L'influence des facteurs structurels sur le choix de mode de présence

Section 3 :

Strategies of internationalization

With economic universalization and the construction of integrated economic areas, the bringings together of companies (alliances, acquisitions of a holding, acquisitions...) experience a development growing since the beginning of the Eighties.

When a company wishes to be combined, it is confronted with the choice of the form of the bringing together. This decision is all the more important as many firms manage from now on wallets of alliances being composed of a large variety of agreements.^16(*)

The companies which tie successful alliances examine initially the strategic importance of alliance before concluding the contract, must thus be shown the good moment and be managed in an intelligent way to be a success and to release from the value for the companies partners.^17(*)

However, there are several access modes to the foreign markets.

1 them strategies of opening to several dimensions

According to Zmerli (1998)^18(*), the choice of the modes of presence comprises a number of major stakes of which it is advisable to hold account, before beginning. It is on this basis of analysis that a broad choice of possibility is offered. These various possibilities will make it possible to be directed more easily towards the solutions best adapted to specificities of the local contexts like the means and constraints specific to the company.

There are two strategies of presence, a contractual presence and a presence by direct investments abroad.

1.1 them strategies of contractual presence

to it frankness has

According to the F F F^19(*), the franchising is defined as « a method of collaboration enters a crossing company on the one hand, and one or more franchized companies on the other hand ».

It implies for the crossing company :

it property of a corporate name, a commercial name, initials and symbols, of a service or, trade mark, know-how placed at the disposal of the franchized companies ;

- A bundle of commodities and/or services :

* Offered in an original and specific way ;

* Exploited obligatorily and completely, according to beforehand tested uniform commercial techniques' and constantly developped at the point and controlled.

The purpose of this collaboration is an accelerated development of the contracting companies, by the common action resulting from the conjunction of the men and the capital, while maintaining their independence respective, within the framework of reciprocal exclusive dealing agreements.

It implies a remuneration or an economic advantage acquired with the franchiser, owner of the mark and know-how.^20(*)

B it transfer of license

It consists in conceding temporarily or definitively with a third, the right to manufacture a product finished until the moment when the product falls into the public domain counters royalties or royalties.

Generally the international license includes a variety of contractual arrangements by which the domesticated companies (licensers) make available to the foreign companies (licensees) its intangible properties (formulas, trade secrets, know-how, name of mark etc.)

According to Wirth (1992)^21(*), when the domesticated company yields a license of patent, mark and know-how, it must guarantee to the bachelor all documentation necessary to the manufacture of its product, it must provide him a technical aid and commercial and train its personnel to him to adapt it to the new technology.

The foreign bachelor must, as for him, to respect a certain number of engagements, among which :

- To exploit the license by guaranteeing a certain level of quality ;

- To organize the marketing of the product under mark in the territory which is given to him ;

- To respect the confidentiality of information which is transmitted to him ;

The leaders can rationally choose this mode like first stage of penetration only by comparing the hoped profitability of this form of presence with the other modes.

c- Subcontracting

It is defined as being « the operation by which a contractor entrusts, under its responsibility, with another person called subcontractor, whole or part of the contract of company concluded with the building owner »^22(*)

Subcontracting is thus under company which is characterized by the execution of a given work on the one hand, and the independence of the contractor in the completion of the work which is entrusted to him or rather the legal absence of subordination to the client on the other hand.

It is thus enough that the subcontractor is independent in the choice of the means intended to carry out the assigned objectives and this, it does not matter that the principal contractor has the capacity to organize the operation or the building site in time.

According to Haehnsen (1996)^23(*), the partnership is different from traditional subcontracting by a relation of confidence and mutual training and because it introduces a basic concept which is the division of information and the profits.

According to Garrette and Dussauge (1995)^24(*), the choice between partnership and traditional subcontracting depend at the same time on the nature of the projects to realize and the strategic options of the partners.

D them contracts of management

According to Leershnyder (1982)^25(*), it is a question of ensuring, for one determined period, the management of a company lately created abroad. This company can be ; that is to say a manufacturing unit which was the supply object « product in hand » for example, that is to say a service company.

The contracts of management are different from the frankness because the investment is « put in management ». The investor remains owner of the built good, the elected company assumes the responsibility for current management. The contract of management is a form of presence which makes it possible a company to carry out an investment in a foreign country and to entrust current management of it to a local company.^26(*)

1.2 them strategies of presence per Direct Investment abroad (I.D.E)

According to Wickham (1989)^27(*), the direct investment abroad (IDE) constitutes the ultimate phase which corresponds to an increase in the output abroad via a subsidiary company conferring on the investor a right of glance on management.

