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International Strategy

Undergraduate or graduate capstone course in strategy or international management course.

Faced with increased competition at home, Sainsbury's decided to expand its international operations by entering Egypt. Sainsbury's initially created a joint venture with an Egyptian food retailer, but quickly increased its commitment by opening over 100 stores in Egypt. Sainsbury's dream of capturing the Egyptian food market faded as quickly as it was started. Due to declining profits, Sainsbury's eliminated its exposure in Egypt by selling its interests to its Egyptian partner. Sainsbury's first developing-country venture could be regarded as an object lesson in how not to operate. The company failed to properly investigate its market and its partners, and showed insensitivity to local conditions. Moreover, entering the Egyptian consumer business sector may have been ill-advised. Egypt, with a low gross domestic product (GDP) per head of about $1,300 and a population of 65 million, while having growth potential, is a daunting market. Why a poor and frequently disorganized country was perceived as having excellent growth potential was not addressed by Sainsbury's in its headlong rush to invest. The case should be interesting for students because it highlights a situation where a firm's international expansion efforts failed after the firm had success expanding internationally previously. Numerous reasons are presented in the case for Sainsbury's failure. The case highlights the multiplicity of issues which a company faces when it “goes global.” While Sainsbury's withdrew from Egypt, the case affords students the opportunity to evaluate whether they would have made the same decision by providing a discussion of the alternatives suggested by Sainsbury's Chairman.

The Sainsbury's case is capable of addressing several important teaching objectives: the case is an appropriate vehicle to demonstrate what can happen to a firm as it expands globally; students will gain more knowledge concerning why companies expand into foreign markets and the impact of cross-country differences in market conditions; the case presents the multifaceted complexities involved in globalization efforts and issues faced by companies concerned with global competition and global strategy; students should apply the concepts and tools of industry and competitive analysis; students should gain a better understand how to manage globally; students should gain an understanding of the challenges of globalization and global competition; students should gain a better understanding of the evolution of strategy as industry conditions change and new opportunities arise. As with any case study, students should learn to translate good analysis into appropriate recommendations for action.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

One of the key components to fraud prevention is strong internal controls. However, the greatest threat to an organization's information security is the manipulation of employees who are too often the victims of ploys and techniques used by slick con men known as social engineers. The purpose of this paper is to help prevent future incidents by increasing the awareness of social engineering attacks.

A review of the more common social engineering techniques is provided. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is very easy for someone to become a victim of a social engineer.

While many organizations recognize the importance and value of having strong internal controls, many fail to recognize the dangers associated with social engineering attacks.

Individuals and organizations remain vulnerable to social engineering attacks. The focus on internal controls is simply not enough and is not likely to prevent these attacks. Raising awareness is a good first step to addressing this significant and potentially dangerous problem.

This paper provides a concise summary of the most common social engineering techniques. It provides additional evidence that individuals need to better understand their susceptibility to becoming a victim of a social engineer as victims may expose their organizations to very significant harm.

This study examines how consumers' self-construal moderates consumers' buying behavior in situations requiring consumers to buy larger-than-expected clothing sizes. The authors explore the potential effectiveness of two distinct communication strategies – emotional versus informational ad appeals – to mitigate the negative effects of sizing discrepancies.

A total of three experiments were conducted to examine the proposed framework. Studies 1 and 2 investigate whether self-construal moderates the relationship between sizing discrepancy and purchasing intentions. Study 3 examines the effectiveness of communication strategies in reducing the detrimental effects of sizing discrepancy.

When encountering sizing discrepancies, the authors find that consumers with an interdependent self-construal have lower purchase intentions than those with an independent self-construal. The authors demonstrate that an emotional communication strategy is more effective for consumers with an interdependent self-construal, whereas an informational communication strategy is more effective for consumers with an independent self-construal.

With the lack of a universal sizing system, consumers often struggle to find clothes that fit as expected. However, extant research has not explored cross-cultural differences in how consumers respond to sizing discrepancies and how managers can reduce any potential negative effects.

This paper aims to review recent press on the fashion industry, pointing out the key players, strategic wins and challenges ahead for both couture and the high street.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments.

No one who visits the high street this season, be it in the US, the UK or Europe, can fail to notice that the retail sector is having a tough time. Stores are relatively empty for the time of year. Sales have started weeks in advance of the traditional date. Incentives to buy scream from every window. Meanwhile, the newspapers tell of companies going bankrupt every day, and world leaders speak mostly of a global economic breakdown. Where, in this despondent picture, are the fashionistas?

The paper offers advice on surviving through financial challenges from various fashion houses.

The paper considers how high end and high street fashion chains are managing to report good results despite the economic downturn.

Although being fired up about changes such as firm expansion, chief executive officers (CEOs) have a hard time with changes that involve divesting businesses or downsizing operations. This study aims to examine how a particular psychological process – regulatory focus – serves as a managerial exit barrier in the context of store closings in the US retail industry. This study also examines how a particular corporate governance mechanism, the board of directors, moderates the relationship between CEO regulatory focus and divestment activity.

