The Internationalization of Indian Firms

Project Report on Strategic Issues, Organizational Transformation, and Performance

Dissertation Research Proposal on The Internationalization of Indian Firms- Strategic Issues, Organizational Transformation, and Performance

1.1 Problem analysis, research aims and questions

Emerging economies offer an interesting research opportunity as they undergo transformation to becoming important global players. In recent years, some research initiatives have started in the direction of understanding the response of firms from emerging economies to institutional transitions towards market-based economic systems (Aulakh and Kotabe, 2008).

In an interesting study, Peng (2003), applying institutional theory in the emerging economy context, and building on the work of Child (1972, 1997) and Oliver (1991) on how strategic choices are made, and the works of Leblebici, Salancik, Gopay and King (1991), Peng (2000) and Powell (1996) on how institutional transformation occur, suggests that incumbent firms in emerging economies respond to the opening-up of their economies in a two-stage manner:

1) At first, firms adopt a network-based strategy, leveraging managers’ interpersonal ties and firms’ interorganizational relationships (Powell, 1990) and building on relationships with government authorities (Guillen, 2000; Hillman and Hitt, 1999). In doing so, the firms do not actively initiate strategic transformations, but mainly react to the existing crisis, and hope to “muddle thorough” the transition with minimal changes (McCarthy and Puffer, 1995). Peng offers the example of India in the late 90’s, where established business groups, when faced with government liberalization policies, significantly enhanced – instead of reducing – their scope by extending their network ties with more sectors of the economy (Khanna and Palepu, 1999).

2) With the passage of time, regulatory, normative and cognitive pressures (Scott, 1995) push these firms to develop organizational capabilities and rely less on networks for competitive advantage. This push, also referred to as market-based strategy, concentrates on competitive resources and capabilities like quality, financing, marketing, etc, which are independent of the firm’s networks, relationships and connections (Barney, 1991). The push for a market-based strategy leads firms to “unlearn” organizational routines (Oliver, 1992, p. 585). In addition, the success of domestic start-ups and foreign companies encourages some of the established incumbents to pursue capability-based strategies (Lyles and Salk, 1996; Shenkar and Li, 1999).

Continuing in the tradition of this research stream, the present study will focus on two key research areas: 1) understanding the strategic direction Indian firms are taking as they internationalize, e.g. what modes they are using, what their international aspirations are, which geographical regions they are targeting, and so on. 2) examining whether these firms are indeed moving towards newer, “marketbased”, “excellent” or “efficient” organizational forms over the last few years (i.e. organizational forms suggested to be important or useful in facilitating internationalization success), detail the constituents of this transformation, and test whether there are any performance implications of this organizational transformation.

In taking up this research challenge, this study draws inspiration from the INNFORM research program – a multi-researcher, multi-method research project, which sought to “map the contours of contemporary organizational innovation, to examine the performance benefits and other consequences of innovative forms of organizing, and to explore the managerial and organizational processes of moving from more traditional forms of organizing” (Pettigrew et al, 2003, p. xi).

And in doing so, the present study also accepts the challenge of Hedlund’s call (1993) for further research on operationalizing some of the more speculative models of the transnational corporation like geocentric, transnationals, heterarchies, multi-focal, horizontal, etc, and for the development of more explicit processual frameworks through direct involvement with leading firms, especially those from outside the USA and Europe.

Building on the methodology adopted by the INNFORM study (Pettigrew et al, 2003), the present study has a progress aim, a performance aim and a process aim. Additionally, the present study also has a strategic analysis aim. These are explained as follows:

• The progress aim is to map the extent of organizational transformation towards newer forms of organizing in a large sample of internationalizing Indian firms.
• The performance aim is to examine the performance implications of these newer forms of organizing.
• The process aim is to study in detail the steps involved in this transformation.
• The strategic analysis aim is to understand key internationalization-related strategic choices, and the perceived importance of newer forms of organizing in the firm internationalization context in India.

The progress implications will be studied through the instrument of a survey of Indian internationalizing companies. The performance implications will be tested with performance-related data available through secondary sources (as the dependent variable) and data on organizational transformation collected through the survey (as the independent variables). The process implications will be analyzed via the medium of case studies. Finally, the analysis of strategic choices before internationalizing companies from India will be done with a mix of case study and quantitative analysis methods.

This multi-method approach has been adopted to ensure the availability of both statistically verifiable results on transformation and performance implications, and rich and detailed insights into the actual steps involved in the transformation process.

The main research questions the study attempts to answer are:

A. What are some of the key organizational variables described in the literature as being important in
the firm internationalization context?

B. What are some of the strategic decisions facing Indian firms going international?

C. To what extent are Indian companies moving towards newer forms of organizing as they increase
their international profiles?

D. Which individual elements of the organizational design are more important in this process?

E. To what extent does this increase in internationalization and organizational transformation have an
impact on organizational success?

If you want Dissertations with Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology, Data Analysis, Conclusion, References, Questionnaire, Custom Writing Help in PhD, Thesis, Case Studies on  Internationalization, Research Proposals, Term Papers,  Project Report on Internationalization of Indian Firms,  Research Projects, Assignments, Coursework, Essays, Articles, PowerPoint Presentations SWOT Analysis Reports , and Synopsis, than contact Mahasagar Publications, Mumbai, India by calling +91 9819650213 or +91 8081344446  or visit website www.projectspapers.com