Benchmarking International High-Technology Research Laboratories' Marketing in Europe

Abstract

The thesis studies current marketing conventions of international high-technology research laboratories in Europe and is done for the UNELMA-project. UNELMA is a joint project between Finnish and Swedish universities and institutions funded by the European Union, the Provincial Government of Norbotten, Lapin Liitto and Interreg IV A. The project wishes to create a network of professional services which will benefit companies in the Bothnian Arc between Finland and Sweden.

The study itself intends to give possible examples of how high-technology professional services are marketed internationally and how to apply their practices to Finnish and Swedish high-technology marketing, the UNELMA-project's marketing in particular. Actual high-technology issues or operations in the respective field will not be discussed in this thesis.

The knowledge base of the thesis relies on B2B-marketing, services marketing and digital marketing. The applied research method is benchmarking through case studies. Case studies were chosen as it was the best way of having information about the organizations the UNELMA-project and its managers were interested in. Recommendations of possible marketing practices and operations for UNELMA will be presented.