A foreign direct investment indicates an investment which aims at acquiring a durable interest in a company exploited in a country other than that of the investor, the goal of this last being to influence indeed the business management.

Until the end of the Sixties, the IDE took primarily the shape of subsidiary companies created, however, since first half of the Seventies and with a top reached in the middle of the Eighties, acquisition-fusions took over creation of site.

According to Joffre (1994)^28(*), the current preference of the Western companies, including companies beginners on an international level for this form of IDE, is explained primarily by four reasons related on the speed, the risk, the undercapitalization of the target companies and finally to the need for circumventing important barriers at the entry.

Bouyeure (1993)^29(*) class the reasons which explain the growth of the direct investment according to three logics :

- An industrial logic : seek the least expensive factors of production ;

- A logic of market : easier access to the customer and skirting of the barriers at the entry of the market ;

- A logic of company as an organization made up of resources and more or less transmissible know-how.

2- The research of the co-operation

In this increasingly competing international environment, it becomes necessary to the companies to identify their weak points know-how competences in order to fill them as fast as possible. The fastest means to cure it consists in seeking strategic alliances.

According to Folta (1998)^30(*), economic diversification can lead an actor to invest in an activity and competences different, distant from its field of origin. This « technological distance » the uncertainty accentuates with which a company is confronted.

The co-operation makes it possible to increase the resources of the partners by the pooling of complementary competences and especially it makes it possible to reduce the constraints of size and of uncertainty, it is for that it became a better solution for the firms.

2.1-reports

To start it is advisable to answer this essential question : what we call partnership relation ?

Alliances are a particular form of inter-organisational relations in which competitors concert their actions on whole or part of their activity.

In this research, alliances will be defined as concerted projects which result from a choice on behalf of the various parts, desire to converge towards common objectives or objectives for which an alliance is necessary. Alliance is a succession of choice and process, it implies the adaptation and the training of the men. The total principle of the partnership relations rests on a task sharing, responsibilities and can cover all the industrial process, design with the distribution of the product.

These strategic alliances combine competition and co-operation, which makes their management delicate from the point of view of the actors, the cultures and the potentially different individual interests. This delicate management leads us to want to determine invariants of management in the middle of this permanent instability.

The increase in trade on a world level, the need to offer products, know-how always more innovating, train the leaders of the companies of industry and the services to implement operating modes requiring an operation in co-operation, network, alliance between firms.

2.2-Pourquoi to tie a co-operation ?

Under the pressure of the crisis, a great number of companies seek new axes of growth, generally within the framework of existing activities, but also by increasing their economic performance and their flexibility by the development of a strategy of externalisation.

The externalisation, in its current meaning, concerns the concept of « the outsourcing » (subcontracting) or of « Make gold Buy » (To make or Make-Make). It is a question for the company of sub-contracting activities related to the process, even directly of the parts of this process^31(*).

This externalisation seems a new strategic dimension of the company by a centering on the trade (S) basic which it controls. It appears as a all the more interesting solution as the markets are « turbulent » and that a reduction of uncertainty is essential. The objective being to reinforce well the fields of expertise on the company.

A research carried out by Wacheux (1993)^32(*) provides three conclusions partial on the situations of partnership relations :

- This form will develop under the pressure and the constraints of the environment. If the company does not want to be reactive but pro-active, the control of its environment becomes a dominating objective.

them analyzes are often based on concepts of the industrial economy, economy of scale, phenomena of training, access to the markets, integration. In addition, the co-operation is a problem of general direction (level decisional and implemented).

- Taking into account the multiplicity of the actors and the shared responsabilities, the models of management « traditional » (system of direction, of information) do not allow a priori an effective and efficient management.

Generally a company cooperates for :

- To reach new markets ;

- To open with the international one ;

- To develop commercial synergies on the basis of technical complementarity ;

- To start a strategy of diversification ;

- To design and manufacture clean products ;

- To share a engineering and design department, a service R & D.

2.3 it co-operation : Risky strategy or gaining bet ?

According to Dussauge and Garrette (1997)^33(*), the reasons for which the companies tie co-operations divergent. The results obtained can not be those awaited at the beginning by the contracting parts. So that a co-operation succeeds, it is necessary for very that the companies partners defined their strategy clearly.

The companies which tie successful co-operations examine initially the strategic importance of the co-operation before concluding the contract. They thus determine the way in which the co-operation is integrated into the strategy of the company, in order to evaluate its performance of it.

