RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FLIGHT-TIME AND ORGANIZATION DESIGN OF INTERNATIONALIZING ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGINEERING (A&E) CONSULTANCY FIRMS

Abstract

The thesis synergizes several knowledge areas such as Corporate Geography, Agglomeration, Management and Organization, and examines how flight-time is a mediator factor for a spectrum of factors, such as climate, time-zone, bodily adjustments, cultural distance, administrative distance, geographical distance, economical distance, technological distance, socio-demographical distance, relational distance and organizational distance. It is postulated in the study that organizational distance could in turn be manifested as changes, spill-over, time-lag, time-differences, psychic distance, networks, communications, net costs-benefits and control. The thesis found that these in turn influence the organizational strategies of an internationalizing A/E firm.

The thesis investigated how flight-time affects gravitational distance between an A/E MNC?s home and host-cities, which determines the firm?s embeddedness and access to location-specific assets, and its spatial interaction with a city. It was found that contrary to many studies which have propounded that new transportation and communication technologies have subverted the urbanization processes, distance continue to shape corporate geography in a myriad of ways. The study discussed how flight-time influences the variety of mediator factors, such as its effect on a city?s hierarchical ranking in the Core-Peripheral System of Cities, how firms have a proclivity to agglomerate in locational clusters, and in turn, how architectural and engineering firms strategize and structuralize themselves in cities of different positions in the global mosaic of regional cores, semi-cores and peripheral hinterlands.

The researcher visited Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin for his research field-work. The information collected from these cities was examined using Content Analysis and Statistical Analysis, and then built into a demonstrational Case-Based-Reasoning Decision-Support-System (CBR-DSS), which makes use of the concepts of i) institutional isomorphism; ii) coercive isomorphism; and iii) mimetic isomorphism. The system has been validated to be a useful toolkit and checklist for firms to obtain preliminary guidance, advices and recommendations on business strategies and organization designs for an internationalizing firm.

The Double-Octagonal Perspective of Distance reminds firms of how distance can complicate their overseas ventures, and warns of how firms routinely overestimate the attractiveness of foreign markets while ignoring the costs and risks of doing business in a new market. The study drew on the Eclectic Diamond Framework conjured up by the study which merges Dunning?s Eclectic Paradigm and Porter?s Diamond Theory, to internalize the business conditions and develop fitting strategies and organization design in the form of 8S, an extension of the McKinsey 7S Framework, in the form of Strategy, Structure, Systems, Leadership Style, Firm?s Skills, Staffs? characteristics, Shared Values and Supply-chain.

The study contributes to knowledge and industry?s practices through its evaluation of i) the competitiveness of Singapore?s A/E firms in regional markets; ii) strategies adopted by Singapore?s A/E firms when they venture overseas; iii) comparisons between overseas offices of private and government-linked firms; iv) discontinuities in environment and access to resources due to distance; and v) distance?s implications on risk perception, managerial decisions and organization structures.