Busi­ness Strategy in De­vel­op­ing Coun­tries and Emer­ging Mar­kets

Course content

Developing country and emerging market firms often emerge from different historical paths, have different resources and capabilities and hence different strategic orientations compared to firms from developed countries.  Differences in business environments, in combination with on-going changes (in terms of speed and content, like the Covid-19 impact and sustainability demands), alter strategy formulation and implementation compared to developed countries. Strategy formulation and management in developing countries and emerging markets take place in a market context and regulatory environment that is significantly different from that of developed countries. The business management literature has only recently started focusing specifically on the particular strategies that local (developing country) firms undertake as well as the interface between those strategies and developing countries/emerging markets (DC/EM). The course “Business strategy in developing countries and emerging markets” is specifically designed to introduce students to this literature. In addition to the theoretically oriented literature, the course will also include introduction to 'doing a literature review'. This element is tied to the methods components of the MSc BLC BaDS program and will be taught with an emphasis on enhancing the student’s academic skills.

The course will consist of four modules:

Module I (Introduction) will provide a general introduction to the business and development studies literature and to the key issue of doing a literature review. Concerning the first of these, the Introduction will take up the gap in the literature concerning the lacking perspectives of developing country firms as well as take account of the particular conditions of doing business in developing countries and emerging markets. Second, the Introduction will discuss the fact that the development literature has devoted too little attention to the role of local, developing country firm strategies and management in economic and social development. The introduction to a key element of doing a literature review serves as an introduction to this issue at the MSc BLC BADS program in general.

Module II introduces theories of business strategy and management in developing countries and emerging markets. The module will present and position key perspectives on business strategies, including theories of business management (e.g. the resource based perspective, internationalisation and network theory, principal agency theory, and institutional theory). Furthermore, it will discuss the applicability of the different theoretical frameworks to the Developing Countries & Emerging Markets contexts. The main issues addressed concern the scale of developing country firms (SMEs versus large firms and MNCs), degree of internationalisation and governance (in Global Value Chains).

Module III presents and examines a number of different examples and cases from a variety of settings (Africa, Asia and Latin-America), illustrating a number of possible strategies of developing country firms. The module has two Theme Days on respectively (i) internationalisation of developing country firms; and (ii) domestic/local market strategies of developing country SMEs. Secondly, the module includes lectures on a) the mobile telecommunication industry in a least developed context (Afghanistan), and b) Human Resource Management strategies among developing country firms. The methods component will continue to emphasise the issues of doing a literature review.

Module IV concludes the course summing up the content, evaluating the course and preparing for the exam including all aspects of the course (business strategies in developing countries and emerging markets, and methods).

Pedagogical approach:

The course is based on face-to-face lectures supplemented with a) a range of different illustrative examples of developing country firm strategies, b) in-depth discussion of selected case studies, and c) a number of on-line elements (video-clips, Youtube and more). Active and engaged participation is expected from the students based on the curriculum (readings and undertaking specified student tasks mainly in relation to presentation of literature and cases, but also as part of inductively engaging in the discussion of the literature throughout the lectures).