New International High-Technology Firms: A Comparative Study Of Marketing Communication Practices At Entry And Post-Entry

Due to technological obsolescence and strong competition, high-technology firms have a short window of opportunity to develop their clientele in order to generate profit from their research and development investments. However, the failure rate of these new international firms, in their transition to the post-entry stage, is very high. This exploratory study contributes to the emerging literature on the comparison of entry and post-entry practices of new international firms in foreign markets. More specifically, it analyzes the use of traditional and digital marketing communication tools by ten Canadian high-technology firms. The results suggest that, at the entry stage, firms prefer indirect rather than direct communication tools and that they use a smaller variety of tools than post-entry firms do. Limited resources, financial or human, are explanatory factors. However, as part of a betterplanned and integrated communications strategy, inexpensive adjustments are possible to deploy sales in a greater number of countries.