Going international to the united arab emirates

Classificação: M00, M160The objective of the thesis is to describe the process of internationalization of three Portuguese companies into the market of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in general and the Emirate of Dubai in particular and to explore the reason for the differences in the internationalization process of the companies. The companies addressed by the thesis were Gelpeixe, Quidgest and Enouida. Although the three companies already possess some international presence and experience, they are eager to explore business opportunities in new emerging markets. The study applied the analyses of internationalization process concepts and theory, the target market characteristics, the three companies’ profiles, international objectives and product/ service particularities as well as a data qualitative analysis provided by a few Portuguese companies with operations in the UAE. The findings in this thesis show that the internationalization strategy of a company is assumed to depend upon internal and external factors such as a company´s different level of international experience and objectives, different business sectors and characteristics of its products or services and particular target market conditions and requirements. Although the three companies share similar internationalization objectives the findings suggests different market entry strategies for each company, namely, direct export with an agency agreement, wholly owned branch and franchise. Regarding the companies internationalization objectives and the target market characteristics each market entry strategy entails specific steps which each company is advised to follow in order to raise the chances of success in terms of market entry and future development starting from a moderate risky approach to a more committed local presence.A tese tem como objectivo descrever o processo de internacionalização de três empresas portuguesas para o mercado dos Emiratos Árabes Unidos (EAU) em geral e do Emirato do Dubai em particular e explorar a razão pela qual existem diferenças nos processos de internacionalização entre as empresas. As empresas alvo de análise na tese foram a Gelpeixe, a Quidgest e a Enouida. As três empresas já possuem alguma experiência e presença internacional e continuam a desenvolver esforços na busca de oportunidades de negócio para explorar em novos mercados emergentes. A realização do estudo envolveu a análise de diversos conceitos e teorias sobre processos de internacionalização, características do mercado alvo, perfil e objectivos de internacionalização das empresas, particularidades dos produtos/ serviços das empresas bem como uma análise qualitativa sobre a informação obtida através de empresas portuguesas com actividade nos EAU. A tese permitiu entender que a estratégia de internacionalização de uma empresa deverá depender de factores internos e externos tais como os diferentes níveis de experiência internacional e objectivos da empresa, diferentes sectores de negócio, características dos produtos/ serviços e em particular das condições e requisitos do mercado alvo. Apesar das três empresas partilharem objectivos de internacionalização idênticos foi possível identificar diferentes estratégias de entrada no mercado para cada uma das empresas nomeadamente, exportação directa através de acordo de agência, subsidiária detida totalmente pela empresa mãe e franchising. Considerando os objectivos de internacionalização de cada empresa e as características do mercado alvo foi delineada uma estratégia de entrada para cada empresa que começará por uma aproximação de risco moderado até atingir uma posição local com maior grau de compromisso. Cada estratégia inclui um conjunto de passos que se aconselha serem seguidos por forma a maximizar o sucesso de entrada no mercado e assegurar um crescimento sustentável

Market Entry Plan For A Vietnamese Industrial Company : case: European Plastic Joint Stock Company

The chemical and plastic industries have been hailed as the saviors for many economies in their current economic downturns. Despite the global recession, the plastic industry still shows its attractive opportunities in both output market and material market. Realizing the promising opportunity of plastic materials trading between the EU and Vietnam, the authors proposed an exploratory market research to a Vietnamese plastic masterbatch manufacturer with Finland as the pilot target market. The main objective of this paper is to assist the case company to decide whether Finland should be in its export market list. The authors, in the interests of the case company, designed their thesis as a market entry plan, which is the step-by-step guide of the case company through most trading barriers so as to reach the customers in the target market without making any tactical mistake. The writers also directed their focus towards the company’s competitive advantages, the market profitability and other influencing factors of the market entry process. Precisely, this work involves: the internal analysis of the case company, in which both its strengths and weaknesses are analyzed; the external analysis of the target market Finland, from which the case company can find its opportunities and also threats in a new environment; and finally the market entry strategies for exporting plastic masterbatch to Finland. There are several revealing findings in the thesis. Firstly, the Finnish plastic market, thanks to its high growth rate and competition, shows a certain amount of attractiveness to the case company, though it is not an appealing choice at the moment. Secondly, despite some legal issues, the case company can easily join the material distribution network by partnering up with the appropriate local distributors. Finally, the most important outcome is a sound set of strategic recommendations for the case company to perfect itself from the inside out

Surgimiento de actividades de exportación exitosas en Uruguay: cuatro casos específicos

