The previous sub-chapter (2.4) utilized the resource-based view to synthesize the literature in relation to the primary research question of why companies internationalize collaboratively, and the secondary question of the impact of Russian market. The reasons for choosing RBV are described extensively in the beginning of the chapter. Hereby, this section attempts to gather all the relevant findings from the literature review into a single theoretical framework.
It attempts to offer an alternative answer to the primary research question of why SMEs use alliances in their efforts to internationalize. The nature of the framework is preliminary and it is to be tested and subsequently improved using the empirical study.
The model is based on the assumption that the reasons for cooperative behavior in internationalization efforts have their roots in resources, or in particular, their absence.
Following the logic, the basic premise is that entering a foreign market requires certain resources not necessarily possessed by a single firm, and an alliance has the potential to fill some of these gaps. Additionally, the theoretical model assumes that the firms have the capabilities to assess their resource pool and consistently enlarge it in an alliance. The aspect of Russian market was purposefully left out in order to maintain the rigorous focus of the primary research question of why SMEs use alliances in their efforts to internationalize. The respective sub-questions are implicitly answered within the framework. The full image of the preliminary framework is illustrated below in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Preliminary theoretical framework (adapted from Zineldin & Dodourova, 2005;
Tseng et al., 2007; based on Table 1 & 2)
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The foundations of the preliminary framework are found in the synthesized literature reviews depicted in Table 1 (p.29) and Table 2 (p.33). In addition, the frameworks provided by Tseng et al. (2007) and Zineldin & Dodourova (2005) guided the formatting of the framework from two different viewpoints. Since the primary research question revolves around the behavior of individual companies, the firm is placed in the center of the model as illustrated by Figure 9. Meanwhile, the left block features the resources that the companies generally need in their effort to enter foreign markets. It is an adaptation of the categories provided by Tseng et al.
(2007) in their framework of factors that lead to growth in multi-nationality, and contains the six categories identified in Table 1. The right block, on the other hand, describes the resource types that a firm can potentially gain from an alliance. The idea of categorization is adapted from Zineldin & Dodourova (2005) but the content is derived from the summary of academic literature in Table 2 (p.33).
The dashed arrow represents the suggestion that alliances also take up resources from the firm. Participation requires at the very least time, some loss of control of some degree, and often monetary fees. However, as mentioned in the introduction of the thesis, this particular topic is purposefully not explored thoroughly, and the main focus is kept on the potential benefits of cooperation in terms of resources, due to their relevance in explaining why alliances are sought after.
One of the largest challenges associated with the model is concerned with the measurement of the resources. While the specific resources under the depicted categories are identified in Table 1and Table 2, their amount or volume can be very hard to measure. Analyzing whether the alliance provides firms with barely tiny bits of knowledge, or is the flow extensive and useful could be very beneficial for individual companies. The literature doesn’t offer any suggestions to address the issue but acknowledges that the transference of many resources, especially those of intangible nature such as tacit knowledge, is practically impossible to count numerically (Grant, 1996). Therefore, contemplating the measurement of resources might be one of the issues that should be examined during the empirical part of the study and included in the possible revised version of the theoretical framework.
Overall, the literature review summarized in the preliminary theoretical composition clearly places a hypothesis that the main reason behind cooperative internationalization is that alliances can provide firms with complementary resources. Moreover, some of these assets match with the requirements set by successful foreign market entries (see Figure 9).
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Specifically, the matching resource types were identified as Knowledge, Marketing and Technology.
A possible limitation associated to the preliminary framework is the fragmentation and vagueness of the resource data collection process. For example, while some of the resources are derived from the challenges faced by the companies in empirical studies, others stem from the theoretical research paper suggestions of internationalization possibilities.
Consequently, the review process behind the framework is subdued to serendipitous exploration of existing academic knowledge, rather than rigorous following of a particular method.
However, the aforementioned limitation does not undermine the academic importance of the framework. In essence, it provides a rather significant theoretical contribution by combining two large streams of research, internationalization and alliances, and placing them in a single model using the resource-based view. Hence, the theoretical framework assists in filling the research gap acknowledged in the beginning of the thesis (see section 1.3., p.3) and provides a clear alternative for answering the initial research question of rationale behind using alliances in entering foreign markets.
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