eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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This study explores the sales channel strategies of Finnish and Swedish ICT companies from a Born Global vs. Traditional Internationalizer perspective. First, the globalization literature - mainly globalization process, different globalization approaches and factors influencing the globalization of a company - are examined, while also covering the essential sales channel strategies used by companies. The impact of selected environment and company-specific variables are inspected from the standpoint of how they impact the globalization approach and sales channels. Second, a theoretical framework of the factors impacting Sales Channel and Internet Sales Channel strategy is constructed based on the literature.

The data used in this study were collected with a web-based questionnaire and a complementary mail survey targeted to Finnish and Swedish ICT companies operating internationally. A total of 2228 companies were contacted, of which the questionnaire was sent to 579 decision makers. 424 companies completed the survey, resulting to 261 valid answers. The objective of the study is in determining whether (1) Globalization Pressure, (2) Globalization Approach and (3) Managerial Resources of a company have a statistically significant association with (a) Sales Channels strategy and (b) use of Internet in Sales Channels. Two statistical data analysis techniques, Logistic Regression Analysis and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), were used to address the research questions on basis of the data. The data was also analyzed in a descriptive manner.

The results of the analyses found support for three out of six hypotheses developed for examining the relationships between above mentioned variables (1, 2, 3 + a & b). Approach was noticed to be a relevant determinant for both, sales channels and the extent to which Internet was used in sales channels. Globalization pressure was realized not to have a statistically significant relationship with neither. Managerial resources were found to impact sales channel strategy, whereas there was no significant relationship between managerial resources and the extent to which companies apply Internet for sales purposes.

Although suitable for the objectives of this thesis, the theoretical framework provided no strong explanations for the differences in channel strategies, as the variables proved to be fairly disconnected from each other. Nevertheless, by complementing the model with additional environment and resource-based variables, and by adding performance measures to the model, the framework used could be more applicable as an overall model for a quantitative assessment of the impact of internal and external variables and different channel options on the performance of a company.