The influence of International marketing channel on export performance ( Case study of Finnish Exporting firms in South East Asia)

Abstract

This study is to find out how the comprehensive international marketing channel management can influence to the firm’s export performance. The theoretical framework used in this study mostly based on the Marketing channel management literatures and for the empirical study, the annual report of the firms, publication regarding to target country information and the specific industry and the interview were used to collect the data. The theoretical framework focuses on the International marketing channel management which compose of two main areas; (1) International channel design and (2) International channel management. The proposition of this study is the firm who develops the comprehensive marketing channel has the potential to be successful on the desired export performance.

The research method used for this study is qualitative, case study method with the structured set of questionnaires. The comparison of two firms has been done to find out whether are there any differences between the firm who develops the comprehensive international marketing channel and the firm who does not in term of export performance. The main finding for this study is that the firm which develops the comprehensive marketing channel tends to be more successful than the firm who does not, in term of export performance. The firm whose its export performance is successful tends to perform the following channel practices (1) Having the strong presence in the target countries (2) Conducting market approach rather than market approach (3) Having clear channel objectives throughout the channel (4) Efficiently resources and capabilities using (5) Good channel partner selection (6) Establishing commitment throughout the channel