With a future vision and strategy to grow the economy and to introduce aspects of modernity into the country. What was once a pure traditionalist country is seeing rapid changes and new regulations and Government facilitation. This new, evolving environment has impacted not only society but also businesses which was the main focus of the research. The ICT sector has been recognised as one of the most important sectors that the country wants to develop. However, little research has been conducted to understand how this industry is managed and its diversification efforts and even less research studied the impact of the changing dynamics between traditionalism and modernity in the country and in the sector. This is where this research positioned itself to fill in the gap discovered. To answer this, qualitative research has been conducted in the shape of semi-structured interviews. The target participants were IT managers belonging to different ICT companies in Saudi Arabia. 17 participants out of the 20 contacted have agreed to share their experiences and thoughts on diversification and the compatibility between traditionalism and modernity. The interviews were thereafter transcribed and analysed through a thematic analysis. The results highlighted that Saudi Arabia is indeed a competitive market with low barriers of entry for the sector, local and foreign competition, and continuous introduction to new technologies. The managers unanimously agreed that diversification is a strategy that can be used to overcome the high competition and that diversification in the context of the ICT sector includes related diversification through expanding the product portfolio. The managers were able to identify different factors which influence diversification such as Government rules and facilities, political stability, and access to funding and resources. On the topic of modernity and traditionalism, modernity was considered to be a driver to diversification, through adopting a mindset of continuous innovation and embracing change. In contrast, traditionalism was described as a stability and foundation provider but an obstacle to change. On the compatibility between the two, the participants did not seem to find them mutually exclusive but rather complementary. In the context of Saudi Arabia, where traditionalism is still an important aspect in the social and business life,4these two concepts provide a good balance and guidelines on the basis of which, growth strategies such as diversification can be assessed. While modernity provides the fuel to adopt diversification strategies and innovation, managers will need to go back to traditionalism to assess how the modern ideas and strategies are compatible with their context, e.g., company values, legacy products, values and needs of the society and clients. The balance between the two has been called: the Hybrid approach.
| Date of Award | Oct 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Jillian Farquhar (Supervisor) & Joseph Kimaro (Supervisor) |
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