INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY
SUMMARY
After completion of the course, students are able to:
1. Explain, exemplify, and give the limitations of core concepts and frameworks
of the field of international strategy (e.g., firm-specific and country-specific factors;
international sourcing and production; institutional and cultural distance).
2. Analyse real-life international business cases using pertinent theoretical
concepts covered in the class.
3. Evaluate solutions to strategic issues faced by firms in an international
business context, using theoretical concepts and frameworks covered in class.
4. Develop their own solutions to strategic issues firms in international business
contexts are often confronted with, by recombining the concepts and frameworks
covered in class.
WEEK 1
CHAPTER 1: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
STRATEGY
FSA = Firm Specific Advantage
FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY:
1. Internationally transferable; (or non-location bound) firm-specific advantages
(FSAs)
patents (knowledge), money, machinery or technology (sometimes) and
occasionally brand names (not always though)
2. Non-transferable (or location-bound) FSAs
Stand-alone resources linked to location advantages / Immobile resources
linked to location advantages, such as a network of privileged retail locations
leading to a dominant market share in the home market are immobile, and
therefore inherently non-transferable. - - -
Local marketing knowledge and reputational resources (e.g., brand names)
Local best practices (i.e., routines considered highly effective and efficient in
one country, such as incentive systems for highly skilled workers or buyer-
supplier relations). (e.g., Lincoln Electrics)
Domestic recombination capability, which may have led to a dominant market
share and superior expansion rate in the home country market, as the firm
engaged in product diversification or innovation, and thereby increased its
geographic market coverage domestically, may not be adept enough to confront
the additional complexities of foreign markets.
3. Location advantages
Many firms are successful internationally because they take advantage of a
favourable local environment. Location advantages represent the entire set of
strengths characterizing a specific location, and useable by firms’ operation in
that location. These strengths should always be assessed relative to the useable
, strengths of other locations. These rely on the motives to internationalize Benito
(2015); Why and how motives (still) matter
o Market seeking Market size & growth, consumer wealth & taste,
availability of sales channels, availability of marketing and sales
professionals
o Efficiency seeking Availability of production factors at low cost
(labour, energy)
o Resource seeking Availability of inputs
o Strategic asset seeking Availability of knowledge related assets;
availability of specialized intermediaries and service providers
o Export platform The goal of MNE activity is not only to produce cheap,
but also to ship it to third countries, so infrastructure is very important
4. Investment in – and value creation through resource recombination
5. Complementary resources of external actors
6. Bounded rationality
7. Bounded reliability
8. Extra: Advantages of foreignness: cultural attraction and arbitraging
THE MNE’S (MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE) UNIQUE RESOURCE BASE
(1&2; FSAs - Transferable & Non-transferable) (trick: HAFDRUP)
Human resources: individuals and teams, entrepreneurial and operational skills
Administrative knowledge: organizational structure, culture and systems
Financial resources: equity and loan capital
Downstream knowledge: marketing, sales, distribution and after sales service
Reputational resources: reputation for honest business dealings
Upstream knowledge: sourcing knowledge, product and process related
technological knowledge
Physical resources: natural resources, buildings, plant equipment
The resources need to be combined / work together what is called: recourse bundles.
These resources can be divided into natural and strategic resources which is explained in
section: ‘locations advantages
FOUR ARCHETYPES OF MNE’S:
1. Centralized exporter: this home country managed firm builds upon a tradition
of selling products internationally,
exporting products without adaptations
,2. International projector: this firms builds upon a tradition of transferring its
proprietary knowledge developed in the home country to foreign subsidiaries,
which are essentially clones of the home operations.
projecting its home country success recipes abroad.
3. International coordinator: the international coordinator builds upon a tradition
of managing international operations, both upstream and downstream, through a
tightly controlled but still flexible logistics function.
The MNEs key FSAs are efficiently linking these geographically dispersed
locations through seamless logistics
4. Multi-centered MNE; the multi-centered MNE consists of a set of entrepreneurial
subsidiaries abroad, which are key to knowledge-based FSA development.
multi-centered MNE should be viewed as a portfolio of largely independent
businesses
, RECOMBINATION CAPABILITIES
Recombination means that some resources used in an initial combination need to be
dropped.
