RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Research Proposal

Research Proposal

1.0 Background

Title:

An exploratory corporate entrepreneurship, core competence & new business creation - An Investigation of Pakistani Telecommunication Industry

Introduction

Today's telecommunication industry faces increasing competition and commoditization from traditional telecommunication services and products. Service providers are in the process of moving towards the next generation, converged networks in order to offer new, innovative and revenue generating services. Telecommunication service providers are facing a number of unique challenges and the very foundation of their business is changing. Both enterprises and consumers are demanding more personalized, content rich and blended lifestyle multimedia experience. This convergence of new services and applications seems to be a lucrative opportunity for future growth. However, customer driven telecommunication market presents opportunities to the service providers but on the other hand also provides overwhelming challenges (Alcatel-Lucent, 2007). Telecom service providers needs to shift from traditional telecom services to next generation networks that supports more personalized, enhanced applications and services. This transformation opens new doors of opportunity for earning revenue, deploying, operating and maintaining next generation networks.

Figure1: Network complexity, Resource allocation and Innovation (Alcatel-Lucent, 2007).

It can be deduced that for the survival in the telecommunication industry, service providers needs to appreciate the fact that network transformation is not a technical issue but its also a business issue.

2.0 Literature Review

In recent decades telecommunication industry has gone through violent changes and faced by aggressive competition. These changes have attracted many authors and researchers as the general availability and widespread adoption of advanced telecommunications technologies are generally considered to be linked with economic potential of the nations (Fransman, 2002). According to Allee and Taug (2006) the primary resources for competitive advantage have shifted from financial capital to knowledge and information.

Corporate Entrepreneurship and Core Competencies

Wolcott (2007) advocates that when the core business begins to shift research shows that fewer than 5% of the companies regain growth rates of at east 1% above gross domestic product. In such situation creation of new business or corporate entrepreneurship is one of the heady solutions for the companies. A recent survey shows that, businesses that are involved in creation of new business models demonstrate growth in operating margins than the competition (Wolcott, Lippitz, 2007). According to Zahra (1991) corporate entrepreneurship is a process of creating new business within established firms to improve organisational profitability and enhance a firm's competitive position or the strategic renewal of existing business. Lippitz (2007) Pakistan Telecommunication Industry

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) suggests that telecom landscape of the country has emerged as one of the most dynamic business sector in the country where telecommunication services have become a household utility (PTA, 2006). Jabeen and Sadia (2007) argues the fact that future of Pakistani telecom industry looks promising as sizeable percentage of the population has enough disposable income to cater to the mobile communication industry provided the companies are successful in uncovering latent potential in the market. Mangi (2005) emphasised in his article published in Business Week that Pakistani telecom market is so attractive that companies from as far as ...