This study content-analyzed letters to shareholders to measure the regulatory focus of retail CEOs and used negative binomial regression to test the effect of the CEO’s regulatory focus and board independence on store closure activity.

The two motivation orientations – promotion and prevention – focuses have distinct effects on store closure decisions. As predicted, promotion-focused CEOs, who value attainment and growth, resist “pulling the plug.” Conversely, prevention-focused CEOs, who are more sensitive to losses, are more inclined to close stores. Independent boards decrease the CEOs’ resistance to “pull the plug” only when necessary, which is the case when CEOs have less vigilant tendencies.

This study contributes to the strategy and marketing literature. It examines an individual-level antecedent of store closure decisions and responds to the call for research on the effect of regulatory focus on divestment decisions.

Leaders themselves can be a source of resistance to change. The findings suggest the importance of boards hiring CEOs psychologically aligned with the firms’ strategic priorities. Promotion-focused CEOs may be a better fit for companies engaged in growth and acquisition. By contrast, prevention-focused CEOs may be a better fit for firms involved in retrenchment and restructuring. Independent boards still have the power to influence CEO decisions in the case of a misfit, as the findings suggest.

This study examines divestment decisions during the “retail apocalypse” and provides empirical evidence for the existence of managerial exit barriers, first introduced by Michael Porter.

Corporations are now taking stands on contemporary and controversial social issues that share no obvious connection to the corporations’ business practices. At the same time, political polarization continues to intensify, which begs the question: Are these corporate stands – referred to as corporate social advocacy (CSA) – and political polarization related to each other, and if so, how? The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptualization of the connections between CSA and political polarization through a series of propositions that can be tested in subsequent research studies. Corporations have influence in society, and the ways in which they communicate on controversial social issues could further intensify or help assuage political polarization. Conversely, political polarization may be causing CSA in the first place, which would put into question the legitimacy and desirability of CSA because of the environment from which CSA is cultivated.

This study is designed to be conceptual, and the approach is based on theory building.

The study conceptualizes the relationship between CSA and political polarization to be symbiotic because both are bidirectional causes of each other. Engagement in CSA is also argued to be positively associated with perceptions that corporations contain particular political ideologies, i.e. more “liberal-leaning” or “conservative-leaning.” This study also predicts that – dependent on particular conditions – CSA will also lead to an increase in both boycotts and skepticism.

This study will contribute to scholars’, practitioners’ and consumers’ understanding of the causes and effects of CSA. The way in which political polarization is potentially causing CSA puts into question the legitimacy of corporations engaging in CSA in the first place. If CSA is cultivated in the soil of political polarization, is CSA desirable for corporations? Conversely, the way in which CSA is potentially causing political polarization also puts the legitimacy of CSA into question. If CSA is causing political polarization, is CSA desirable for society?

Corporations are an influential part of society, and thus will influence how society views controversial social issues. If the predictions in this study hold, corporations will play an important role in either intensifying or reducing political polarization, and political polarization will also play an important role in how corporations communicate about CSA issues.

Research focused on CSA is burgeoning, yet limited studies have examined how CSA and political polarization interact. Although there could be positive aspects of corporate involvement in CSA, this study examines some of the potential negative aspects of corporate involvement in CSA. Future research will also be able to test the propositions proposed in this study.

In promotional ads that contain both the Regular Price and Sale Price information, this paper aims to investigate whether changing the font sizes of these two prices has an effect on how consumers process the ad message. The authors use acquisition-transaction utility perspective to identify key differences in mechanisms invoked by the larger font size of the Regular Price vs that of the Sale Price.

Study 1 uses eye-tracking apparatus to study subjects’ responses to a full-color, realistic-looking ad for a digital camera. Study 2 uses a survey questionnaire to gauge subjects’ responses to a similar print ad. The font sizes of Regular Price and Sale price were manipulated while keeping all the other elements of the ad the same. Subjects were undergraduate students who participated in the study for a small incentive.

The authors find that making the relative font size of Regular Price bigger invokes a transaction-utility mechanism where customers’ attention is focused on the savings that can be had using the promotion. A bigger font size of Sale Price invokes an acquisition-utility mechanism that draws on the customers’ value consciousness.

The use of student subjects and only one product category in the experiments may limit the generalizability of the study’s findings.

In print ads, managers predominantly use a bigger font size for the Sale Price. This study suggests that the choice of a bigger font size should really be driven by the objective of the promotion: a bigger font size for Sale Price is advised if the objective is to take an acquisition utility approach, whereas a bigger font size for Regular Price is advised for using a transaction utility approach.

This study is the first attempt at using an acquisition-transaction utility perspective for understanding the use of relative font sizes in the context of price promotions.