Archetypes: Strategic Management and Firm Specific Advantages

1. Which are the archetypes does Verbeke distinguish? Draw the figures associated with these archetypes.
Verbeke distguish between 4 types of archetypes and they are the following:
Centralized exporter: Home country managed firm. Firm specific advantage in its final products. Standardized products manufactured at home. Only the transferable firm specific advantages are taken to the host country, meaning that they try to make exporting successful in international markets. No development of location bound firm specific advantages.

International projector: Clones home operations into host countries. Knowledge based firm specific advantages are replicated from home country. Only the internationally transferable firm specific advantages are taken to the host country. No development of location bound firm’s specific advantages. The international projector MNE seeks international expansion by projecting its home country success recipes abroad.

International coordinator: Its main firm specific advantage is that it can coordinate location advantages (e.g., production capacity to access abundant natural resources) present in multiple countries. International operations are specialized in specific value-added activities across borders. Use internationally transferable firm specific advantages in each host country to develop location-bound firm specific advantages that fit the host country location factors.

Multi-centered MNE: Each host county develops own location bound firm specific advantages, only transfers core routines (e.g., financial management). A set of entrepreneurial subsidiaries go abroad, to acquire knowledge for future firm specific advantage development. Local adaptation is the foundation of the international strategy.

2. Is there one best model? Why or why not?

There is no best model because these models all depend on the firm specific