Högskolan i Skövde

There is much research into strategic business alliances in emerging markets, but none focuses on this form of collaboration within Europe’s emerging economies. This is a critical absence, as the European transition region is not only different from other European and Western regions but also from other regions with developing economies. Partners in the European transition region have unique cultural and social backgrounds, and consequently, unique ways of doing business. 

Transformations of Strategic Alliances in Emerging Markets focuses on this important gap. This book, the first of a two-volume set, makes a unique contribution to emerging market research by investigating the transformation of alliances in Eastern and central Europe over the past forty years. It provides a conceptual framework to describe and analyse the formation, development and functional mechanisms of strategic alliances in the European transition region, ultimately offering an in-depth overview of the challenges and opportunities around strategic alliance formation in emerging European markets.  

Transformations of Strategic Alliances in Emerging Markets, Volume I, is a must-read for academics and postgraduate students of development economics and business administration.

There is much research into strategic business alliances in emerging markets, but none focuses on this form of collaboration within Europe’s emerging economies. This is a critical absence, as the European transition region is not only different from other European and Western regions but also from other regions with developing economies. Partners in the European transition region have unique cultural and social backgrounds, and consequently, unique ways of doing business.

Transformations of Strategic Alliances in Emerging Markets focuses on this important gap. This book, the second of a two-volume set, makes a unique contribution to emerging market research by investigating the transformation of alliances in Eastern and central Europe over the past forty years. It provides a conceptual framework to describe and analyse the formation, development and functional mechanisms of strategic alliances in the European transition region, ultimately offering an in-depth overview of the challenges and opportunities around strategic alliance formation in emerging European markets.

Transformations of Strategic Alliances in Emerging Markets, Volume II, is a must-read for academics and postgraduate students of development economics and business administration.

The purpose of this article is to examine the establishment processes of Scania in Croatia and Statoil in Estonia applying a model developed from the network approach. The findings show that Statoil’s ability to leverage significant actors in its network to support its establishment made the process less cumbersome and less resource-consuming. Scania’s lack of home- and host country support resulted in an arduous and costly process, with Scania’s market position changing several times as different problems cropped up. We also found that relationship orientation requires adaptation by the firm and, more critically, by its managers. A lack of cross-cultural competence is also observed to be an impeding factor in the process.

Purpose: Intellectual property theft amounts to billions of dollars per year worldwide. The first step in stemming this loss is to understand the underlying precursors of this behavior. This paper aims to propose and test a model of consumer choice to purchase or pirate intellectual property, specifically music. This paper combines and applies the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and Becker’s theory of crime to develop a more comprehensive model of digital piracy behavior. Culture was tested as an antecedent to the attitudes and the perceptions of risk associated with music piracy. Design/methodology/approach: A survey of 4,618 participants was conducted across 23 countries. Construct measures were validated using confirmatory factor analysis in LISREL. A conceptual model was tested using logistic structural equation modeling in MPlus. Respondents were asked about the last music they acquired to test a behavioral model of music piracy. Findings: The results indicated that culture, specifically rule orientation and uncertainty avoidance, had a significant impact on attitudes toward the music industry, ethical perceptions of music piracy and risk perceptions. Respondents’ ethical perceptions of downloading had the highest impact on music piracy behavior. The personal/copy risk associated with the illegal downloading of music had a significant impact while the relative channel risk did not. The market value, quality and selection also had a significant impact on downloading behavior, as did the respondent's ability to find and download music. Research limitations/implications: While this paper was limited by focusing on the illegal downloading of music, the results can provide guidance in the design of future research concerning the piracy and unlicensed downloading of other types of intellectual properties such as movies/videos, TV, paywall content and e-books. Practical implications: In recent years, improved access to music and video through online streaming and online stores has significantly decreased music piracy. This research indicated that further inroads into this behavior could be made through better online purchase access and through consumer education about the ethics and results of digital downloading. Further, efforts are more efficient by targeting cultures with lower levels of rule orientation with ethics education and targeted risk messages in countries with higher uncertainty avoidance. Social implications: Yearly losses to the music industry amount to about $5-29bn. Many find music and video downloading and “sharing” as acceptable. The model developed in this research has implications to affect this mass loss of revenue to the music industry and perhaps the societal view of downloading behavior that is illegal but commonly accepted. Originality/value: This model is the first to integrate cultural aspects into models of digital piracy. In addition, the model is developed from a strong theoretical base (TRA and Becker’s theory of crime) to integrate multiple antecedents to intellectual property theft research. 

