This thesis examines reactions of German manufacturing firms to emerging market competitors while operating in the institutional conditions of the Russian market. Although the literature on internationalization of emerging market firms is rapidly growing, research in the Russian institutional context remains scarce. At the same time, rivals from emerging economies already hold strong positions in this major market, especially in the mature manufacturing industries.
Against this background, the theoretical framework of this dissertation stems from theories of industrial organization, strategic management, marketing, and international business. To address the novelty and complexity of this inquiry, the thesis adopts interpretivism paradigm, primary inductive logic, and qualitative research strategy. The study was conducted in two stages among 34 managers representing 28 German automotive and mobile machinery suppliers operating in Russia. The process of data collection and analysis was enhanced by combining key procedures of the grounded theory with several other common qualitative techniques.
The analysis showed that despite hostile activities of emerging market firms, the German managers primarily focused on competition with rivals from other developed countries. The emerging market competitors were perceived as benefiting from cost-leadership strategy and local market proximity. Consequently, the managers frequently ignored their activities and considered that their firms were protected from competition by several entry barriers. Those companies, which responded to these competitors, mainly combined strategies of differentiation, localization, retreat, and a narrow set of tactical retaliations. This study also determined the direct and mostly deteriorative influence of the Russian institutional environment on the competitive advantage of the German companies. Furthermore, the longitudinal research design revealed a largely adverse impact, which the occurred institutional changes had on the competitiveness of the German firms.
The findings provide a novel synthesis of competitive reactions to entrants from emerging markets. Moreover, this research is the first one to describe an aggregated impact of Russian institutional environment on the competitiveness of Western firms related to emerging market companies. In this way, it supports the institution-based view of strategy, and synthesizes a practically applicable decision framework for competitive reaction. Considering the importance of the Russian market and increasing competitiveness of emerging market firms, this thesis makes an important contribution to competition research in emerging economies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:16696 |
| Date | 03 November 2017 |
| Creators | Koriachenko, Dmytro |
| Contributors | Universität Leipzig |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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