A Study On International Market Entry Strategy Of Search Engine Firms

In the Internet era in21stcentury, Internet content providers, especially, searchengine firms have been continuously growing and aroused the concern of countriesaround the world, which are not only characterized by huge market space anddevelopment potential, but also related to the changes of human production andlifestyle, culture values and even social change. With the increasing overseasinvestment of search engine firms and based on RBV theoretical perspective, thisdissertation has build research framework as "target market chioce-entrytiming-entry mode", used exploratory and explanatory case study method, gameanalysis method and the logistic regression analysis method to analyze the strategicdecision-making mechanisms of international market entry of search engine firms,explored the theoretical explanation of international market entry of search enginefirms, and expanded existing theoretical research fields of multinational services. Thedissertation has followed the structure practices as "literature review-statusdescription-case studies-conceptual model-empirical study-conclusions andimplications". According to the above structure, the main contents of this dissertationhas been divided into three sub-studies which attempt to answer each question offollowing in turn:(1) how to choose international target market for search enginefirms;(2) when to enter or re-enter the host country market;(3) how to select theappropriate entry mode for host market.The first sub-study has devoted to the international target market selection ofsearch engine firms. The effects of market risk factors, market attractiveness factorsand enterprise resource factors on target market selection have been analyzed bybinary logistic regression analysis, the results have showed that there is a significantnegative correlation between country risk, cultural distance, as well as nationalculture(power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance) and the likelihoodof market entry; Similarily, there is a significant positive correlation between marketsize and the likelihood of market entry; Further, market size has moderated the negative correlation between country risk, power distance, uncertainty avoidance andthe likelihood of market entry; Meanwhile, enterprise resource moderates the negativecorrelation between country risk, culture distance, uncertainty avoidance and thelikelihood of market entry. According to the relationship between market risk, marketattractiveness, enterprise resource factors and the likelihood of market entry, thisdissertation has constructed3×3international market selection matrix of searchengine firms, and the five typical host markets: oasis market, volcano market, shoalsmarket, swamp market and desert market have been analyzed and compared.The second sub-study has focused upon the international market entry timing ofsearch engine firms. Firstly, the sequential principle method of game analysis hasbeen conducted to analyze the effects of the intensity of the reaction of localcompetitors (first movers) on the choice of entry timing of followers and sought thegame equilibrium solutions in four cases. Secondly, explanatory case study has beenadopted to validate the logic model of the timing of entry-exit-re-entry. It is shownthat the matching degree between international knowledge and market demand is akey factor to decide entry or exit timing; and the risk of host country and globalmarket are the important external factors of timing choice.The third sub-study has focused on the international market entry mode selectionof search engine firms. Based on the particularity of the search engine firms, theinternational market entry mode has been divided into three types: enterprise resourceutilization, market resources acquirement and enterprise resource augmentation fromresources exploration and acquirement perspective. Then, the multinomial logisticregression analysis method has been used to analyze the effects of the importantimpact factors of target market selection and entry timing on entry mode selection, itis showed that, compared with enterprise resource augmentation entry mode, there is apositive correlation between country risk, cultural distance, uncertainty avoidance andresource utilization and acquirement entry mode, and the relationship between powerdistance and these entry mode is reverse, and entry timing correlated positively withresources acquirement entry mode and negatively with resource utilization entry mode.Further, entry timing has moderated the positive relationship between cultural distance, uncertainty avoidance and resource utilization entry mode.According to the research results in this dissertation several theoreticalinnovations and contributions can be summarized as followings:(1) In the existingliterature, target market selection, entry timing and entry mode have discussedseparately, while ignoring the existed dynamic effects among these three parts. Thisdissertation has build research framework as "target market selection-entrytiming-entry mode"from Yahoo!, Google and Baidu cross-case cluster analysis.(2) In the existing literature, there is little literature has associated market risk, marketattractiveness and enterprise resource with international market selection. Thisdissertation has conducted the3×3international target market selection matrix, andsummarized the five typical types of host market (oasis, desert, marsh, shoals andvolcano) through empirical analysis.(3) The existing literature on target marketselection and entry mode is extensive; however, the literature on entry timing isrelative scanty. In this dissertation, based on the status of internationalization ofsearch engine, the logic model of the timing of "entry-exit-re-entry"has beenbuilt from dynamic perspective.