提升英國公司的全球化策略

摘要 Abstract

這個項研究是為英國公司找出在應對哈薩克斯坦油氣產業方面自身應當提升的全球化策略。研究從文獻綜述開始，這些文獻綜述有著不同理論和方法，有助于構建未來dissertation主題結構。

目錄 Table of content
 

引言 Introduction

在過去的十年里，世界經濟快速發展。在過去相對短的時間里，哈薩克斯坦經濟發展取得了巨大發展。近年來，石油和天然氣產業在經濟和社會領域對哈薩克斯坦影響很大。英國是哈薩克斯坦經濟領域第三大投資國，投資主要集中于石油和天然氣產業。英國公司對哈薩克斯坦的天然氣資源尤為感興趣。哈薩克斯坦共和國為石油和天然氣產業的投資者提供了參與里海地區大型探明儲量油氣田的開發與生產的機會。此外，未開發地區特別是里海近海地區的潛在儲量，也是可觀的。這些因素加上積極的投資環境將使得投資者認真考慮哈薩克斯坦。顯然，為英國公司找到最有效的策略很有必要。
 

The purpose of this research is to find out global strategies that UK companies should improve in case of Kazakhstan gas and oil sector. Research starts with literature review which provides different theories and continues with methodology which helps to construct the structure of the future dissertation topic.
 

Table of content
 

Introduction
 

In the past decade as the world economy grew in a very fast rate, Kazakhstan was one of the countries that showed a great economical development over a relatively short period of time. Recently, oil and gas industry has a great impact on economical and social spheres of Kazakhstan. The UK is the third largest investor in economy of Kazakhstan concentrating on oil and gas sector. The UK companies particularly interested in gas resources of Kazakhstan. For oil and gas sector investors the Republic offers the opportunity to participate in the development and production of large proven oil and gas reserves, situated in the Caspian region. In addition the potential of unexplored areas, especially in the Caspian offshore, is huge. These factors coupled with the positive investment climate make the investors seriously consider Kazakhstan (Investkz 2010). Obviously, there is a necessity to find out the most effective and efficient strategy for the UK companies.

 

Literature review
 

Many people are of the opinion that there are a lot of definitions for the globalisation and strategy terms. Many scientists had studies about globalisation and strategy but there was not achieved common consensus. This literature review will try to cover all main theories which are covering these terms. Also, other information related between Kazakhstan and United Kingdom will be provided in other parts of the dissertation work. Lately all interconnections and relationships between globalisation and strategy will be fully defined in the dissertation.

 

The following part of the literature review will cover the first concept. The main term of this concept is globalisation. Globalization is a social change, an increase in connections among societies and their elements. The term is applied to many social, commercial and economic activities. Depending on the context it can mean closer contact between different parts of the world or increasing relations among members of an industry in different parts of the world. It shares a number of characteristics with internationalization and is used interchangeably, although some prefer to use globalization to emphasize the of the nation or national boundaries. According to Keohane and Nye (2000) globalization is often defined expansively as networks of interconnections which are crossing intercontinental distances. Also there are some other opinions about globalisation, for example first director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Renato Ruggiero defines globalisation as a reality “which overwhelms all others” (2000). According to Carpenter and Sanders (2007) globalization can be defined as the evolution of distinctive markets of products/services into globally interrelated markets of products/services.

 

There are different opinions of academics defining strategy terms. Gerry Johnson (2008) pointed out that strategy is “direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations”.

 

It is a fact that some organisations fail in their business due to an incorrectly chosen strategy or one that they have allowed to stagnate. By the opinion of the following authors Alexander, (2008) and Korine (2008) managers of those aforementioned companies must answer three simple questions if they want to remedy their situations:

 

“Will our company benefit from globalization of business; when will those benefits appear and what is their economic value?”

 

“Do Company have necessary management skills that will enable it to realize the benefits of entering the global market?”

 

“Will the costs that include not only direct costs, but also investments in business processes and management time excel the potential benefits of strategy of business globalization?”