The operational persons in charge consider that the co-operation is a success while being based on short-term criteria : the success of the product, the impact on the costs, the effectiveness of work completed jointly... But, it is necessary that the leaders of the companies partners anticipate the long-term consequences of the co-operation on the strategy of the company.

A strategy of partnership must have, according to Gomes- Casseres (2001)^34(*), four elements to be coherent :

(1) - a marketing strategy reflecting the logic and the design of the co-operation ;

(2) - a dynamic vision to manage each one of these co-operations ;

(3) - a wallet of co-operations making possible the coordination of these co-operations ;

(4) - an internal infrastructure optimizing the value of collaboration.

The co-operations must thus be shown the good moment and be managed

intelligent manner to be a success and to release from the value for the companies partners. In the contrary case they will be very expensive.

2.4 it Joint venture : a rational choice !

The joint venture makes it possible to organize durable relations in certain cases :

- to ensure the safety of control on technology : instead of yielding a license, it can be recommended to take part in the capital of the bachelor. This last is generally laid out to accept, because that facilitates its financing, but also guarantees the access to know-how. The donor of license can ensure a better control of its technology, to influence the strategy of its bachelor, to observe his behavior as regards financing, R & D.

it joint venture can ensure of the possibilities of subcontracting ;

it co-operation also moderates the behaviors of competition, in particular between head offices ;

- to facilitate the relations of purchases and sales reciprocal. The bonds create by the joint venture reduce the problem of fixing of the delivery prices, in particular when there is not price of reference of the market for the supplies.

The regular access to the supplies raw materials can be a particular case of this strategy :

- agreement on the market : the joint venture can also have for objective to harmonize the behaviors of competition of the head offices.

- technical guarantee : the suppliers of technology take sometimes a participation at their taker of license. ^35(*)

* ¹⁶ Mayrhoffer U & Fabrice R O (1999): «  Management of uncertainty and influence of diversification and nationality on the forms of bringing together  », Université Robert Schuman Strasbourg3- Finances Control Strategy volume2, N°4, pp135-156

* ¹⁷ Guédon S & Mélou C, memory of research  : «  The Joint Venture  : General characteristics and Typologies  », OF the Finance of company (October 2002)

* ¹⁸ Zmerli K (1998), COp-cit

* ¹⁹ French federation of Franchising

* ²⁰ Mendez M & Lehnisch J P (1989)  : «How to make a success of of frankness  », Bordered, Paris 

* ²¹ Langefeld W K (1992): «  The Joint international ventures  » GLN Jolly Edition

* ²² The French law of December 31, 1975 (www.juriscope.org)

* ²³ Haehnsen E & Kan E (1996)  : «  Subcontracting in change  », Book Industries, N°21, pp11-21

* ²⁴ Garrette B & Dussauge P (1995)  : «  Strategies of alliance  », Editions of organization

* ²⁵ De Leershnyder J M (1982): «International Marketing», 1ère Edition, Dalloz

* ²⁶ Zmerli K (1998) COp-cit

* ²⁷ Wickham S.P (1989)  : «  Direct investments and foreign subsidiary companies through European industrial space  », Economy applied, Review published by the ISMEA Paris and the university presses of Grenoble, divide into volumes XLII, N°4, pp87-112

* ²⁸ Joffre P (1994)  : «  To include/understand the universalization of the company  », Economica Edition

* ²⁹ Bouyeure C (1993)  : «  The international investment  », PUF, `Which I know  ? ', N°1256, p128

* ³⁰ Folta T B (1998)  : «  Governance and Uncertainty: the trade-off between administrative control and commitment  », Strategic Management Newspaper, flight 19, p1007-1028

* ³¹ Ramudhin A & Lefrançois P & S Of Loves & Montreuil B (1996)  : «  With decision support system for operations scheduling in distributed environment ", Re-examined systems of decision, flight 5, N°1-2, Hermès

* ³² Wacheux F (1993)  : «  Organisational processes and sets of actors to work in alliances between firms, exploratory Study in the Building industry and Public works  », thesis of Doctorate, Dauphine Paris University

* ³³ Dussauge P & Garrette B (1997) «  To anticipate the consequences of strategic alliances  », Re-examined French of Management, June, July, August

* ³⁴ Casseres gums, B (2001)  :  «  Strategy, keystone of alliances  », Echoes, of the 21/03/01

* ³⁵ Langefeld W K (1992)  : «  The Ventures Joint International  », Cologne, translation and adaptation  : Andre Garcia