The Effect of International Business Strategies on Organizational Performance in the Developing Country Telecommunication Industry - A Case of MTN Nigeria Plc.

Abstract

Several organizations across the globe have entered into new geographical locations or other countries to establish and carry out their business operations. Emerging economies have been a location of interest for many multinational companies and locations such as Nigeria have hosted different international organizations in various sectors of her economy in the last couple of decades. The choice of targeting developing countries such as Nigeria as a preferred location for business operations of international companies might not be unconnected with the availability of abundant human and natural resources in the most populous country in Africa. Hence, it is crucial for firms penetrating Nigeria’s business environment to adopt and implement suitable international business strategies that would ensure that their overall organizational goals are accomplished. To this end, this study examined the effect of international business strategies on the performance of Telecommunications companies in Nigeria.

The study adopted a quantitative research technique and used a cross-sectional design that involves the senior staff of MTN Nigeria Plc. and their customers are knowledgeable about their products/services. Data were obtained from a sample size of 150 respondents located in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Ibadan. The research instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire using Google form and data was processed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 software. The reliability of the research instrument was confirmed through Cronbach Alpha with a 0.822 reliability result which is above the 0.7 benchmarks as prescribed by Sharma (2016). Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis, answering of research questions, and hypotheses were tested using Spearman’s rank correlation.

The empirical findings corroborate the significance of international business strategies and their impact on organizational performance in the Nigerian telecommunication industry. Specifically, the results reveal that differentiation strategy has a significant and positive influence on customers’ loyalty that represents organizational performance. Furthermore, the study confirms that cost leadership strategy has a strong significant influence on customers’ retention that represents organizational performance and lastly, the research result shows that market focus strategy has a positive significant influence on customer satisfaction which is a good measurement of organizational performance in the Nigerian telecommunication industry. Therefore, the study recommends that managers and decision in the telecommunication industry makers continue to provide affordable quality products and services that would meet their customer’s requirements to ensure their satisfaction and increase their loyalty. In addition, it is also recommended that the Nigerian government should provide a good conducive business environment, most especially necessary infrastructure which will support investors operations enable them to perform optimally to achieve their corporate objectives.