The Process of Distributor Selection among SMEs. A multiple-case study in the Healthcare Sector

Abstract

Abstract An increasing amount of small and medium sized enterprises make the decision to expand the business outside the domestic market. Due to the restricted resources of SMEs, the entry mode options are limited and entering a market through a distributor is often the most viable option. Since much responsibility is put in the hands of the distributor, the success of the foreign market operations is correlated to the distributor performance. As the distributor performance is of such importance, high demands are placed on the distributor selection. The decision-making has a tendency to vary between small and large companies because of the different capabilities, which affect how they gather and evaluate information. Although some literature has touched upon the issue of distributor selection it is still a rather unexploited field especially with regards to smaller companies and how thoroughly they select distributors in foreign markets. This case study investigate the distributor selection process at four Swedish SMEs in the Healthcare sector, with the ambition to increase the knowledge of the decision making in this process. The results suggest that the distributor selection is a vital decision in the international expansion among SMEs. Furthermore, the managerial experience, partnership dependency, resources and maturity level are factors that influence the distributor selection process among the SMEs in this case study.