up with fast-changing market demand. In this chapter, I will specifically examine the impact of bundling on price elasticity for personal lines of insurance. Insurance demand estimation is well-explored in the literature because it is difficult to obtain individual-level data. I overcome this hurdle by using a random coefficients logit model, which incorporates flexible consumer preferences over companies' characteristics. The second difficulty in insurance demand estimation is that it is hard to find a good instrument for the endogenous price. Therefore, I propose a novel instrument, which exploits an idiosyncrasy in insurance tax laws for identification. I find that bundling, on average, can reduce consumers' price sensitivity. Thus, companies that can offer bundle-able products experience a less elastic demand and achieve market power. However, product bundling has differential impacts on the auto insurance and homeowners' insurance markets. Auto insurers that offer bundled packages experience less elastic demand in response to price increases. However, we do not observe similar patterns in the homeowners' insurance market, where doing so intensifies price elasticity. With a closer examination, we discover that the different valuation in homeowners is not driven by the financial ratings of insurers. This indicates that homeowners tend to value other characteristics, such as claims management and the quality of service, more than just price of the contract. / Business Administration/Risk Management and Insurance

As healthcare costs are rising globally and biologic treatments are a growing segment of the cost, governments have created biosimilar regulatory pathways in attempt to lower the costs of biologics. Biosimilars may be viewed as a “pure” or distinct type of process innovation completely separate from product innovation due to the Regulatory requirements and this novel phenomenon allows, perhaps for the first time, process innovation to be studied independently from product innovation. This phenomenon is researched using the competitive dynamic Awareness-Motivation-Capability (AMC) model structure. Since biosimilars are still relatively new, the impact of the biosimilars from a practical and academic viewpoint is emerging and in particular within the US market. This research creates a biosimilar model and metrics, filling a current gap in the literature, and quantitatively evaluates the actions that firms face regarding entering into the biosimilars market due to key metrics such as patent / portfolio risk, prior biologics or generic experience, strength of the R&D pipeline, and the firm’s R&D intensity. The biosimilar construct due to the strict regulatory pathway definition provides this unique and novel opportunity to study process innovation and the impact on competitive dynamics without the interference of product innovation. This research is anticipated to contribute to the practical and academic understanding of process innovation via the biosimilar phenomenon and the competitive dynamics of market entry as well as to promote further managerial research into this area of biosimilars. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

No / A study of key decision makers in a sample of large international companies explored the non-domestic market entry decision. A literature review revealed five broad external domains which held the potential to affect that decision. A series of statements was factor analysed to reveal ten more specific variables. An analysis of which variables discriminated between the decision to enter and not enter a new non-domestic market demonstrated that geocultural/political similarity, developed economy, attractive market, good market information and governmental attitude significantly affected the decision. The findings supported a marketing-strategy based theory of market entry.

The principal goal of its thesis is to conduct a research and do the analyses necessary for the decision whether to enter a foreign market and in case of positive answer the entry strategy is to be suggested. The research and analyses are done on the case of EF Education First, a global company doing its business activities in the educational sector with the main specialization in language learning, and the market of Ukraine. The thesis is divided into a theoretical part which summarizes main elements and academic knowledge important for the entry market strategy including modes of entry, international specifics, marketing of services and 7Ps. In the practical part, the findings from the PEST analysis conducted on the Ukrainian market are presented and the internal environment of the company is analyzed. The two main strategies are selected and their advantages and potential limitations are presented. The final recommendation is made.

Syftet med denna uppsats ämnar att beskriva svenska modeföretags internationaliseringsprocess. Därför ska vi undersöka och analysera nätverkets betydelse, barriärers påverkan, val av etableringsstrategier och varumärkesbyggnad vid internationalisering. För att uppnå syftet med vår studie har nedanstående huvudproblem formulerats:   Hur går svenska modeföretag tillväga vid etablering och varumärkesbyggnad på den internationella marknaden?   Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkt innefattar svenska modeföretags etablering på den internationella marknaden vilket berör internationaliseringsprocessen, nätverksperspektiv, barriärer, etableringsstrategier samt varumärkesbyggnad. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en deduktiv ansats där fyra fallstudier har tillämpats. I empirin redogörs en jämförelse mellan fallföretagen, vilket leder fram till analysen där empirin ställs mot teorin. Uppsatsens slutsats visar att svenska modeföretags internationaliseringsprocess innebär att företag ställs inför olika utmaningar som val av marknad och att hitta samarbetspartners. Företag väljer etableringsstrategi för företagens verksamhet och bygger upp varumärket på den internationella marknaden. Avslutningsvis presenterar vi det gap vi funnit i teorin, teoretiska bidrag, praktiska rekommendationer samt framhäver förslag till vidare forskning. / The purpose of this paper is to describe the internationalization process of Swedish fashion companies’. Therefore, the network's importance, the barriers impact, choice of market entry mode and brand building in the internationalization will be examined and analyzed. In order to achieve the purpose of our study the following main question were formulated:   How do Swedish fashion companies’ proceed with expansion and brand building in the international market?   The theoretical base of the thesis includes Swedish fashion companies’ establishment in the international market which affects the internationalization process, the network perspective, barriers, market entry mode and brand building. The study is based on a qualitative research method with a deductive approach where four case studies have been applied. In the empirical data a comparison is presented between the four case studies, followed by analysis where the empirical data is compared against the theory. The study’s conclusion implies that Swedish fashion companies’ internationalization process implies that companies’ face different challenges such as the choice of market and finding partners and the choice of market entry mode for the business and brand building on the international market. Finally, we present the gap we found in the theory, theoretical contribution, practical recommendations and highlights suggestions for further research.

