This is a thesis about knowing, working and migrating in a complex and fluid world. Through an analysis of biographic-narrative interviews with migrants working in 'knowledge intensive' roles, as well as with those employed in jobs normally considered 'low-skilled', arguments about knowing, working and migrating in the 'new knowledge economy' are developed. Foregrounding an active and embodied understanding of knowing as a socially embedded and fluid phenomenon allows for a reconceptualisation of the relationships between knowing, migrating and working, raising questions about our normative understandings of both the 'knowledge' economy and divisions of migrant labour. This thesis seeks to illustrate how everyday practice and the interaction of complex (and often competing) 'forces' have acted to produce powerful ideas about what kind of jobs are suitable for which types of migrants, and how these ideas become accepted as normal – as 'common sense' assumptions. Furthermore, such productions of knowledge about migrants, also impacts on how, what and where we know. That is, the processes and performances of knowing are both constitutive of, and constituted by, the structures of power which shape our lives. Thus the 'power to know' is contextual, fluid and yet fundamental to the constitution of our everyday lives.

It has been widely acknowledged that today’s business world is characterized by severe competition. To remain competitive, firms have to employ alternative strategies to keep up with the fast paced development. One such strategy is coopetition; firms collaborate in some areas to combine their resources while competing in other areas. Thus, instead of trying to master everything within a company’s own walls, emphasis is towards gaining access to external resources and coordinating the wide array of expertise in the best possible way to achieve competitive advantage. In addition, growing requirements from the customer end force firms to combine their resources to be able to put together tailored solutions. This entails a notable customer input in product development and firm’s ability to utilize market knowledge can not be undermined. However, before the feedback gained from the market can act as a source of competitive edge, it has to be further processed into a form in which it offers strategic value for the company. This research aims to study how market knowledge is utilized to create competitive in the interface of inter- and intra-organizational coopetition. Even though competition is often considered to take place between firms, competitive elements can also be found within firms. For that reason, we include both inter- and intra-organizational coopetition in the research. In terms of the process involved in market knowledge utilization, three steps are appointed; transfer, translation and transformation of knowledge. To perform the research, we selected a high technology company belonging to SME category present in the information security business as case company. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted on three different occasions. Due to the sensitive nature of the research topic, the case company remains anonymous and is referred to as Case Company in the research. By ensuring respondents’ anonymity, the gained responses are more likely to be honest and thus more reliable and comprehensive. The empirical findings revealed differences in market knowledge utilization between inter- and intra-organizational coopetition. While coopetition taking place between firms was characterized with dominating competitive element and protection of one’s own assets, only preliminary stages of market knowledge utilization were found to be present. This entailed that knowledge transformation was absent in the inter-organizational context. On the other hand, on the intra-organizational level a collective approach to knowledge coordination was employed and attention had been paid on establishing sufficient structural conditions to support the knowledge utilization process. Thus, the process within the company was more efficient and it completed the knowledge utilization process at the inter-organizational level as knowledge transformation took place only within Case Company. While coopetition is a rather new field of study, we believe that the performed research provided information on inter- and intra-organizational coopetition in an SME present in the high technology industry and gave insights of the knowledge exchange both within and across companies. In the end, we have built up a model including the most important findings of the study. The figure entails the market knowledge utilization processes visualized in both inter- and intra-organizational contexts.

Literature on firm internationalization has pointed out knowledge and learning as central components in the internationalization process. While much research has emphasized the development of experience in the firm as the main source of new knowledge, this notion has also been challenged. Furthermore, in internationalization literature, most attention has been paid to market entry and far less to growth in the market thereafter. This research addresses how internationalizing firms capture growth opportunities by acquiring new knowledge in foreign markets. The purpose is to describe and explain how internationalizing firms learn about foreign markets by combining various knowledge sources in order to realize growth opportunities in these markets. To address this purpose, data from two steps of data collection is analyzed. The first step contains qualitative focus-group data from seven Swedish firms and aims to describe learning from a combination of knowledge sources, which leads to the development of a typology of learning strategies. The tentative results from the first step are established in the second step, which contains survey data from 144 internationalizing Swedish firms. In addition to validating the typology, data from the second step explains heterogeneous knowledge outcomes based on differences in learning strategies, suggesting that a diversified strategy has the greatest potential for learning. These results indicate that external knowledge matters more than what has been previously recognized. Furthermore, the results show curvilinear effects of knowledge of the local network and international spread on the realization of international growth opportunities. By integrating components from international entrepreneurship, this research may contribute to internationalization-process literature by (1) describing the typology of how internationalizing firms learn in foreign markets, (2) establishing the described types and explaining the knowledge consequences for internationalizing firms, and (3) explaining how this knowledge impacts the ability to realize international opportunities. This chain of components provides the links between learning and growth of the internationalizing firm beyond the initial market entry.

<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.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2006. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Includes bibliographical references (p. 346-428).

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to study the internationalization process by investigate how Rockworth Public Company Limited manage internationalization in Indian market efficiently. Additionally, we aim to improve our understanding and knowledge in international business comprehensively.</p>

<p><strong>Background  </strong>  </p><p>International trade could be seen as the phenomenon beating the resources imbalance among countries in the global market. Therefore, our seeking the competitive advantage of Thailand is to the orchid which is viewed industrial drop of country to increase expansion of export and generate income for Thailand. Moreover, Thailand is one of the leaders which have exported the orchids to foreign countries. For this reason, we would like to study factors which affect to make a decision of Thai entrepreneurs to export the orchid to Swedish market.</p><p><strong>Problems  </strong>      </p><p>How market knowledge and entrepreneur characteristics influence on Thai entrepreneurs in order to make a decision on internationalization by exporting Thai orchid to Swedish market?</p><p><strong>Purposes  </strong>       </p><p>The main purpose of this research is to explore how external and internal factors as market knowledge and entrepreneur characteristics influence on the decision making of Thai entrepreneurs to internationalize by exporting Thai orchid to Swedish market.</p><p><strong>Methodology</strong></p><p>This master’s thesis is based on a qualitative approach which is used by semi-structured interview to conduct Thai entrepreneur’s perspectives on export the orchid to Swedish market while the secondary data is collected from website, article, and journal to utilize material for this thesis.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>     </p><p>We found that the market knowledge as external factors influence to the entrepreneur decision making as the encouragement in term of sufficient knowledge while the lack of market knowledge also lead to the discouragement of internationalization decision making. Moreover, several entrepreneur characteristics could encourage and help entrepreneur in order to make the decision to internationalize while some characteristics are not influence to the decision making of entrepreneur.</p>