The internationalisation of emerging market multinational enterprises – Competitiveness of African organisations

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University of Pretoria

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Internationalisation of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) has been a topic of discussion amongst business and researchers alike. This has been driven by the emerging market’s (EM) dominance in the global scene. There has, however, been an inconclusive identification and understanding of the competitive advantages that have contributed to this growth. This research aimed to understand internationalisation from the African context. This was achieved by establishing how the African EMNEs have used their competitive advantage by reviewing if the competitive advantages established in literature have contributed to the expansion. These advantages include: home or country specific advantage; mindset or top management experience; cultural traits; technical talent; cheap labour; common language and historical relationships. Exploratory research was undertaken. With the need to have a representative view of African multinationals and the limited time allocated to conducting this research, the multiple case study strategy was used. This allowed for a representative view of the different perspectives from two select African EMNEs, and an in-depth exploration of these firms. The key outcome from this research was that internationalisation literature on EMNEs does apply to the African EMNEs. However, it is important to make use of transformational leaders in expansion projects. Secondly, it was found that firms need to learn to adapt to the culture of the foreign markets if their home market culture does not fit the environment.

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Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021.

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Sustainable Development Goals

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