The survival and sustainable development of construction contractors depends on their own capacity as well as their ability to cope with the ever changing environment. Hong Kong was once a large construction market by the world standards; but in the period 1998 to 2007 has suffered from long term market shrinkage. This shrinkage in the work load available in the market has demanded that Hong Kong contractors change their business strategy and consider expanding their construction business to the international marketplace. From surveys and studies of Hong Kong contractors, it is noted that traditionally the majority of contractors organizations were not active in participating in the international construction markets. The prime reasons were that the Hong Kong domestic market was large enough to sustain the contractors and that Hong Kong construction professionals are reluctant to work overseas. However due to the continuous shrinkage of the market, Hong Kong contractors were being forced to consider expanding their construction business to the overseas markets in order to survive. This thesis reviews existing theories and previous studies in overseas con-struction business development. It analyzes surveys of Hong Kong con-struction contractors and conducts a scientific study of a Hong Kong based contractor organization which expanded its construction business to overseas markets. This study was conducted through an integrated action research methodology. Based on the problems, impacts, difficulties and success this organization faced during its practical experience in the overseas business expansion, this thesis explores and recommends a structured approach for Hong Kong contractors to re-define and develop their business overseas. The focus of study is the pre-contract award stage of business development. It focuses on the entry modes, strategic planning, risk management and tender management of the organization. The author also presents various models for use in attaining width and depth of understanding of overseas knowledge. These include preliminary entry selection model, dynamic management, and a spiral model (a learning & knowledge based business development model), for use in the management of international construction business development at the pre-contract stage. The groundwork laid down in this thesis will form the basis for further studies and the development of theories / models. It is the expectation of the author that other contractors in Hong Kong and other nation s contractors may make use of this research as assistance to their overseas business development. The ultimate aim of the author has been to change the goal of contractors from being companies able to compete with international contractors in their domestic market to contractors that are able to compete in the international market place.

Background:           Literature suggests that franchising as an entry mode for internalisation gains more and more popularity. However, existing literature shows many studies concerning franchising do not focus on industries. Hence, very little research is done when it comes to franchising in the low-to-medium cost fashion apparel industry. At the same time, the growing fashion apparel industry is becoming more and more important due to the business opportunity it brings for organisations. In this context, Germany as being the biggest apparel market in Europe is attractive for international organisation to expand to. For entering the German market through the franchising entry mode, the information about underlying market environment and relevant actors play a vital role to reduce risk of encountering uncertain obstacles in the process.   Purpose:                  Entering a new market as a franchisor can be challenging due to different dynamics that can be found in different markets. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore institutional conditions of the current fashion apparel industry in Germany and to find out which institutions in Germany could help an organisation in terms of information on prevailing conditions, to successfully enter the German market.   Method:                   To attain the purpose of the research, a qualitative approach employing a single case with two embedded units of analysis is used. Purposive sampling is used to select research participants based on their expertise about the topic. The empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 participants, which resemble 3 different actors, the German consumers, the German Franchise Association and Tijarat AB, a fashion apparel company seeking to expand to Germany. Supplementary data, such as official governmental and associations website, is used to support the empirical findings. Secondary data is acquired using literature, web sources and legal documents. The empirical findings are analysed with the help of the thematic analysis and the institutional theory as well as the Uppsala internalisation model.   Findings:                 The empirical findings present that there are several normative conditions which depict behaviours and what is considered to be acceptable in the German market. Firstly, there is no franchise fee collected by the franchisor in the fashion apparel industry. Furthermore, brand awareness, consistency, reputation and quality as well as price, design and variety play an important role in the consumer shopping behaviour and decisions. It was also found that there is no specific franchise law but rather a combination of existing legislation, such as the German Civil and Commercial Code, Competition law, Consumer law and Unfair trade law that form the jurisdiction for franchising in Germany.