| When firms enter international markets, they face a critical strategic decision about the means or the mode of entry. Past research primarily grounded in manufacturing firms identifies a variety of modes of entry including licensing arrangements, wholly owned ventures, acquisitions, and joint ventures. This dissertation provides an understanding of overseas entry mode decisions of professional service firms, focussing specifically on engineering consulting firms. It examines entry mode choices of North American engineering consulting firms entering a variety of countries.; The dissertation contributes to our understanding of entry mode choices of engineering consulting firms in two significant ways. First, it arrives at a new theoretical conceptualization of the entry mode construct as a multidimensional process. This was driven by the project based nature of engineering consulting and consequently, its project by project entry into an overseas market. The entry mode decision in the context of engineering consulting is more than just a choice of governance form. It involves decisions about following a project versus a market, following a client into the host country, setting up a physical presence in the host country, establishing a continuing legal form in the host country, and the degree of presence in the host country. Second, it identifies professional service firm characteristics, knowledge held in individuals, teams and the organization, relationship building with clients and business partners, and firm size as key predictors of different aspects of the entry mode process. The study highlights the professional service character of these firms and the project based nature of activity as central to their entry mode decisions. The dissertation reaffirms more systematically that professional service firms are indeed different from manufacturing firms. Both in terms of the nature of their product and the core assets these firms are built on a different foundation and leverage different competencies. |