En este trabajo se presenta el análisis de cuatro casos específicos de surgimiento de cuatro actividades de exportación exitosas de Uruguay: software de computación, productos madereros, caviar y carne de esturión, y vacunas para animales. En cada uno de esos casos específicos se trata cómo empresas, asociaciones y varios gobiernos a varios niveles han manejado crisis de mercado y facilitado el suministro de los bienes públicos necesarios para cada actividad. El análisis de estos casos específicos presenta además una descripción de las características de los actores principales en cada ramo de actividad así como las externalidades positivas que brindan a los emuladores, especialmente la difusión de conocimientos sobre exportación. También se presenta en cada área un caso opuesto de actividad menos exitosa (electrónica, vino, carne de rana y biotecnología, respectivamente) así como una sección sobre implicaciones de políticas.Agriculture, Exports, Manufacturing, Services, Uruguay

The Integration of Laos into the International Economy: Global Production Sharing, Landlockedness, and Trade Costs

Laos is a developing country well-endowed with natural resources that faces development challenges due to high trade costs from being landlocked. This thesis examines the integration of Laos into the international economy, focusing on the role played by global production sharing and trade costs associated with landlockedness. Laos has opened up to the regional and global economy in order to overcome its locational disadvantage and to graduate from its status as a least developed country. As the world is increasingly characterised by the geographical dispersion of production, this offers opportunities for Laos to tap into certain segments of production sharing that are commensurate with its comparative advantage. A framework is developed, which is based on a gravity model, to analyse the factors affecting countries’ participation in global production sharing (or ‘networked trade’), with emphasis on the implications for landlocked countries. Controlling for economic size and geographical factors, landlocked status reduces networked trade (both for trade in parts and components, and final goods). However, reducing services links costs, in particular improved logistics performance and joining regional trade agreements, contributes to the expansion of networked trade. This highlights the importance for landlocked countries to improve services links that coordinate geographically dispersed production processes. In examining the role of firm-specific characteristics in influencing export performance, the findings suggest firm size, foreign ownership, and input imports have positive effects on firms’ export intensity. Larger firms have more resources to exploit economies of scale to enable them to export more. Having foreign equity and using imported inputs also help raise firms’ productivity through foreign expertise and networks. Case studies further reveal that although the Lao garment industry is relatively small compared to regional comparators, the electronics industry shows promising prospects given its recent strong growth. The absence of supporting industries in these sectors highlights the challenge that Laos faces in competing with neighbouring countries given the cost and time penalty associated with being landlocked. The current study makes a strong case for Laos to focus efforts on upgrading trade-related logistics, deepening regional economic integration, and improving the overall business environment. Such measures suggest Laos can overcome its natural disadvantage of being landlocked, which would help the country further integrate into the international economy and facilitate a smooth transition after Laos graduates from least developed country status

Investment promotion: a Coega development corporation perspective

In March 2002, the Coega Development Cooperation (CDC) announced that the infrastructure design was complete, and the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) was declared the first IDZ in South Africa. The Coega IDZ was established to improve the delivery of infrastructure in the Eastern Cape by addressing skill shortages, unemployment, constrained planning and project management capacity, under-expenditure, sub-standard infrastructure, and inefficiencies that characterise delivery of infrastructure by government in South Africa generally and the Eastern Cape Province in particular. In the process, socio-economic development and transformation in the Eastern Cape and South Africa as a whole will be advanced. The primary objective of the study was to investigate the extent to which the various determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) influence the investment promotion strategy (IPS) used by the CDC, and how these determinants can be used in the IPS to increase the number of signed investors at the CDC

Industrial policies in Colombia

"Latin American and Caribbean countries underperformance relative to other developing countries in terms of productivity growth has reflected on moderate average economic growth of the region over the last 15 years. Colombia is no exception".Política industrial, Productividad, Crecimiento económico, Colombia

Promoting Learning and Industrial Upgrading in ASEAN Countries

This paper traces the effects of the "East Asian Miracle," the 1997-1998 Asian Crisis, the recovery, and the 2008-2009 global financial crisis on ASEAN countries. It also considers how ASEAN countries can sustain growth by leveraging production networks to facilitate technology transfer. To achieve this, ASEAN countries need to maintain an environment friendly to foreign investment by resisting corruption, providing consistent and coherent enforcement of laws and regulations at all governmental levels, and maintaining stable macroeconomic fundamentals. This paper then emphasizes that ASEAN countries should focus on climbing the value chain by investing in human capital. They can do this by providing children with adequate nutrition, healthcare, and primary education, providing high school students with a high quality education in science and math, and providing university students with scientific and engineering training. The educational system should also be careful to provide students with marketable skills that businesses need. Finally, the paper argues that ASEAN should promote regional financial integration to help channel savings to high-yielding investments in the region.East asian economic history; sustainable growth; global financial crisis; ASEAN; technology transfer