Globalization of markets is a phenomenon that has received much attention
and been extensively debated both at general
societal/institutional/cultural levels and at market and business levels.
In any globalization process, distribution of goods and services between
and within local industrial and consumer markets is of great importance.
Distribution channels excellence has become a powerful source of
competitive differentiation. It is vital to conduct efficient and cost-
effective distribution in order to sustain the growth of the international
marketplace and the integration of the world's economic activities. The
range of distribution channels available in the consumer market has
increased dramatically in the past decade and there has been a
corresponding increase in the competition between channels. A variety of
traditional retail formats now compete with telephone, mail, Internet, TV
and digital TV as purchasing environments and consequently understanding
the factors that will lead consumers to purchase from one channel rather
than another becomes an increasingly important input to channel design and
management.
The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how
international distribution channels are used in the consumer market and the
reasearch area is from the perspective of Swedish companies that produce
consumer goods and pursue export. Traditional international distribution
channels are investigated and not channels that use new technology such as
the internet. In chapter two various international distribution channels
are presented as well as the international distribution channel selection
process the channel management. In chapter three comes the problem
discussion which is followed by the conceptual framework. From the problem
discussion arises the three research questions. The research questions
concern how an international distribution channel can be described, how it
is selected and how the international distribution channel can be managed.
Chapter four, which is Methodology, explains how we have conducted our
research and we explain and justify the choices of methodology approaches
that have been practiced in the study in order to answer the research
questions. The reserach purpose is exploratory, descriptive and
explanatory. Our research approach is qualitative and we have used case
studies for our research strategy. The sample collection is non-probability
samples and the data has been collected from documentation and interviews.
The data analysis is both within-case and cross-case. We have discussed
both quality standards of our study: the validity and reliability.
Chapter five presents the information we gathered through interviews and
documentation at two corporations, Polarbröd AB and Norrmejerier. We start
with the general information regarding both corporations and thereafter we
present the information concerning each research question, i.e. how
international distribution channels can be described, how they are selected
and how they are managed.
Chapter six provides an analysis of our empirical findings. We start with a
within-case analysis of case one where we analyze each research question
against our conceptualized framwork. Then we do the same t...
