Market entry to US : IT company ZEF Ltd.
Kaiponen, Heidi; Kotajärvi, Aino (2016)
2016
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202401262009
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202401262009
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis is to provide the commissioner ZEF Ltd. with important points of considera-tion when entering the US market. The subject was agreed with the commissioner to support their business expansion abroad, and the desired results of this thesis will point out certain matters that may have gone unnoticed if it was not for this thesis. The purpose is to help ZEF have a suc-cessful market entry to the US.
Mainly online sources were used for the theoretical background in order to ensure up-to-date information and practical approach. To support the knowledge provided by theory, a semi-structured interview covering all the four themes was conducted with Juho Risku, the co-founder and partner at Butterfly Ventures, due to his experience in operating a business in the US. The interview was used together with the theory to form a coherent knowledge base.
The results show that ZEF needs to take into account each of the four themes introduced in this thesis. They should consider all the practicalities of establishing an office in a foreign country from entry strategies to market differences. After entering the country, the company needs to consider different ways of networking in order to establish relationships with business partners and cus-tomers. Also, ZEF needs to consider their marketing and sales operations, especially whether to use both inbound and outbound marketing, and whether their product is ready for the market or not. The final consideration is the arrangement of customer support, as customer support locating only in Finland is not going to be sufficient, and ZEF will face the need to recruit more employees in the US.
This thesis was conducted when ZEF was not yet operating in the US. Therefore, as the situation and the company’s plans may change during their US operations, further research could be done on each of the four themes or the situation as a whole. For example, continuously changing marketing methods can bring new research ideas, and the arrangement of customer support will face challenges as the US customer base grows bigger.
Mainly online sources were used for the theoretical background in order to ensure up-to-date information and practical approach. To support the knowledge provided by theory, a semi-structured interview covering all the four themes was conducted with Juho Risku, the co-founder and partner at Butterfly Ventures, due to his experience in operating a business in the US. The interview was used together with the theory to form a coherent knowledge base.
The results show that ZEF needs to take into account each of the four themes introduced in this thesis. They should consider all the practicalities of establishing an office in a foreign country from entry strategies to market differences. After entering the country, the company needs to consider different ways of networking in order to establish relationships with business partners and cus-tomers. Also, ZEF needs to consider their marketing and sales operations, especially whether to use both inbound and outbound marketing, and whether their product is ready for the market or not. The final consideration is the arrangement of customer support, as customer support locating only in Finland is not going to be sufficient, and ZEF will face the need to recruit more employees in the US.
This thesis was conducted when ZEF was not yet operating in the US. Therefore, as the situation and the company’s plans may change during their US operations, further research could be done on each of the four themes or the situation as a whole. For example, continuously changing marketing methods can bring new research ideas, and the arrangement of customer support will face challenges as the US customer base grows bigger.