International Strategy Implementation: Understanding of Local Challenges in China

The thesis has two purposes. First, to give a practical insight into the challenges that Swedish companies might face, and how these challenges are tackled, when implementing strategy in a local area. Second, to develop a general applicable model as a conceptual contribution to the field of international strategy implementation in local areas. This empirical-driven thesis is written in a qualitative and explorative approach, where abduction is adopted in order to find mysteries and contribute to the forming of new theories. The empirical foundation is twenty-two interviews and observations of three large Swedish companies. Some empirical data has been collected in Sweden, whereas the major part is collected locally in China. Existing theory does not fully explain how to implement a strategy in a local area. Based on our theoretical framework, we have, through a micro-level study, developed a model to describe a better method for strategy implementation. To successfully implement a strategy in a local area, a company have to understand the root causes to local challenges. These understandings must be institutionalized into the organization, in order to achieve a successful strategy formulation and prevent future trial-and-error