The Foreign Expansion of Services by Business Group Affiliates: The Case of Ayala Group's Manila Water Company (MWC)

Abstract

This paper presents a case of internationalization of services by a business group affiliate from a developing economy. It applies the existing theories in the service internationalization and business group literature by focusing on the exploitation of the business group advantages. The research conducted a secondary data analysis to investigate the influence of business group advantages on the successful international expansion and operations of the services of a business group affiliate. The analysis shows that the combination of the group and firm-level resources, capabilities and experience have provided the strong backing in the internationalization of the business affiliate. This study contributes to the existing literature on business groups and internationalization especially on its contextualization of service firm internationalization and business group advantages.