SALES MANAGEMENT IN FOREIGN MARKETS : Case study on Finnish companies´ knowledge management in Russia

Finnish companies’ sales in Russia are important income from the perspective of foreign trade. Over the years many companies of Finnish origin have established operations in Russia and practiced business model that suit new markets. Often the management style of foreign subsidiary has been same as in home market, but the dynamic environment demanded a lot of operational adaptation. There is only limited number of academic research on international sales. The lack of universal guidelines for sales management in foreign markets had led to the situation, where companies develop their operations and create own management systems and transfer information to meet the changing environment and demand. Finnish companies have their own best practices to perform sales and collect knowledge from Russian markets. There are differences in most suitable operation model. Company´s business model, amount of experience in foreign trade and available resources all affect modification of strategy. Many sales executives are put in a position where besides numerical data analyses of performance they are expected to excel in cross-border human resource management, knowledge management and information collection on foreign markets. This research strives to find explanations to success of Finnish companies managing sales in Russia. The focus is on the perspective of knowledge management, which is argued to affect performance in markets. Theoretical framework included international sales management, knowledge management theories and culture- and market specific characteristics of human resource management. The research method was case study research with interviews of sales executives of three different Finnish companies and one Russia-expert interview. The results of research indicate Finnish companies to rely on their know-how when it comes to management of foreign sales in Russia. Sales organizations are adapted to changing business needs of foreign market, but in knowledge management company is dependent on competence of managers. Sales executives, who rely on their experience and lead employees in Russia based on own beliefs and strategy developed in Finland may create fragile organization or ensure survival in foreign markets. Contribution of this research is the perspective of importance of knowledge management in cross-border sales organization management. Finnish companies are advised to adapt sales organization strategies to meet set targets and continuously collect knowledge from their foreign employees

Analisis Pengambilan Keputusan Strategi Bisnis dalam Meningkatkan Penjualan Pada Usaha Langgang

Abstract Kemplang Tunu (panggang) is one of the typical snack products from South Sumatra that is very popular by the community. Langgang's business is a new roast camper business established in June 2020.This research on business actors is a first step strategy in business development do that it can last in the long term, this triggers researchers to find out what alternative strategies are in accordance with Langgang's efforts in increasing sales. This research uses descriptive qualitative with Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and Expert Choice application as a tool in processing data supporting system decision making. The results of this study showed that internal factors four sub-criteria and external factors four sub-criteria. The results of the decision-making model using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) stated that the alternative business strategy in Langgang business is the development of a new type of taste with an assessment of (0.387), sales via e-commerce with an assessment of (0.290), opening oulet with an assessment of (0.192) and selection of suppliers with an assessment of (0.131).   Keywords: Kemplang Panggang, Decision Making, Business Strategy, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Expert Choice   Abstrak Kempang Tunu (Panggang) ialah produk olahan istimewa dari Sumatera Selatan dan sangat digemari oleh masyarakat. Usaha Langgang ialah usaha kemplang panggang yang baru didirikan pada bulan Juni 2020. Penelitian pelaku usaha ini merupakan strategi langkah awal pada pengembangan usaha hingga mencapai bertahan sampai jangka panjang, hal ini memicu peneliti untuk mencari tahu alternatif strategi apa yang sesuai dengan usaha Langgang dalam meningkatkan penjualan. Penelitian ini menggunakan kualitatif dekriptif dengan Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) dan metode Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) serta aplikasi Expert Choice sebagai alat dalam mengolah data sistem penunjang pengambilan keputusan. Hasil Penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa faktor internal terdapat empat sub-kriteria dan faktor eksternal terdapat empat sub-kriteria. Hasil model pengambilan keputusan dengan menggunakan Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) menyatakan bahwa alternatif strategi bisnis pada usaha Langgang yaitu pengembangan jenis rasa baru dengan penilaian sebesar (0,387), penjualan via e-commerce dengan penilaian sebesar (0,290), membuka oulet dengan penilaian sebesar (0,192) dan pemilihan supplier dengan penilaian sebesar (0,131).   Kata kunci: Kemplang Panggang, Pengambilan Keputusan, Strategi Bisnis, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Expert Choic

Narratives of an outsourced information systems failure in a small enterprise

In this study we investigate a case of an outsourced information systems (IS) failure (OISF) within the collaborative partnership among asymmetric partners. A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is dealing with an independent software vendor (ISV) conducting a project of implementing an IS that fails. We used a narrative research methodology for our enquiry. In the construction of our narrative we followed the OISF framework as a theoretical touchstone. As a major conclusion we found that asymmetric collaborations with partners with inadequate managerial and technical IT capabilities are extremely prone to OISF’s. We showed that an outcome-based and fixed price contract is not an adequate instrument to conduct such a partnership and to avoid a failure

Narratives of an outsourced information systems failure in a small enterprise

In this study we investigate a case of an outsourced information systems (IS) failure (OISF) within the collaborative partnership among asymmetric partners. A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is dealing with an independent software vendor (ISV) conducting a project of implementing an IS that fails. We used a narrative research methodology for our enquiry. In the construction of our narrative we followed the OISF framework as a theoretical touchstone. As a major conclusion we found that asymmetric collaborations with partners with inadequate managerial and technical IT capabilities are extremely prone to OISF’s. We showed that an outcome-based and fixed price contract is not an adequate instrument to conduct such a partnership and to avoid a failure

An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing planning for industrial firms

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Industrial Marketing Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Industrial marketing planning is a typical example of an unstructured decision making problem due to the large number of variables to consider and the uncertainty imposed on those variables. Although abundant studies identified barriers and facilitators of effective industrial marketing planning in practice, the literature still lacks practical tools and methods that marketing managers can use for the task. This paper applies fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) to industrial marketing planning. In particular, agent based inference method is proposed to overcome dynamic relationships, time lags, and reusability issues of FCM evaluation. MACOM simulator also is developed to help marketing managers conduct what-if scenarios to see the impacts of possible changes on the variables defined in an FCM that represents industrial marketing planning problem. The simulator is applied to an industrial marketing planning problem for a global software service company in South Korea. This study has practical implication as it supports marketing managers for industrial marketing planning that has large number of variables and their cause–effect relationships. It also contributes to FCM theory by providing an agent based method for the inference of FCM. Finally, MACOM also provides academics in the industrial marketing management discipline with a tool for developing and pre-verifying a conceptual model based on qualitative knowledge of marketing practitioners.Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Korea

Strategic marketing planning : a state of the art review

School of Managemen