Conclusions

To answer our research question, presented in the beginning of this thesis, we used the Theoretical Framework developed in Review of the Literature as a basis for the analysis and discussion of our case-study. This helped us in finding differences and similarities between newly and well-established firms. Some of these findings were expected and some were unexpected, which will be discussed below.

It has been very challenging to study the initiating process of a business relationship in light of strategy formation, because these fields are complex and this leads to many possible interpretations. Furthermore, it has been perplexed to define the realized strategy in accordance with the intended strategy, especially when the intended initiation strategy is planned-emergence. Based on this we had to define our interpretation regarding strategy formation. Our interpretation

was that intended strategies that are planned-emergence, and occur according to intended strategy, will be categorised as having a high degree of deliberate elements in the realized strategy. This is due to the fact that the realized initiation strategy has the same elements as the intended initiation strategy. Even though this has been challenging, we believe we have managed to expose the research question throughout this thesis.

Differences between newly and well-established firms

This thesis has confirmed that well-established firms in general used their increased experiences from previous business relationships in the forming of their intended initiation strategy. Consequently, well-established firms had a more detailed plan in their intended initiation strategy than newly established firms, clearly including elements from experiences with earlier initiation processes of business relationships. These findings are in accordance with the theoretical consequences that experience increases with time and exposure.

Newly and well-established firms had also different motives for having planned-emergence

strategies. Due to restricted knowledge and experiences, newly established firms are forced to

seize almost any opportunity that arise, and therefore need to plan for taking emergence opportunities. On the other hand, well-established firms usually have developed their network and can actively use their experience in the formation of their intended strategy. This finding is also in accordance with the nature and definitions of newly and well-established firms.

Differences between newly and well-established firms are also seen throughout the six sub- processes in the initiation process. First and foremost, the newly established firms showed a stronger need for the buying customer. They were also more often made aware of the customer by an external agent. Furthermore, the theory states that newly established firms often established new relationships due to strong needs for business customers. The reviewed theory implies that the awareness of the need is supposed to happen inside the firm, and not to be facilitated through an external agent. The fact that the newly established firms have a strong need, but do not manage to find the business customer themselves, and since this was not in accordance with the literature reviewed, we find this discovery rather unexpected. The empirical finding in this thesis states that, during the search, well-established firms gathered information

about the buying firms more commonly than the newly established firms. This is not surprising, since well-established firms often have resources (like employees) that solely work with finding business customers and thoroughly gather information about the buying firms.

During the evaluation, newly established firms used periods of trial more commonly than well- established firms. This is as expected since buying firms will have a restricted confidence due to limited reputation and references for the products. Offering a period of trial is less vital for the better known products of well-established firms, who probably have been in use for a longer period of time. Newly-established firms appears more often overconfident in their evaluation of the potential business customer than well-established firms, which is in accordance with the entrepreneurial culture being partly characterised by overconfidence in contrast to more well- established firms.

During the first interaction, reputation may define how and where the meetings between the firms take place. Newly and well-established firms use more often personal reputation and

reputation of the firm, respectively, in order to achieve business customers. This reflects their

degree of reputation and references in the market, which is much higher for the well-established firms. However, it was expected that the newly established firms did not use the firm’s reputation due to the fact that they had not established this yet. Still, in our study of three well- established firms, we were surprised to see that none of them used personal reputation more actively during the meetings with their business customers.

The order by which the sub-process of initiation occurred showed some differences in sequence. They were in accordance with state theory, where the sub-processes do to necessarily appear in a defined order. In general, the well-established firms evaluate right after or during the search, while the newly established firms evaluates after the first interaction. There may possibly be a difference in how the flexible states occur for newly and well-established firms, respectively, and may suggest that the newly established firms had to meet all possible business customers that came into existence. The well-established firms, on the other side, had probably learned from previous business initiation processes that they needed to evaluate carefully before using their time to meet business customers that might be a waste of their time. Moreover, it seem to be

overall a lack of distinctions between newly and well-established firms in the theories of initiation of business relationships.

Similarities between newly and well-established firms

The intended initiation strategy for most of the newly and the well-established firms was characterised as planned-emergence strategy. Which indicates that business environment can be volatile and unpredictable for both categories. This again, according to theories, leads to a greater need for planned-emergence strategy as part of firms intended initiation process.

One significant finding in this thesis is the similarities concerning the last sub-processes,

negotiation and agreement between newly and well-established firms. This indicates that these

sub-processes are a result of the mutual interaction between the buying and the selling firms, and little influenced by their previous experiences. This seems to be aligned with the theory in the fact that the negotiation and agreement are influenced by two parties. Possible differences in the intended initiation strategy between newly and well-established firms did not affect the last two sub-processes. Based on this we see that negotiation and agreement may possibly be of greater importance in the early initiation process. This finding is surprising because the theories of initiation processes include these two sub-processes, and therefore the intended initiation strategies also should affect them.

Our study also demonstrate that both newly and well-established firms initiated business relationships to customers through flexible states. The theories behind the Theoretical Framework imply that there is a clear trend from sequential stages towards flexible states. This means that this finding meets our expectations, and that this is the reality for both newly and well-established firms.

The realized initiation strategy of both newly and well-established firms were also characterised by a high degree of deliberate elements, following the planned-emergence strategy as part of the intended initiation strategy. This is expected since both newly and well-established firms will succeed in a greater extent in their initiation process if they take the volatility and unpredictability of the market in consideration.