Abstract
Article history: Received September 1, 2011 Received in Revised form November, 10, 2011 Accepted 10 November 2011 Available online 11 November 2011 The study examined the market entry strategies of multinational services companies into Ghana’s service sector and the linkages to firm level performance after entry. Literature was reviewed on market entry strategies, internationalisation, globalisation of service firms and resource-based theory. The study adopted a quantitative research approach in this study to enable empirical testing of Ekeledo and Sivakumar (2004) framework. The study found that firm specific factors affect the market entry strategy while the entry strategy also affects performance after it enters the market. Home country factors and the features of services are also seen to moderate on the effects mentioned. The study also found that the features of services were an industry wide issue not so much consideration is given to it.
Highlights
The issue of market entry strategy continues to be of great interest to international business academics and practitioners (Malhotra et al, 2003; Mayrhofer, 2004)
The study found that all the firm level factors tested- specialised assets, tacit knowledge, organisational culture, international experience and firm reputation has an influence on the choice of market entry strategy of a service Multinational corporations (MNCs)
The study explored the impact of country host country institutional effects on the ability of firm level factors to influence the mode of market entry chosen
Summary
The issue of market entry strategy continues to be of great interest to international business academics and practitioners (Malhotra et al, 2003; Mayrhofer, 2004). Barriers are obstacles preventing entrant firms from being established in a particular market (Porter, 1980) These play a key role in impacting the kind of strategy that an MNC employs in entering a new market. Another key issue that has to be discussed when dealing with market entry strategies of MNCs is the issue of liability of foreignness (LOF) (Chen et al, 2006). The study will seek to explain the market entry strategies of MNCs into Ghana’s service sector by first understanding the factors that facilitate their entry into Ghana as well as the relationship between strategy competence and performance of these multinational firms. C) To determine the link between market entry strategy competence and performance in the context of international market entry (Pehrsson, 2004)
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