Going international to the United Arab Emirates

• Autor(a) principal: Albergaria, Jorge Pedro Castelo Branco Soares
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/6123
• topic: Internationalization; Agency; Branch; Franchise; Internacionalização; Agência; Subsidiária

The objective of the thesis is to describe the process of internationalization of three Portuguese companies into the market of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in general and the Emirate of Dubai in particular and to explore the reason for the differences in the internationalization process of the companies. The companies addressed by the thesis were Gelpeixe, Quidgest and Enouida. Although the three companies already possess some international presence and experience, they are eager to explore business opportunities in new emerging markets. The study applied the analyses of internationalization process concepts and theory, the target market characteristics, the three companies’ profiles, international objectives and product/ service particularities as well as a data qualitative analysis provided by a few Portuguese companies with operations in the UAE. The findings in this thesis show that the internationalization strategy of a company is assumed to depend upon internal and external factors such as a company´s different level of international experience and objectives, different business sectors and characteristics of its products or services and particular target market conditions and requirements. Although the three companies share similar internationalization objectives the findings suggests different market entry strategies for each company, namely, direct export with an agency agreement, wholly owned branch and franchise. Regarding the companies internationalization objectives and the target market characteristics each market entry strategy entails specific steps which each company is advised to follow in order to raise the chances of success in terms of market entry and future development starting from a moderate risky approach to a more committed local presence.