The impact of personal characteristics and experience on international decision. A case study on Metallurgica Bresciana S.P.A

There is a trend of globalization that aims at opening up new markets and creates opportunities for companies. The communication between countries became more and more frequent. For example, China and Europe set up many types of cooperation in recent years. Although there are still big uncertainties and large differences lying in cultures, market environments and customer behaviors, international investments have been more acceptable and preferable for companies in order to pursue unlimited business opportunities and foreign market. With a global vision, managers in big companies or even in medium, small size companies are starting to seek new chances abroad. They make international decisions such as whether to expand abroad, how to expand abroad or whether to recall the international decision. In fact, there are many factors driving them making such international decision. Since Roll (1986) brings up the idea that individual CEO, as the decision maker, would have influences on international decision, many experts are studying the relationship between some particular factors and the internationalization decisions. In the past, several strategic choice studies on top managers stated that the personal characteristics of the strategic decision maker influence the decision they make (Brouthers, et al., 1998), and many researches has been done to understand how managers’ personality and experience influence their decisions or the international decision. Therefore, in our thesis, by studying the specific case of Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A. we try to figure out how managers’ personality and experience influence their international decision. Based on this purpose, we design our thesis in the following way. (1) We employ relative theories in order to understand what specific factors influence the international decision and what relationship between the decisions and the factors hold. What kind of factor could influence the manager decisions? What characteristic or experience will lead the manager to what kind of decision? Which type of decisions are preferred by the managers given each particular factor? Based on the researches, we come up with the following expectations: I) the age of managers is negatively related to internationalization decision; II) education level of top managers is positively related to internationalization decision; III) international working experience of the top manager is positively related to internationalization decision; IV) ambition level is positively related to internationalization decision; V) overconfidence is positively related to internationalization decision. (2) We study the macro environment of the economy of the target market of Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A., i.e. China, in order to understand the external factors that could influence the manager’s decision. (3) We describe Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A. from different aspects: industry field, financial aspect, market location and company structure. We accessed company information through internet, in-depth interviews for managers, and we even stayed in the company for a certain period of time, by describing the current situation and market position of Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A. through a SWOT analysis. (4) We design a questionnaire for the managers working in Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A. so that we could gather all the information needed, including managers’ personal characteristics, job experience, study experience, the decisions that they made, why and how they made such decisions. (5) We interview their top managers with the questionnaire prepared in the previous step. We interviewed two managers: one general manager in parent company in Italy and one top manager in the subsidiary in China. The aim is to understand the similarities and differences between the two top managers, and to find out the influences of their personal characteristics, experience and national cultures on international decisions. (6) We study their personal characteristics and personal experiences, especially as regards the following aspects: age, education experience, international working experience, ambition level and confidence level, in order to verify whether these experiences and characteristics impact the international decisions. From the in-depth interviews of the managers of Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A., we figure that age does not have significant impacts on international decisions, comparing to other personal characteristics and experience, since there are other factors playing more important roles in decision making processes. We observe that education level and international experience have positive impacts on internationalization, thus better supporting managers to find and seize opportunities in new markets. A high education level provides more information and knowledge for managers that enables them to consider more factors, to see the entire picture and to come up with a more complete and sustainable plan. International experience helps managers to understand foreign markets and find new opportunities. Therefore, managers with extensive international experience could be more aggressive and confident in the internationalization process. Moreover, overconfidence and ambition levels are essential personal characteristics for top managers and are positively related to international decisions. Managers with higher confidence and ambition level are more willing to take challenges and less resistant to uncertainties and risks. So, with the exception of the age, we believe that the other factors are very crucial for international decisions and match with our expectations. The limitation of our research is that we are studying only one company, Metallurgica Bresciana S.p.A., so it is not possibility to generalize our finding. However, with limited time and resources, our thesis could be a starting point for those who are willing to study more in depth this kind theory.