The ability to adapt and recombine resources in such a way that they maintain firm
competitiveness over time and across environments. It is an art to have knowledge
bundles to bring tools together and make harmony to satisfy new stakeholders, called
Artful orchestration of resources. The way you combine them makes you successful or
not.
Recombination of capabilities in the international area are built up through
international experience:
Host-country specific experiences; reduce liability of foreignness in that specific
country by for example a customer base. (Walmart missed these experiences)
General internationalization experiences; increase capability to recombine
resources and capabilities across borders. For example, you might know how to
transfer money so you will know how it works in another country.
Recombination requires 3 things:
1. Entrepreneurial skills of managers
2. Slack or unused productive resources
3. Willingness and capacity to let go of some resources
COMPLEMENTARY RESOURCES OF EXTERNAL ACTORS
MNE’s need complementary resources of external factors to be successful abroad. The
firm’s domestically successful stand-alone FSAs, its routines and even its recombination
capabilities may be insufficient or inappropriate to operate successfully in host countries
and regions. You cannot do everything on your own because of cultural, economic,
institutional and spatial ‘distance’
Market knowledge/ access: working with a local marketing agency because they
know the market more than you do. If there is not an agency in the host market,
there is a problem: avoid going there or do it yourself (which is more challenging).
(This was the missing ingredient for Walmart, as they did not know the customer
preferences concerning excellence service)
Government connection: company which will do lobbying action for you for
example.
Complementary technology: when it is very expensive to move your resources,
you might try to find them in the host market.
Conditions:
1. Attempts at internal development would lead to lower NPV (net present value) or
are not feasible.
2. external factors are able and willing to provide the resources.
LIABILITY OF FOREIGNNESS (LOF)
A foreign firm has an a-priori disadvantage vis-à-vis a local firm, because of:
Geographic, linguistic, economic, political, educational, institutional, or
cultural distances.
SUMMARY
After completion of the course, students are able to:
1. Explain, exemplify, and give the limitations of core concepts and frameworks
of the field of international strategy (e.g., firm-specific and country-specific factors;
international sourcing and production; institutional and cultural distance).
2. Analyse real-life international business cases using pertinent theoretical
concepts covered in the class.
3. Evaluate solutions to strategic issues faced by firms in an international
business context, using theoretical concepts and frameworks covered in class.
4. Develop their own solutions to strategic issues firms in international business
contexts are often confronted with, by recombining the concepts and frameworks
covered in class.
WEEK 1
CHAPTER 1: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
STRATEGY
FSA = Firm Specific Advantage
FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY:
1. Internationally transferable; (or non-location bound) firm-specific advantages
(FSAs)
patents (knowledge), money, machinery or technology (sometimes) and
occasionally brand names (not always though)
2. Non-transferable (or location-bound) FSAs
Stand-alone resources linked to location advantages / Immobile resources
linked to location advantages, such as a network of privileged retail locations
leading to a dominant market share in the home market are immobile, and
therefore inherently non-transferable. - - -
Local marketing knowledge and reputational resources (e.g., brand names)
Local best practices (i.e., routines considered highly effective and efficient in
one country, such as incentive systems for highly skilled workers or buyer-
supplier relations). (e.g., Lincoln Electrics)
Domestic recombination capability, which may have led to a dominant market
share and superior expansion rate in the home country market, as the firm
engaged in product diversification or innovation, and thereby increased its
geographic market coverage domestically, may not be adept enough to confront
the additional complexities of foreign markets.
