Globalization and competitive advantage:

A case of MTN NIGERIA LIMITED

By

Acknowledgement

My research supervisor, my family and my friend provided me utmost support during this proposal and without that this research would not have been possible.

Declaration

I, [type your full first names and surname here], herby say that this research is my own work and it has not been submitted for any educational purpose earlier. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

Signed __________________ Date _________________

Abstract

Globalization is an inconsistent concept, and definitions of it abound. However, most anthropologists agree that, experientially, globalization refers to a reorganization of time and space in which many movements of peoples, things, and ideas throughout much of the world have become increasingly faster and effortless. Spatially and temporally, cities and towns, individuals and groups, institutions and governments have become linked in ways that are fundamentally new in many regards, especially in terms of the potential speed of interactions among them. Examples of these interactions are myriad: The click of a mouse button on a Wall Street computer can have immediate financial effects thousands of miles away on another continent, and events like the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 or footage of the 2005 tsunami in southern Asia can be televised internationally, whereby millions of viewers interpret the same images concurrently.Beyond these shared perspectives on and approaches to globalization, anthropologists disagree with one another in important regards. The first concerns the “what”: Does globalization name a more-or-less singular and radical transformation that encompasses the globe, in which techno economic advancements have fundamentally reorganized time-space, bringing people, places, things, and ideas from all corners of the world into closer contact with one another? Or, is globalization a misnomer, even a fad, a term too general to describe a vast array of situated processes and projects that are inconsistent and never entirely “global”?

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

Background6

Theoretical perspective6

Problem statement6

Objectives7

Research Question/Hypothesis8

Gantt chart8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW10

Earlier Attempts to Grasp Trans local Phenomena10

Contemporary Anthropological Approaches to Globalization11

The Global Political Economy13

The Global Cultural Economy14

Questioning “Globalization”15

Development19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY21

Research Design21

Literature Search21

REFERENCES23

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

MTN Nigeria is part of the MTN Group, Africa's leading cellular telecommunications company. On May 16, 2001, MTN became the first GSM network to make a call following the globally lauded Nigerian GSM auction conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission earlier in the year. Thereafter the company launched full commercial operations beginning with Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

MTN paid $285m for one of four GSM licenses in Nigeria in January 2001. To date, in excess of US$1.8 billion has been invested building mobile telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria.

Theoretical perspective

There is little doubt that increasingly globalized markets have lead to a fundamental rearrangement of the determinants of firms' competitive marketing strategy. Over two billion persons have been added to the world's economies that are largely driven by market structures and, thus, competition. The persons have been added as consumers and competitors and, oftentimes, as winners and losers of global competitive interplay. Certainly, global competition has already changed the lives of hundreds of millions of ...