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Sony International Strategy Case Study

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WHAT WERE THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF SONY’S INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY IN THE 1990S? WHAT WERE THE REASONS FOR ANY DIFFERENCES OR CHANGES?

Sony was historically using a step-by-step approach to internationalization. It was first exporting its products to markets where it saw an opportunity. Then if this went well, it would gain some more experience and it could use some riskier entry modes to internationalize the company. Sony was mainly focusing on 3 regions: Europe, Asia and North America. In the early 1990s, Sony had the largest percentage of its foreign subsidiaries in Europe. However by 1995, Sony increased its presence in Asia. The number of Sony’s subsidiaries had grown from 47 in 1989 to 72 in 1999. Moreover, the company adapted its …show more content…

From the very beginning, internationalization and innovation were important aspects for Sony. Its strategy was to establish subsidiaries and manufacturing facilities in the target regions. As a result it would directly sell its products and have a close connection with customers. Furthermore, Morita was encouraging a culture of learning, experimentation and risk taking and wanted to improve the world’s opinion about the quality of Japanese products. An instance of this would be that after the Betamax failure, Morita learned that innovation should be a continuous process with the aim to bring the best product possible to the consumer. Besides, he also wanted to expand the company not only geographically but also among entertainment sectors. Idei wanted to continue on the same path as the Sony’s founder, with as goal to diversify Sony’s portfolio of products and also the geographical internationalization. Still, he did some small changes in the company’s strategy that were exposed in the previous question of this assignment. In the beginning, the company was using a standardized approach. But with the changing market Idei decided that the company should adapt its structure to be more flexible to market changes. However, the main goal was still the diversification and internationalization of the company. That is why the company lost its vision, because with too much …show more content…

They should specialize in the segment in which they have the most expertise and that would be in line with Sony’s core competencies. By wanting to be the best in everything, it slowed down innovation, which was a pillar for the company. For this reason, they should intensively invest in R&D in those specialized fields so that innovation would have some better results afterwards. I believe they also should abandon the segments that are not profitable anymore in their portfolio. As a result, Sony could once again become a leading and specialized company in one or two specific fields and it would gain some competitive advantage within these

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