3. Location advantages
Many firms are successful internationally because they take advantage of a
favourable local environment. Location advantages represent the entire set of
strengths characterizing a specific location, and useable by firms’ operation in
that location. These strengths should always be assessed relative to the useable
, strengths of other locations. These rely on the motives to internationalize Benito
(2015); Why and how motives (still) matter
o Market seeking Market size & growth, consumer wealth & taste,
availability of sales channels, availability of marketing and sales
professionals
o Efficiency seeking Availability of production factors at low cost
(labour, energy)
o Resource seeking Availability of inputs
o Strategic asset seeking Availability of knowledge related assets;
availability of specialized intermediaries and service providers
o Export platform The goal of MNE activity is not only to produce cheap,
but also to ship it to third countries, so infrastructure is very important
4. Investment in – and value creation through resource recombination
5. Complementary resources of external actors
6. Bounded rationality
7. Bounded reliability
8. Extra: Advantages of foreignness: cultural attraction and arbitraging
THE MNE’S (MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE) UNIQUE RESOURCE BASE
(1&2; FSAs - Transferable & Non-transferable) (trick: HAFDRUP)
Human resources: individuals and teams, entrepreneurial and operational skills
Administrative knowledge: organizational structure, culture and systems
Financial resources: equity and loan capital
Downstream knowledge: marketing, sales, distribution and after sales service
Reputational resources: reputation for honest business dealings
Upstream knowledge: sourcing knowledge, product and process related
technological knowledge
Physical resources: natural resources, buildings, plant equipment
The resources need to be combined / work together what is called: recourse bundles.
These resources can be divided into natural and strategic resources which is explained in
section: ‘locations advantages
FOUR ARCHETYPES OF MNE’S:
1. Centralized exporter: this home country managed firm builds upon a tradition
of selling products internationally,
exporting products without adaptations
,2. International projector: this firms builds upon a tradition of transferring its
proprietary knowledge developed in the home country to foreign subsidiaries,
which are essentially clones of the home operations.
projecting its home country success recipes abroad.
3. International coordinator: the international coordinator builds upon a tradition
of managing international operations, both upstream and downstream, through a
tightly controlled but still flexible logistics function.
The MNEs key FSAs are efficiently linking these geographically dispersed
locations through seamless logistics
4. Multi-centered MNE; the multi-centered MNE consists of a set of entrepreneurial
subsidiaries abroad, which are key to knowledge-based FSA development.
multi-centered MNE should be viewed as a portfolio of largely independent
businesses
, RECOMBINATION CAPABILITIES
Recombination means that some resources used in an initial combination need to be
dropped.
The ability to adapt and recombine resources in such a way that they maintain firm
competitiveness over time and across environments. It is an art to have knowledge
bundles to bring tools together and make harmony to satisfy new stakeholders, called
Artful orchestration of resources. The way you combine them makes you successful or
not.
Recombination of capabilities in the international area are built up through
international experience:
Host-country specific experiences; reduce liability of foreignness in that specific
country by for example a customer base. (Walmart missed these experiences)
General internationalization experiences; increase capability to recombine
resources and capabilities across borders. For example, you might know how to
transfer money so you will know how it works in another country.
Recombination requires 3 things:
1. Entrepreneurial skills of managers
2. Slack or unused productive resources
3. Willingness and capacity to let go of some resources
COMPLEMENTARY RESOURCES OF EXTERNAL ACTORS
MNE’s need complementary resources of external factors to be successful abroad. The
firm’s domestically successful stand-alone FSAs, its routines and even its recombination
capabilities may be insufficient or inappropriate to operate successfully in host countries
and regions. You cannot do everything on your own because of cultural, economic,
institutional and spatial ‘distance’
Market knowledge/ access: working with a local marketing agency because they
know the market more than you do. If there is not an agency in the host market,
there is a problem: avoid going there or do it yourself (which is more challenging).
(This was the missing ingredient for Walmart, as they did not know the customer
preferences concerning excellence service)
Government connection: company which will do lobbying action for you for
example.
Complementary technology: when it is very expensive to move your resources,
you might try to find them in the host market.
Conditions:
1. Attempts at internal development would lead to lower NPV (net present value) or
are not feasible.
2. external factors are able and willing to provide the resources.
LIABILITY OF FOREIGNNESS (LOF)
A foreign firm has an a-priori disadvantage vis-à-vis a local firm, because of:
Geographic, linguistic, economic, political, educational, institutional, or
cultural distances.