 

Strategy is a plan designed to achieve a particular long-term aim. (Oxford dictionary)

 

“Global strategy is one particular form of multinational enterprise (MNE) strategy that treats countries around the world as a common, global marketplace” (Levitt, 1983; Yip 2003). “The other MNE strategies are typically known as international (or export-driven), multidomestic and transnational” (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1989). The difference between strategy and global strategy is that global strategies are using by companies which operate abroad and on international markets and different industries, talking about strategy it is more about for the companies which operates in particular region or country, On the other hand the author things that both, strategy and global strategy, interrelated.

 

Porter (1996) delineates the concepts which may be included in the term strategy as well as those which do not constitute business strategy. He argues that the excellence of the implementation modalities does not in it self allow for the long term sustainable competitive advantage which is intrinsic to business strategy. This is because implementation modalities can be copied by others negating the companies’ advantage. “Porter reminds us that the essence of strategy is the achievement of a unique and valuable strategic which relies on a firm’s ability to perform a unique set of activities in a unique way” Porter (1996).

 

Henry Mintzberg (1992) has argued that something as complex and subtle as strategy making needs five different words that work in a complementary fashion to add richness and do justice to so complicate phenomena. Mintzberg argues that strategic thinking is too complicated for the reductionist perspective so often used by the strategic management team.  That is why the strategy could be defined as: plan, ploy, pattern, position and perspective prove as effective and enduring as strategic tools in the business environment of today.

 

The data above shows that the globalisation is increasing and influencing to the different countries their market, business and economy. For example: The UK is the third largest investor in Kazakhstan’s economy in different sectors like agriculture, oil and gas, education. There are a lot of world wide known companies like Shell, BG, Exxon Mobile are working in partnership with Kazakhstani oil and gas companies. Taking into consideration all information above it is possible to conclude that different companies are using different strategies in order to achieve their goals, especially when they are going global. It leads to the conclusion that the UK has all possibilities and tools to get success in their purposes in oil/gas sector in Kazakhstan while in the same time Kazakhstan will get its own benefits from that partnership. The final result and the future of the collaborative business will depend on the well prepared strategies which will be fully covered in the dissertation.

 

Methodology
 

Research Question

The topic of the present research project is: Improving global strategies of the UK companies. A case study of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector. Based on the topic of the research proposal, the author aims at exploring how the UK companies can improve the global strategy through global management of its supply-chain of resources and partnerships. The topic specifically focuses on the oil and gas sector as an essentially important industry for the development of the UK. As industrialised economies are growing in greater scarcity of resources it is vital for their continuous competitiveness and prosperity to obtain sufficient resources to promote economic, political and social stability.

 

Based on this topic, the primary research question which can be proposed is: What are the likely approaches which the UK companies can implement to improve its global strategy of obtaining, managing and utilising oil and gas resources from Kazakhstan? As this research is exploratory, a hypothesis is not developed as the author is not currently aware of the possible research outcome alternatives.

 

Philosophical Approach

The inductive and deductive research approaches can be recognised in the academic literature to be used by researchers in the context of addressing a particular research question (Bell, 2005). They both have distinctive characteristics; the inductive research approach explores a specific features of a topic and based on these variables a general set of propositions can be developed Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). Contrary the deductive research approach is associated with the exploration of general set of research findings based on which specific recommendations and suggestions can be derived (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002).

 

Saunders et al. (2003) outlines that although these research approaches have distinctive characteristics and the essence of the research projects to which they are applied may significantly differ, they should not be perceived as a limitation but rather as an opportunity. In this respect, the author of the present research project would apply a combination of these two approaches. In other words, the case study on Kazakhstan would be approached through deductive reasoning, identifying specific variables which have general implications to the research topic. Once these specific variables are identified, based on the inductive reasoning, the author would be able to relate them to the approaches which the UK companies can implement to improve its global strategy of resource adoption, management and continuous sustainability.

