جنبه های کلیدی استراتژی شرکت در ساختار بین المللی Key aspects of corporate strategy in international construction

1. Introduction Many construction and engineering companies are searching for their expansion possibilities in foreign markets, since their domestic market shows shortage of business opportunities compared to underinvested economies missing their basic infrastructure. When entering foreign markets, companies are facing entry barriers. Porter [13] dealed with competitive strategy and defined six major sources of barriers to entry. Construction firms are forced to cope various market entry strategies including entry into strategic alliances in order to overcome these barriers. Strategic alliances have been widely discussed in the context of international business over the past two decades since interim collaboration has become an important component of creating competitive advantage [15]. A strategic alliance is an agreement between two or more companies to work together to achieve an objective. Joint ventures (JVs), a special type of strategic alliance, offer a unique opportunity to combine distinctive competencies and complementary resources of participating firms [10]. This form of alliance provides an opportunity to share the costs and risks, acquire knowledge, enter new markets and gain economies of scale or rationalize operations [2]. Although establishing international construction JVs is a widely used strategy in the construction industry, the majority of current literature and research is limited to manufacturing industry. International construction JVs are usually formed on single project bases, with limited duration. These alliances are affected by complex and multidimensional factors regarding partner compatibility, interworking relationships between the firms, host country conditions, project characteristics and by the JV structure itself. Theories of international joint ventures (IJVs) in the construction industry have not been investigated, except for a small number of studies which have concentrated on the risks of IJVs [1] [3] [14] and factors affecting the performance of IJVs [6][9]. Several studies in the literature have also examined the influence of culture on forming and on the performance of IJVs [5][7]. When coping strategies for international expansion, particular attention should be paid to export financing and cooperation with export credit agencies, which may facilitate foreign market entry. Recent academic literature [11][12] addresses this issue.