Factors influencing firms’ standardization and adaptations decisions tend to be treated as static isolated entities in the extant literature. Further, the focus is predominantly on Western MNCs and product development or marketing functions with manufacturing firms and the emerging/developing country perspective underrepresented. We explore factors, as well as their interrelations that determine standardization and adaptations decisions when a developed country manufacturing firm establishes operations in a developing country. Purposefully, Italian manufacturing firms with operations in Vietnam are examined. We identify functions, processes, and practices that are standardized/transferred and those that are adapted. A theoretical model is developed based on the findings.

Our understanding of the process of firm establishment in foreign markets is relatively limited especially in relation to host-developing and host-emerging markets. The market-specific and context-driven nature of the firm establishment process is largely overlooked in the literature. Against this background, we aim to chart the establishment process of a Spanish telecommunication firm, Telefonica, in Brazil and Chile by applying the 'four stage firm establishment process model in foreign markets' (Abraha, 1994). We identify strategic responses crafted by Telefonica to overcome the challenges during its establishment process. We revise Abraha's model in view of the findings and conclude with implications for managerial practices.

While the scholarly focus has shifted from strategic alliance formation to alliance performance and thus alliance outcome, the process that leads to a particular outcome: alliance success or alliance failure remains indeterminate. Given their high failure rate, this study aims to identify factors that contribute to an alliance failure to better understand the strategic alliance management process to help alliances survive. Purposefully, the Volvo-Renault alliance break-up is investigated. A Process Model for International Strategic Alliance Lifecycle is developed. The findings establish that post-formation, the strategic alliance process necessitates managing interactions among: partners’ objectives; partners’ resource contribution; access to partner’s network; and alliance performance. However, for an alliance to sustain, learning and assessment must be an integral part. Learning and assessment are critical strategic inputs that serve as ‘binding forces’, and as an ‘alert mechanism’ whereby timely corrective managerial actions are triggered in favor of an alliance sustainability and vice versa.

This paper contributes to extant literature on market entry strategies in several ways. First, while previous literature focuses either on entry modes or entry timing, comparatively little efforts are made to illuminate the establishment process. Secondly, it addresses emanating impediments and development of supporting relationships with significant actors during the processes of establishment in transition economies. Establishment model, developed from network approach, facilitated the capturing of various supporting relationships that enabled the focal relationships to function properly during the establishment processes in less-structured markets. In-depth interviews were held with key informants in two Scandinavian firms. Findings show that Statoil´s ability to leverage a number of significant actors in its network for support during its establishment in Estonia makes the process less cumbersome and less resource consuming. Lack of home and host country support for Scania resulted in an arduous and costly process, with the firm’s position changing several times as different problems cropped up. In conclusion, relationship orientation requires adaptation by an organization, but more critically by its managers. Lack of cross-cultural relationship skills and orientation could impede a company’s growth in international markets. We call for more research efforts in the area of cultural dimensions of market establishment processes.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the journey to and from strategic alliances and if alliances lead to the creation of new Alliances, how existing networks are managed and strengthened and to identify the factors which impact and determine the journey to and from strategic alliances. One of the findings of this chapter is that, in the pre-strategic alliance phase firms can have direct and indirect relationships which can lead to the formation of strategic alliances under certain circumstances, whereas in just the opposite circumstances those relationships might not lead to alliances formation. The other finding is that one of the main factors which determines the journey of strategic alliances is the degree of internationalization of the firm and the market. It is also found out that the journey of alliances can be different in the different groups of Central Europe countries depending on the pace or degree of adaptation of those countries, i.e. whether they are fast-, or medium or slow adapting countries.