KEY QUESTIONS FOR CASES
WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY ANGLE OF THE BUSINESS?
HOW WILL THE MARKET EVOLVE?
KPMG innovation lab methodology
WHAT IS THE MAIN STRATEGIC CHOICE?
Porter’s generic strategies
WHAT TYPE OF COMPANY ARE YOU?
3C model by Kenichi Ohmae: corporate based customer based competitor based
,HOW DO YOU POSITION YOURSELF?
Value discipline model (Tracey & Weirsema)
how do you expand?
THE ANSOFF MATRIX: THEORY
WHAT ARE THE KEY RESOURCES OF THE MNE?
1. Physical resources (natural resources, buildings, plant equipment).
2. Financial resources (equity and loan capital)
3. Human resources (individuals and teams, entrepreneurial and operational skills).
4. Upstream knowledge (sourcing knowledge, product and process- related technological knowledge).
5. Downstream knowledge (marketing, sales, distribution and after sales service).
6. Administrative knowledge (organizational structure, culture and systems).
7. Reputational resources (reputation for honest business dealings).
SAM STROO 2
,WHAT ARE THE KEY ROUTINES OF THE MNE?
The distinct ability to combine further the firm’s resources, in unique ways valued by the firm’s stakeholders.
Routines are stable patterns of decisions and actions that coordinate the productive use of resources, and
thereby generate value, whether domestically or internationally. The combination ability expressed in routines
is a higher-order FSA.
WHAT ARE THE KEY RECOMBINATIONS USED?
Constitutes the heart of international business strategy.
Artful orchestration of resources, especially knowledge bundles, as a response to differences between
national and foreign environments, and to satisfy new stakeholder demands in these foreign
environments.
Entrepreneurial judgment is at the heart of the MNE’s recombination capability.
Precondition to value creation and satisfying stakeholder needs in complex international settings.
WHAT ARE THE KEY MOTIVATIONS FOR FOREIGN EXPANSION?
Natural resource seeking
Market seeking
Strategic resource seeking
Efficiency seeking
WHICH TYPE OF BUSINESS IS THE MNE?
Centralised exporter: Exporter of central products (eg apple)
International Projector: Exporter of recipes (eg Disney)
International Coordinator: Combines resources of multiple counties (eg BP)
Multi-Centred MNE: multiple home bases (eg Phillips)
WHAT RESOURCES OF EXTERNAL ACTORS ARE USED?
Needed from external actors (technology providers, licensees, local distributors, joint venture partners, etc.) to
be successful abroad.
Distance types that can be covered by partners
1. cultural
2. economic
3. institutional
4. spatial
HOW DO YOU MANAGE BOUNDED RATIONALITY AND BOUNDED RELIABILITY
Bounded rationality is about the imperfect assessment of a present or future state of affairs, thereby
leading to incorrect beliefs;
Bounded reliability is about imperfect effort towards pre-specified goal achievement, thereby leading
to incomplete fulfilment of promises.
HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE WITH LOCAL MANAGERS (GUIDE VERSUS COMMAND)
SAM STROO 3
, Five simple principles of procedural justice:
1. Corporate headquarters’ familiarity with the local situation at the subsidiary level
2. Effective two-way communication between corporate headquarters and subsidiaries
3. Consistency in decision-making across subsidiaries
4. Possibility for subsidiary managers to challenge the dominant perspective at corporate headquarters
5. Transparent explanation of final decisions made by corporate headquarters
WHAT ARE THE CORE COMPETENCES OF THE MNE?
Difficult for competitors to imitate (internal coordination and learning)
Provides potential access to wide variety of markets
Makes a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits from the end products
We add a fourth characteristic: the loss of a core competence would have an important negative
effect on the firm’s present and future performance, in terms of value creation and satisfying
stakeholder objectives
WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF THE SUBSIDIARIES?
Two common, wrong assumptions made by senior MNE management:
o United Nations model of multinational management: treat each subsidiary in a similar manner implies
either subsidiary independence (multi-centered MNEs) or complete dependence (global exporters or
international projectors)
o Headquarters hierarchy syndrome: corporate headquarters rule (only valid in case of complete
dependence of subsidiaries)
HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE R&D?
Two distinct types of R&D facilities: home-base exploiting sites and home-base augmenting sites
Home-base exploiting sites “supporting manufacturing facilities in foreign countries or to adapt
standard products to the demand there”, with “information flows to the foreign laboratory from the
central lab at home”
Home-base augmenting sites have information flows “from the foreign laboratory to the central lab at
home”
WHAT TYPES OF FACTORIES DO YOU HAVE?
possible roles of foreign manufacturing facilities result from:
SAM STROO 4
WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY ANGLE OF THE BUSINESS?
