The Internationalization Process Through Dubai, United Arab Emirates Oleotest® Case by Joana Fidalgo Fonseca Matias Report
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The internationalization process through Dubai, United Arab Emirates OleoTest® Case by Joana Fidalgo Fonseca Matias Report for Master in Economics Advised by Prof. Miguel José Ferros Pimentel Reis da Fonseca 2016 ii Biographical Note Joana Fidalgo Fonseca Matias was born in Vila Real on June 9, 1993. Graduated in Economics by the Faculty of Economics of Porto (FEP) in September 2014. In the following month, she entered the Master in Economics of the same faculty, with the intent of continuing increasing her knowledge on this area. Always fascinated with the internationalization area, Joana found in Castro, Pinto & Costa Lda. the opportunity to increase her knowledge and to gain professional experience. Between October of 2015 and March 2016, she developed a curricular internship at that SME, which lead to the development of the present report. iii Abstract Considering that “What drives the international success or failure of firms is a question central to the fields of strategy and international business” (Peng, 2004), the main aim of this study is to understand the specificities of the internationalization process to the United Arab Emirates, and to develop a strategic export plan for a particular company. This report is a result of the curricular internship developed in “Castro, Pinto & Costa, Lda.” (CPC) between October 2015 and March 2016, and its motivation lies on the expansion projects of the firm through the export of OleoTest®. This product is a groundbreaking solution for the quality control of frying oils as it measures, in an efficient and quick way, the amount of polar compounds present in the frying oil sample, and it is mainly marketed in a Business-to- Business approach, which will be maintained. In order to achieve the proposed goals, a qualitative methodology was pursued, as it presents the best option for identifying the similarities and differences between the theoretical studies of internationalization, and practical information of the case at hand. An interview with Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Árabe-Portuguesa was also developed in order to understand in a detailed way the relationships between Portugal and the United Arab Emirates, along with the internationalization process of a small firm into the Arab countries. JEL Codes: F23, L26, M10, M16 Keywords: Internationalization, SMEs, Internationalization Strategy, Export Barriers, Castro, Pinto & Costa, Lda. (CPC), OleoTest® iv Table of Contents Biographical Note .......................................................................................................... iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iv Table Index .................................................................................................................... vii Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... viii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Internationalization Literature Review ........................................................................ 3 2.2. International Entrepreneurship .................................................................................... 7 2.3. Internationalization in B2B markets ............................................................................ 8 2.4. Entry Modes ................................................................................................................ 9 2.5. Internationalization Barriers ...................................................................................... 10 2.6. Socio-cultural Factors ................................................................................................ 13 3. The internship ....................................................................................................... 14 3.1. The Company ............................................................................................................ 14 3.2. OleoTest®.................................................................................................................. 15 3.3. Competition ............................................................................................................... 16 3.4. Internationalization .................................................................................................... 16 3.5. Activities developed within the internship ................................................................ 17 4. Methodology .......................................................................................................... 19 5. The Internationalization Process of CPC to Dubai, UAE ................................. 21 5.1. PESTLE analysis ....................................................................................................... 21 5.2. Relationship between Portugal and the United Arab Emirates .................................. 28 5.3. Exports to UAE ......................................................................................................... 30 5.3.1. General information .............................................................................................. 30 5.3.2. The case of OleoTest® .......................................................................................... 32 6. Conclusions and Limitations of the work ........................................................... 37 7. Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 40 v 8. Annexes .................................................................................................................. 44 vi Table Index Table 1: The Network approach of Internationalization ................................................... 6 Table 2: Classification of Export Barriers ...................................................................... 11 vii Abbreviations ASAE – Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica B2B – Business to Business B2C – Business to Consumer CCIAP – Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Árabe-Portuguesa CEO – Chief Executive Office CIF – Cost, Insurance and Freight CPC – Castro Pinto & Costa, Lda. ESMA – Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology FDI – Foreign Direct Investment FEP – Faculdade de Economia e Gestão FFA – Free Fatty Acids FTZ – Free Trade Zones GCC – Gulf Cooperation Council GDP – Gross Domestic Product HORECA – Hotels, Restaurants, and Catering MFN – Most Favoured Nation MNE – Multinational Enterprises OT – OleoTest® PESTLE - Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors analysis SME – Small and Medium Enterprise TPM – Total Polar Materials UAE – United Arab Emirates WTO – World Trade Organization viii 1. Introduction The curricular internship that resulted in this report was developed, from October 2015 to March 2016, in “Castro, Pinto & Castro, Lda.” (CPC), a company founded in 2000 as a spin-off from University of Minho whose key product is OleoTest® (OT). Indeed, OT was developed to control food oils quality and it is a cheap and fast method to evaluate the presence and quantity of polar compounds (very harmful for the human health), being used by official entities in inspection actions and in the HORECA business field. With the intent of continuing its internationalization process, CPC turned attention to a fast growing market - the Middle East. With the Arab Spring news circulating all around us, we cannot deviate our attention from this part of the world, that is trying to evolve from conservative, closed and dictatorship states to international business attraction centers (Pahwa & Winegar, 2012). Despite those events, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been at the core of regional economic integration since 2000, showing that there is still confidence in the Middle East’s attractiveness as an investment destination. Solid fundamentals, strong demographics and Government willingness to improve the growth prospects are the main characteristics that firms consider most when they decide to invest in the Middle East region (Hertog, 2007). Otherwise, the characteristics of the population (one of the youngest and wealthiest in the world), allied with the availability of extensive natural resources and namely the increasing oil prices have established considerable budget surpluses among the Arab oil exporters, which have helped governments to increase their spending on infrastructure such as Hospitals, Hotels, etc. (Kinninmont, 2010). Thus, these developments became my main motivation for developing an internship report about the internationalization process to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In this context, the main purpose of this internship is to propose a market entry plan for CPC, by identifying distribution channels, exhibitions/fairs, potential distributors and customers in that country. This study is particularly relevant, as the company feels the national market is saturated and has established as its next goal the internationalization of OT to fast growing countries. 1 Therefore, the analysis of the Arab market along with the usual proceedings and export regulations to the United Arab Emirates, such as tariff codes and taxation, will be gathered and analyzed specifically for OleoTest®. As OT operates in a Business-to-