Arcádia : the bittersweet taste of growing a traditional chocolate manufacturer

• Autor(a) principal: Fonseca, Tiago Aires da
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/25410
• topic: Internationalization; Expansion; Growth; SMEs; Internacionalização; Expansão; Crescimento; PMEs; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

Arcádia is a family-owned Portuguese confectionary, recognized for its quality products, especially its chocolates. The company has a long history, founded in 1933, by Manuel Bastos, and has been managed by the family ever since. Throughout its lifetime, Arcádia has established a recognizable brand in its local market and has grown from its origin city to the rest of the country. Under the management of João and Margarida Bastos, the company expanded its store presence to several locations in Portugal. Their expansion process included through the creation of new store concepts as well as franchising. Their growth plan leads to the focus of this Case Study, which aims to understand the current situation of Arcádia and the viability of its expansion to international markets. Relevant subjects are addressed in the Literature Review, such as: internationalization; definition of SMEs, their context in internationalization as well as their motivation and difficulties encountered in this process; firms’ resources and capabilities. The Teaching Note includes an analysis of the Case Study and the company’s current situation, as well as suggestions for future challenges that Arcádia would face if it decides to internationalize. The main focus of this dissertation is to analyse this company’s specific situation and motivations to explore new markets. Also the paper tries to explore if, as an SME, Arcádia’s resources and capabilities better position the company for an internationalization challenge and what difficulties it will face in this process.