A Perspective of the International Collaborative Context and Decision-making Approaches of Technology-based Multinational Enterprises. Bridging Theory and Practice of Corporate Interrelations.

Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master Thesis
Program
International Project Management
Publicerad
2016
Författare
FASHHO MUSALLAM, NICOLÁS
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Sammanfattning
A globalized world demands globalized companies. Hence, the study tries to picture, from the international perspective, the interaction between firms and their business collaborators. The purposes of the study are to analyse, from the perspective of the research participants and by contrasting theory and practice, how the addressed organisations manage their network collaborators to consolidate their international business market position and what is the overview of their internal practices to make decisions in terms of their cooperation strategy with other firms. The theory of this research is built upon three main pillars: networking, internationalization, and decision-making processes (DMPs). The literature of networking serves as a frame to introduce collaboration and DMPs as subjects of research. Besides, three of the strategy paradoxes are used as a rationale to build the frame of internationalization and decision-making processes. Thus, these three elements constitute the focus of interest of this study. The research counts on a deductive approach in which theory was being put into practice. The investigation was based on the study performed to 8 different multinational enterprises (MNEs) with 10 research participants in sectors related to Engineering and Technology businesses. The tool to gather the data was a survey composed by a multiple-choice questionnaire and a set of open questions. Furthermore, two semi-structured interviews were carried out to complement the surveys. The studied companies cooperate with other organisations on a functional basis, that is, those collaborators that satisfy their needs are the ones selected. Also their geographical location does not oppose a significant barrier to partner. The studied MNEs count on defined procedures and formalities to make decisions for choosing and working with these collaborators. However, the information gates feeding these processes are based on an individual or group level. Hence, the addressed individuals may apply informal methods to obtain such data. Furthermore, every business area and hierarchical level can have their own specialized network of partner collaborators. This fact also impacts the decision level in terms of cooperating. Thus, collaborators are an essential support for the addressed MNEs to ensure their business continuity in the international market.
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Samhällsbyggnadsteknik , Civil Engineering
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