Do Trading Companies Need to Change their Business Models in Response to a General Trend of Increasing Transparency in International Business? A case study on five Swedish trading companies
Abstract
As globalization is increasing in pace whilst technological improvements are connecting
individuals from all across the world; trading companies, who previously were found to thrive
on idiosyncratic knowledge and non-transparency, find themselves in a difficult spot. As
intermediaries, trading companies constantly need to ensure their ability to add value in the
value chain as they otherwise soon would be bypassed. Despite their antecedents date back
centuries, there is a lack of research covering trading companies’ strategic behaviors.
The study is set out to bring light to the question if trading companies need to reconfigure
their business model in order to respond to a changing environment. The study shows that
trading companies can increase their rent seeking without necessarily reconfiguring the
business model. The study has identified four alternatives for increasing the rent seeking:
market diversification, increased service offering, product diversification or vertical
integration. The study has also identified the extensive use of networks for the provision of
services, which together with superior network capabilities could create a competitive
advantage.
The study has further found that business model reconfiguration for trading companies is
highly dependent upon the ability to in fact realize such configurations, and the more resource
intense a transformation is, the higher the willingness by upper management needs to be. The
relationship between high resource endowments and high willingness can to a large extent be
explained by the highly valued flexibility that trading companies possess.
Degree
Master 2-years
Other description
MSc in International Business and Trade
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2016-10-07Author
Berglund, Mattias
Hast, Henrik
Keywords
Trading companies
export intermediaries
trade
forestry products
globalization
transparency
value proposition
flexibility
international business
Series/Report no.
Master Degree Project
2016:2
Language
eng