Mobica's internationalisation project

: analysis and recommendations for the South American market

Abstract

The purpose of this company-based project is to provide recommendations on which South American low-cost location should Mobica, an UK-based software engineering and integration services firm, establish its new R&D centre. This will be achieved through developing an international market selection framework which the company can use in future internationalisation studies in order to support the expansion of its global low-cost strategy. The methodology adopted consists of a systematic contractible ranking approach which results in a formal sequential decision-making structure composed of three stages of analysis according to a general consensus in International Market Selection literature: a screening stage, where the initial set of South American countries is reduced to a short-list of countries according to macro-economic criteria; an identification stage, where a specific country is selected from the previous short-list according to micro-economic criteria; and a final selection stage, where the analysis indicates three best-possible city options for location according to the firm’s strategic goa ls and resource availability. Recommendations are then provided regarding one specific city. This will be achieved through the implementation of an Analytic Hierarchy Process method which allows prioritising each indicator through pairwise comparisons surveys. Data collection methods are mainly focused on collecting secondary data through documentation and evidence from reputable sources such as databases, study reports as well as company insight. Hence, one of this study’s limitations is related to the availability of reliable data for each stage of analysis, particularly the city-level stage. A further study limitation regards the interdependence of the various analysis criteria, which leads to problems in terms of priority interpretation. For future projects, it is advisable that the firm opts for a survey group answer, in order to allow for the combination of different professionals’ opinions but as well as for analysis objectivity. Findings indicate Chile as the best possible location, given the country’s general good performance in every indicator, and the project’s final recommendations address the three cities of Temuco, Santiago and Viña del Mar.

Date of Award	6 Dec 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Francisca Guedes de Oliveira (Supervisor)