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School of Business | Department of Management and International Business | International Business | 2011
Thesis number: 12637
Sales channel strategies of globalizing internationals - A survey study of Finnish and Swedish ICT companies
| Author: | Nurmio, Sofia |
| Title: | Sales channel strategies of globalizing internationals - A survey study of Finnish and Swedish ICT companies |
| Year: | 2011 Language: eng |
| Department: | Department of Management and International Business |
| Academic subject: | International Business |
| Index terms: | kansainväliset yhtiöt; international companies; myynti; sales; strategia; strategy; kohderyhmät; target groups; kansainvälistyminen; internationalization; tietotekniikka; information technology; teknologia; technology |
| Pages: | 105 |
| Key terms: | ICT-industry; sales channel strategy; globalizing internationals; traditional Internationalizers; globalization drivers; company resources; quantitative analysis; logistic regression |
| Abstract: |
Objective of the Research
Globalization of a company requires development of all strategies, including the sales channel strategies, and utilization of new sales channel structures. This thesis explores Finnish and Swedish ICT companies and their use of different sales channel strategies during their expansion to global markets. Based on a literature review on the internationalization and globalization of a company and sales channel strategies, the globalization drivers, global expansion phase and company resources were identified as potential influencing factors to strategy selection. Statistical analyses on the empirical data were conducted to test the hypothesis developed from theoretical framework. Methodology This study is quantitative and the data was analyzed using both descriptive and statistical methods, including binomial and multinomial logistic regression. The extensive database used in the thesis was collected for the GLOMARK study on global marketing strategies of both Finnish and Swedish ICT companies. A total of 2228 companies were contacted and 579 questionnaires were sent to the respondents qualified for the study. Altogether 424 companies completed the survey and database of the 261 respondents belonging to the research target group was created. However, for the purposes of this research, only companies classified as traditional internationals and globalizing internationals, total of 221 companies, were studied. Findings and Conclusions The findings of the thesis support the general view of the earlier studies that the sales channel strategies need to be developed when companies move from traditional internationalizers to globalizing international phase. The results of the statistical analyses demonstrated that the sales channel strategies used by traditional internationalizers and globalizing internationals differ from each other. Both the global expansion phase and company resources were found to influence the use of multiple sales channel strategies. However, no support was found to the influence of globalizing drivers to the selection and use of sales channel strategies. The conclusion of the thesis is that in the ICT industry, globalizing internationals from SMOPECs’ with large sustainable resources increase the usage of multiple sales channel strategies in their foreign operations. |
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