 

Apart from the research approaches to be implemented, the research philosophy is another important variable to characterise the research structure and intentions (Ghauri and Gronhaung, 2002). In this respect, the author will apply the research philosophy of interpetivism. This philosophy is suitable as the author believes that knowledge is a highly complex phenomena and is constructed by a diverse range of variables and therefore it can be interpreted in different way (Saunders et al., 2003) Therefore, interpretations would be applied for the in-depth exploration of this topic and the identified characteristics of the oil and gas industry of Kazakhstan will be related to the strategic resource management of the UK companies.

 

Research Design

There are two primary research designs which can be identified in the academic literature, such as: descriptive and exploratory (Hakim, 2000). The present research processes will be accompanied by a combination of description and exploration. The primary aim is to explore the context of the oil and gas industry in Kazakhstan and for specific implications to be identified but this would involve an extensive description of important industrial features of both countries. In other words, the author will describe the UK companies global positioning in terms of oil and gas management, reveal the characteristics of the oil and gas sector in Kazakhstan and based on these features, the exploration would identify how these two are related.
 

In terms of the research strategy, there are six research strategies which can be extracted for the literature, such as: action research; grounded theory; survey; ethnography; experiment and case study (Jankowicz, 2005). The present project will encompass grounded theory and case study analysis. This strategy would provide the author with the opportunity to explore extensive number of sources that provide in-depth information on countries, their oil and gas sectors and international strategic aspirations, problems and objectives.

 

On the one hand, the grounded theory strategy would be suitable to the current research as it would provide the researcher with the opportunity to identify various global management, economic and international relation theories which are essential to the context of the analysis. On the other hand, the case study exploration would reveal specific topics and issues which would outline a number of implications which can be related to the UK companies. Based on the identified theories of global management and economics, the specific context of Kazakhstan and needs of the British companies, a set of propositions on the likely approaches which the UK companies can implement to improve its global management strategy can be given.

 

Another important variable to the research process is the time horizon. There are two time horizons which can be recognised, such as longitudinal and cross-sectional (Saunders et al., 2003). As the author is not interested in the change of research variables over a particular period of time, therefore longitudinal approach would not be applied. Moreover, this approach is relevant to primary research projects and action research where the primary objective is for a researcher to identify transformation of variables over time (Bell, 2005). In this respect, the time horizon to be implemented is cross-sectional.

 

Research Methods

The method to be used for addressing the topic would be secondary research. This would involve exploration of the phenomenological literature and case study analysis. The case study would focus on Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industry. This would reveal specific characteristics, economic conditions, political interests and international relation issues that would be used for the primary research question to be addressed.

 

Sampling

Talking about questionnaire author will make interviews with Minister of energy and Mineral Resources Sauat Mynbayev, Magzum Mirzagaliev managing director for service projects and member of the Board of Directors at KazMunaiGas (KMG). KazMunaiGas is the biggest Kazakhstani oil and gas company which are the most successful on Kazakhstani market. Author will try to get much relevant information about how UK companies already operates in Kazakhstan, which strategies they use, which kind of obstacles they have to overcome. Both meetings will be in capital of Kazakhstan in Astana because Ministry and main office of KMG is located there. Also author will interview President of British Gas (BG) Kazakhstan Peter Dranfield. Meeting will be in Almaty in BG office.

 

Resources

The resources would be accessed through university facilities, such as journals, databases, core textbooks (primers), etc. The author will also exploit publicly available resources, such as: government statistics, whitepapers, the Internet, etc. In this respect, no costs for the acquisition and use of these resources can be foreseen at the present stage.

 

Data Collection

Of the two methods of data collection that are available to author are primary data and secondary data. Primary data will be written by author and secondary data will be provided and got from other sources such as different scholars, writers and academics researches.

 

Conclusion
 

To summarize all the information which was given above it could be seen that in first section named literature review, where information was analyzed, and different literature written by professors and academics were compared. In the second part the methodology was described. Using the techniques displayed in the second part the structure and the context, as well as the process of writing the future dissertation became much clearer and understandable. The author is convinced in his ability to execute this research project.