Internetbased sales channel strategies of born global firmsWord文档格式.docx

Internetbased sales channel strategies of born global firmsWord文档格式.docx

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bInternationalMarketing,UniversityofVaasa,Finland

Received6July2008;

revised30April2010;

accepted3May2010. 

Availableonline15June2010.

Abstract摘要

Recentchangesinthetechnologicalenvironmenthavehadasignificantimpactontheavailablesaleschannelalternatives.Attheforefrontofthisdevelopmentarethebornglobalfirms,whichhavebeenrelativelyquicktoadoptInternet-basedchannels.Interestingly,manyofthesefirmshavereliednotonlyonInternet-basedchannels,butalsousedcombinationsofconventionalchannelsandtheInternet.Thisstudydescribesandanalyzesthestructureanddevelopmentfromsingletowardsmultiplesaleschannels.Itdevelopsaframeworkconsistingofthreeindependentfactors:

（1）theglobalizationprocess,

（2）marketstructureandInternetsuitability,and（3）long-termchannelrelations.Theseareexaminedinamultiplecasestudyconsistingof35cases.TheInternet-basedmultiplesaleschannelsprovedtobemorecommoninbornglobalsthathadreachedahigherglobalizationdegreethaninthosewhichwerestillatapreliminarystage.AnovelfindingwasthatrelationshipdevelopmentwithsmalllocalchannelsandMNCsalsoremainsimportantwhenInternetsaleschannelsareused.Theseresultscontributetoarelativelyunder-researchedareafocusingoninternationalInternet-basedsaleschannelsanduseofmultiplechannels.

Keywords:

Bornglobals;

Channelstrategies;

Internet

ArticleOutline

1.

Introduction

2.

MultiplesaleschannelstrategiesandtheInternet

3.

Theoreticalframeworkandpropositiondevelopment

4.

Researchdesign,datagatheringandanalysis

5.

Empiricalresults

5.1.Internet-basedchannelstrategies

5.2.Impactofglobalizationphase

5.3.MarketstructureandInternetsuitability

5.4.Long-termchannelrelations

6.

Discussionandconclusions

Acknowledgements

References

1.Introduction

Theexistenceandimportanceofbornglobalfirmshasprovedtobesignificantinmanymarkets（[KnightandCavusgil,1996],[MadsenandServais,1997],[OviattandMcDougall,1994],[Rennie,1993]and[Zahra,2005]）.Bornglobalshavebeenresearchedinover20countries,includingmanysmallandopeneconomiessuchasIreland,NewZealand,Greece,Israel,Finland,Norway,Denmark,Sweden,andAustralia.However,theyhavealsooriginatedinlargereconomiessuchastheUS,Japan,Germany,France,theUKandCanada（e.g.,Dana,2004）.Theresearchhasalsoidentifiedthecharacteristicsofbornglobals（Madsen,Rasmussen,&

Servais,2000）andthefactorsfacilitatingearlyandrapidglobalizationofthesefirms（Rialp,Rialp,&

Knight,2005）.Nevertheless,moreemphasisondevelopmentoftheoryandconceptualframeworkshasbeencalledforinresearchonbornglobals（[JonesandCoviello,2005]and[Rialpetal.,2005]）.Althoughtheinternationalandglobalmarketingliteraturehascontributedmuchtoourunderstandingofthemarketingstrategiesoflargeglobalfirms（e.g.,[Levitt,1983]and[Yip,1989]）,littlehasbeenwrittenspecificallyonthemarketingstrategiesofbornglobalswiththeexceptionofafewstudies（e.g.,Knight,1997）.Moreover,fewofthesestudiesarerelatedtothechallengesfacingbornglobalsintheirstrategicmarketingchannelselection（Gabrielsson&

Kirpalani,2004）.

Thisisstriking,giventhegreatchangesthathavetakenplaceinthemarketingenvironmentduetointroductionoftheInternetandothermoderntechnologiesthatenablebypassingofconventionalchannels（Frazier,1999）.ItthereforeseemsjustifiabletostudytheInternet-basedchannelstrategiesofbornglobals（Moen,2002）.ItisparticularlyinterestingtoexaminetheglobalexpansionofthebornglobalsandtheiruseoftheInternetasasaleschannel（Servais,Madsen,&

Rasmussen,2007）.Furthermore,earlierliteraturehasexaminedsinglechannelstrategyalternatives（direct/indirect）,buthasfocusedlimitedattentiononmultiplechannelstrategyalternatives（Anderson,Day,&

Rangan,1997）.ThemultiplechannelalternativesareofconsiderableimportancefortheinvestigationofInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategies.Hence,Internet-basedchannelstrategiesasameansofinternationalexpansionhavebeenunder-researchedandclearlyformaresearchgap（Gabrielsson,Kirpalani,&

Luostarinen,2002,p.93）.Thisleadstothefollowingresearchquestions:

（1）WhatkindofInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategyalternativesareavailableforbornglobalcompanies?

（2）WhatfactorsimpacttheselectionoftheInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategiesofbornglobals?

ThisresearchexaminestheInternet-basedsaleschannelsfromtheperspectiveofbornglobalfirms.Inthisresearch,abornglobalfirmisdefinedasonethat“frominception,seekstoderivesignificantcompetitiveadvantagefromtheuseofresourcesandthesalesofoutputsinmultiplecountries”（Oviatt&

McDougall,1994,p.49）.

2.MultiplesaleschannelstrategiesandtheInternet

Theinternationalizationprocessliteraturerecognizestwomaingroupsofmarketingoperationsthatformthebaseforchannelstrategies;

theseareexportoperationsandsalessubsidiaryoperations（[JohansonandVahlne,1977]and[Luostarinen,1979],p.110）.Themarketingliteraturebecomesusefulinafurtherexaminationofthesaleschannelstructuresincountries.Accordingly,theconventionalsaleschannelcanbeoneofthetwomainalternatives,adirectsaleschannelinwhichtheproducersellsdirectlytoindustrialorconsumerend-customersoranindirectsaleschannelinwhichindependentchannelmemberslocatedinthetargetmarketareused（Frazier,1999）.Aproducermayalsouseacombinationofbothdirectandindirectsaleschannels.

However,thepotentialroleoftheInternetandinformationtechnologyininternationalmarketingshouldbetakenintoaccount（Samiee,1998）.ThisbecomesparticularlyimportantforbornglobalfirmsthathavebeenfoundtousetheInternetintensivelyinsupportoftheirexportactivities（Moen,2002）.ResearchhasarguedthattheInternetisoneofthewaysforbornglobalstoobtainsubstantialrevenuesandcashflowrapidly（Gabrielsson&

Kirpalani,2004）.Asamatteroffact,someevidenceshowsthatwhenproperlyapplied,theInternetcanreducetheliabilityofforeignnessandnewness（cf.,Kotha,Rindova,&

Rothaermel,2001,p.771）andresourcescarcity,andthuscontributetofasterglobalization（Arenius,Sasi,&

Gabrielsson,2005）.Withinthisstudy,Internetusageisinvestigatedwithrespecttobothexportandsalessubsidiaryoperations.SpecialattentionwasplacedontheextenttowhichInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategieswereusedbythebornglobalfirmitself.UseoftheInternetbymiddlemeninthenextlayerwasnotexaminedinthispapersinceitwouldmeritaseparatestudy.

PreviousresearchhasplacedInternetusageindifferentcategories.Forinstance,Angehrn（1997）classifiesuseoftheInternetforvirtualinformationspace,virtualcommunicationspace,virtualtransactionspace,andvirtualdistributionspace.ThishasbeenfurtherdevelopedbyServaisetal.（2007）,whodividethecategoriesintoinformationsharing,interaction,transaction,andintegration.Inthecontextofinternationalsaleschannelstrategies,theimportantfunctionsthatcanbepartlycoveredbytheInternetincludepromotion,customergeneration,andproductfulfillment（stockholding,distribution,etc.）（cf.,Buckley,Pass,&

Prescott,1994）.InternetpromotionbasedoninformationsharingisalreadycommoninmostofthecompaniesandthereforethisusagealonedoesnotqualifyasanInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategy.Hence,inthisstudyanInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategyshouldconsistofeithercustomergenerationbasedontwo-wayinteractionbetweenbornglobalsandtheircustomersorchannelmembersinordertoprocesssalesorders,orthenproductfulfillmentbasedonexchangeofproductsorservicesovertheInternet.

ThefourmajorchannelstrategiesofferedbytheInternetareillustratedin[Fig.1]and[Fig.2].Theycanbedividedonthebasisoftwomajordimensions:

directnessandnumberofchannels.TheInternetcanbeusedasadirectsaleschannel（1stalternative）inwhichthebornglobalproducercarriesoutallthechannelfunctionsbyitselfandappliestheInternetforbothpromotionandtogeneratecustomersand/orhandleproductfulfillment.TheInternetmaybeusedinasimilarwaybythebornglobalfirminsellingtoindirectchannelpartners（2ndalternative）.ThesetwosinglechannelstrategyalternativesavailableforbornglobalfirmsareillustratedinFig.1（useoftheInternetisshownwithadottedlineinthefigure）.Althoughthefocusofthisstudyisontheproducer'

sInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategy,thefigurealsoshowsthatadistributororresellermayapplyeitheratraditionaloranInternet-basedsaleschannelwhenresellingtotheendcustomer.

Full-sizeimage（19K）

Fig.1. 

DirectandindirectInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategies.（Note:

UseofInternetshownwithdottedline.）

ViewWithinArticle

Full-sizeimage（26K）

Fig.2. 

DualandhybridInternet-basedsaleschannelstrategies.（Note:

Moreover,researchhasindicatedthatinbornglobalfirmsthedirectInternetsaleschannelcanbeusedincombinationwithindirectchannelstocreatemultiplesaleschannels（M