HOW WILL THE MARKET EVOLVE?
KPMG innovation lab methodology
WHAT IS THE MAIN STRATEGIC CHOICE?
Porter’s generic strategies
WHAT TYPE OF COMPANY ARE YOU?
3C model by Kenichi Ohmae: corporate based customer based competitor based
,HOW DO YOU POSITION YOURSELF?
Value discipline model (Tracey & Weirsema)
how do you expand?
THE ANSOFF MATRIX: THEORY
WHAT ARE THE KEY RESOURCES OF THE MNE?
1. Physical resources (natural resources, buildings, plant equipment).
2. Financial resources (equity and loan capital)
3. Human resources (individuals and teams, entrepreneurial and operational skills).
4. Upstream knowledge (sourcing knowledge, product and process- related technological knowledge).
5. Downstream knowledge (marketing, sales, distribution and after sales service).
6. Administrative knowledge (organizational structure, culture and systems).
7. Reputational resources (reputation for honest business dealings).
SAM STROO 2
,WHAT ARE THE KEY ROUTINES OF THE MNE?
The distinct ability to combine further the firm’s resources, in unique ways valued by the firm’s stakeholders.
Routines are stable patterns of decisions and actions that coordinate the productive use of resources, and
thereby generate value, whether domestically or internationally. The combination ability expressed in routines
is a higher-order FSA.
WHAT ARE THE KEY RECOMBINATIONS USED?
Constitutes the heart of international business strategy.
Artful orchestration of resources, especially knowledge bundles, as a response to differences between
national and foreign environments, and to satisfy new stakeholder demands in these foreign
environments.
Entrepreneurial judgment is at the heart of the MNE’s recombination capability.
Precondition to value creation and satisfying stakeholder needs in complex international settings.
WHAT ARE THE KEY MOTIVATIONS FOR FOREIGN EXPANSION?
Natural resource seeking
Market seeking
Strategic resource seeking
Efficiency seeking
WHICH TYPE OF BUSINESS IS THE MNE?
Centralised exporter: Exporter of central products (eg apple)
International Projector: Exporter of recipes (eg Disney)
International Coordinator: Combines resources of multiple counties (eg BP)
Multi-Centred MNE: multiple home bases (eg Phillips)
WHAT RESOURCES OF EXTERNAL ACTORS ARE USED?
Needed from external actors (technology providers, licensees, local distributors, joint venture partners, etc.) to
be successful abroad.
Distance types that can be covered by partners
1. cultural
2. economic
3. institutional
4. spatial
HOW DO YOU MANAGE BOUNDED RATIONALITY AND BOUNDED RELIABILITY
Bounded rationality is about the imperfect assessment of a present or future state of affairs, thereby
leading to incorrect beliefs;
Bounded reliability is about imperfect effort towards pre-specified goal achievement, thereby leading
to incomplete fulfilment of promises.
HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE WITH LOCAL MANAGERS (GUIDE VERSUS COMMAND)
SAM STROO 3
, Five simple principles of procedural justice:
1. Corporate headquarters’ familiarity with the local situation at the subsidiary level
2. Effective two-way communication between corporate headquarters and subsidiaries
3. Consistency in decision-making across subsidiaries
4. Possibility for subsidiary managers to challenge the dominant perspective at corporate headquarters
5. Transparent explanation of final decisions made by corporate headquarters
WHAT ARE THE CORE COMPETENCES OF THE MNE?
Difficult for competitors to imitate (internal coordination and learning)
Provides potential access to wide variety of markets
Makes a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits from the end products
We add a fourth characteristic: the loss of a core competence would have an important negative
effect on the firm’s present and future performance, in terms of value creation and satisfying
stakeholder objectives
WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF THE SUBSIDIARIES?
Two common, wrong assumptions made by senior MNE management:
o United Nations model of multinational management: treat each subsidiary in a similar manner implies
either subsidiary independence (multi-centered MNEs) or complete dependence (global exporters or
international projectors)
o Headquarters hierarchy syndrome: corporate headquarters rule (only valid in case of complete
dependence of subsidiaries)
HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE R&D?
Two distinct types of R&D facilities: home-base exploiting sites and home-base augmenting sites
Home-base exploiting sites “supporting manufacturing facilities in foreign countries or to adapt
standard products to the demand there”, with “information flows to the foreign laboratory from the
central lab at home”
Home-base augmenting sites have information flows “from the foreign laboratory to the central lab at
home”
WHAT TYPES OF FACTORIES DO YOU HAVE?
possible roles of foreign manufacturing facilities result from:
SAM STROO 4
