The global strategies of the three South African retail giants are examined with a view to understand what factors motivate South African multinational enterprises to move into Africa, as well as what motivates their particular choice of countries, and how the capabilities and resources are deployed and managed in their foreign operations, so as to remain competitive in both local and foreign markets. The South African retail giant geographic expansion is a way to penetrate new markets, explore new opportunities and deliver the growth they seek on the journey to high performance. Their choice of countries is determined by various factors that contribute to the competitive nature of a country, namely: national values and cultures; macro and micro economic environment; political stability; institutions, and history. As these emerging market multinational enterprises cannot depend on countryspecific advantages, the contenders accelerate their development of firm-specific advantages at a rapid rate. South African companies have developed expertise for trading in Africa as they are more familiar with the physical, regulatory and social terrain than businesses from other parts of the world. The market, the culture and realities of infrastructure, poverty, lack of skills, as well as the technology in their non-South African operations are not a shock to the South African companies. The business strategies will, therefore, not entirely be the same as those of the multinationals from the developed world. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In an overarching aim to bridge the gap between political science and international business studies, this study explores how, against the backgrond of globalization, multinational coprorations understand and deal with the influence of many differet and sometimes very dynamic political environments, by focusing on the political risk management of a number of Swedish multinational corporations invoved in foreign investing. Based on interviewswith coproate executives in these corporations, this qualitative study found that Swedish invetsors use a "pragmatic" approach toeards political risk and the political envrionments in which they operate. The study also drwas attention to teh role of multinational corporations in teh formation of politica risk as teh result of corporate politiacl activity and the possibility that multinational corporations are moving towards a more pronounced political role.It is suggetsed that political risk needs to be considered not only in terms of the potential impact of the political environment on firms, but also in terms of teh impact of teh firm on the environment, as the political environment cannot be taken as a given, but is the outcome of a process that involves adaption to the environment as well as attempts to change that environment.