Implications

Differences between newly and well-established firms concerning the initiation process, as well as the strategy regarding the initiation process, may have important practical implications for priority settings in order to obtain a prosperous business development. Following we will present two types of implications. First, we will present managerial implications to newly-, well- established, and both firms, in order to better handle the initiation process of a new business customer relationship. Secondly, we will present implications for further research concerning this topic.

5.2.1 Managerial Implications

It has been very interesting to investigate the six case firms. Since all the initiation processes we have studied have led to successful relationships, it implies that the initiation processes that have been carried out are based on good judgements. Thus, other newly and well-established firms can learn from implications found in this thesis.

Newly established firms

First and foremost, newly established firms lack previous experiences in initiating business relationships making this more challenging. From this thesis it is seen that external agents often facilitated the initial contact to the business customers for the newly established firms. Furthermore, these external agents were part of the personal network to the newly established firms. This makes it important that entrepreneurial firms establish a good personal network in their marked. Also, this case study implies that the personal network of the newly established firms seemed to be larger than their searching horizons. This makes it important that the newly established firms use their network as a searching function to a larger extent.

It is also important to notice that this study imply that newly established firms often get other opportunities than originally planned in their intended strategy due to the fact that they have a plan with little details. Therefore, entrepreneurial managers should make a more detailed plan on

Although good products, knowledge and skills are necessary prerequisites for successfulness, experienced colleagues from well-established firms are probably of crucial importance for new firms to be able to establish steadily in the market. Our study also demonstrates the importance for newly established firms having external agents who introduce them to the market, and

facilitate their network building beyond their own searching horizon.

We also want to emphasize that periods of trial in certain situations may be effective sales promoters for newly established firms.

Well-established firms

The findings in this thesis indicate that well-established firm’s use the reputation of the firm in a larger extent than the personal reputations among their employees. This implies that it is important for well-established firms to establish a solid firm reputation.

It is also seen that well-established firms should utilize their previous experiences on how to initiate business relationships, due to the fact that this is a unique competitive advantage.

Both newly an well-established firms

Our thesis further demonstrates that both newly and well-established firms need to have an active

attitude towards planned-emergence strategies as part of the intended initiation strategy for

business relationships. These strategies may have different mutual importance over time, and provide a higher degree of deliberate elements in the realized initiation strategy.

As a contradiction of what the reviewed literature states, the findings in this thesis imply that business customers are not necessary found closely located. Thus, firms do not need to solely search within their local environment, but should look further.

We have now presented implications from our most remarkable findings regarding this topic. Thus, we emphasise that this field should be further developed through both theoretical and empirical research. Subsequently, implications for further research will be discussed.

5.2.2 Implications for Further Research

In order to study highly complicated processes like the initiation of business relationships, it is important to develop simplified models which can elucidate specific problems and contribute to clarify important elements of the process. Our Theoretical Framework was a result of a systematic study of the literature, and assisted us in the evaluation of our research question. Due to the problem of categorizing a firm’s intended and realized initiation strategy in degree of emergent and deliberate elements, it is clearly seen a need for further study on this field. A reasonable approach to handle this issue could be to establish clearer models and remedies used in this categorisation process. This research has presented many challenges in need for further investigations, which here will be outlined.

The negotiation and agreement in the initiation process seem not to be an important part of the initiation strategy due to the fact that it concerns both the selling and buying firm. This might imply that the initiation process should end earlier, probably before the negotiation starts. Therefore, further research might solely focus on the four other sub-processes in the initiation process: Need, Search, Evaluation and First Interaction.

From theory we saw a clear trend that the authors presented the initiation process through flexible states. This finding was further strengthened in our case studies, were we saw that the sub-processes in the initiation happened according to the state theory. Thus, we believe that this is a good basis for further research.

Researchers investigating this topic should also look at the initiation process for a business relationship for older well-established firms. The newly and the well-established firms in this thesis do not have a significant age difference. It would be interesting to see if the differences in the initiation process between newly and well established firms would be clearer if the age difference was larger.

Our modest wish is that this thesis on the initiation process of business relationships for newly and well-established firms may inspire future research contributions, in order to increase our

understanding of this complicated but highly important field of initiating business relationships to customers.