Changes in Market: A Case of Apoteket International AB and its Efforts to Respond to Market Liberalization

Abstract

This thesis focuses upon the on-going de-regulation of the Swedish pharmacy market. The liberalization of a market imposes opportunities and challenges to the monopolist, in this case Apoteket AB. By going from a protected position to a free competitive market, the organization has to face the challenges and harness the opportunities to survive in the new environment. This paper is based on a study of how Apoteket AB is harnessing the opportunities of the market liberalization to survive in such environment. The aim of the study is to describe and analyze how the organization is capitalizing on the internal know-how, and more specifically, how the spread of its competences is being translated into new contexts. Empirical evidence has shown that they have done so by establishing a new company, Apoteket International AB, which aims at expanding its businesses internationally, by capitalizing and diffusing its competences outside the Swedish market. Apoteket International’ strategy to pursue these goals is based on an internationalization stepwise process of its activities and, in particular, that process has different approaches in the different markets mainly due to different governmental regulations.