Building Strategic Capabilities in Emerging Market Firms: The Case of Peru

Peru became one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America following its adoption of promarket reforms. However, trade openness and market liberalization created new pressures. Entrance of foreign competitors to Peruvian markets triggered upgrades to core competences by local companies. This chapter presents the way successful firms from different sectors faced institutional turmoil by upgrading specific capabilities and developing strategic responses to obtain a competitive edge. Our analysis covers companies from different sectors: Deltron (low-tech domestic firm), Cantol (low-tech exporter), Resemin (high-tech multinational), Alicorp (low-tech multinational), Alicorp (low-tech multinational), and Lolimsa (service multinational).While the upgrading of strategic capabilities in these firms focused on improving product, service, and operational capabilities and on controlling retail operations, their strategic responses focused either on exploiting new windows of opportunity or on defending against the entrance of foreign competitors.