Internetbased sales channel strategies of born global firms.docx

Internetbased sales channel strategies of born global firms.docx

《Internetbased sales channel strategies of born global firms.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Internetbased sales channel strategies of born global firms.docx（25页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

Internetbasedsaleschannelstrategiesofbornglobalfirms

InternationalBusinessReview国际商业评论

Volume20,Issue1,February2011,Pages88-99第20卷第1期，2011年2月，页88-99

Internet-basedsaleschannelstrategiesofbornglobalfirms

基于互联网的全球新生企业的销售渠道战略

MikaGabrielssona,andPeterGabrielssonb,a

aInternationalBusiness,AaltoUniversitySchoolofEconomics,Finland

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:

UseofInternetshownwithdottedline.）

ViewWithinArticle

Moreover,researchhasindicatedthatinbornglobalfirmsthedirectInternetsaleschannelcanbeusedincombinationwithindirectchannelstocreatemultiplesaleschannels（M