University of Twente Student Theses
Explaining Trade Missions: the role of program characteristics in explaining trade mission’s outcomes.
Broek, S. (2017) Explaining Trade Missions: the role of program characteristics in explaining trade mission’s outcomes.
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| Abstract: | This study examines to what extent trade mission (TM) program characteristics contribute to explain government initiated TM’s intangible and tangible outcomes. Firms participate in TMs in order to internationalise and its international success depends on a firm’s internal capabilities and competences. Therefore, the intangible outcomes are based on the International Business Competence (IBC); comprehending intangible capabilities that are extremely important for organisations in international business. On the other hand, the tangible outcomes include the contracts caused by the TM and to what extent the firm’s objective investment in the foreign market has been achieved. For this study the case of the Netherlands has been used. Hence, the sample consists of TMs organised by the Dutch government and executed in the period February 2014 till March 2015. Data from publicly available evaluations (factsheets), documents, reports and interviews were used to conduct this study. Findings suggest that participating firms are not completely satisfied about achieving their objectives. Also, the findings indicate that the TM program characteristics are less than optimal integrated in program components. Furthermore, the TM program characteristic “market exploration” has a positive effect on the capability “international orientation”. Characteristic “business culture exploration” positively affects the capabilities “international orientation, “international marketing skills” and the score on the objective investment in foreign market. Moreover, the characteristic “networking during program” positively influences the capabilities “international orientation”, “international innovativeness”, “international market orientation” and the score on the objective investment in foreign market. There is no supported link between the TM program characteristics and contracts in response to the TM. Concluding, it can be stated that the TM program characteristics “market exploration”, “business culture exploration” and “networking during the program” could influence the IBC and investment in foreign market. Also, additional findings do suggest a connection between the intangible and tangible outcomes. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/71678 |
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