eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

The launch of the Internet has changed the environment of the markets where businesses operate today. Sales and purchasing are less tied to place and time, and thus, mobility characterizes the markets where the companies and consumers operate. In response to the change new sales channel models have developed in order to better serve the new needs. These so called non-traditional sales channels offer alternative solutions for companies' market entry and expansion, but until the current moment these channels' adoption among Finnish companies has remained on relatively modest level. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to study the opportunities and solutions that the non-traditional sales channels could provide for small and medium sized companies' foreign market expansion, which often is a heavy process for these companies to conduct with scarce resource. The data is collected through interviews from two respondent groups of Finpro consultants and Finnish B2C retailing companies. The companies represent various business fields and different maturity levels. The findings suggest that the company's maturity level and existing channel network have an influence on the further channel selection processes. Thus, under certain circumstances companies with lower maturity level could be more flexible in adopting new sales channel models to their channel portfolios.