متغیرهای مربوط به شرکت و تأثیر آنها بر نتیجه ان پی دی در زمینه بازارهای بین المللی در شرکت های با فن آوری پیشرفته فنلاندی

While much research has been directed at the variables critical to successful R&D of new products on the one hand and high-technology products on the other, much less work has been directed at those factors crucial to the success of these products when the firm enters the international marketplace. This study surveys Finnish high-technology firms and variables related to the properties of the company and their association with successful versus unsuccessful attempts to enter the international marketplace. Relationship between firm characteristics – type of industry, size of the company, background of key personnel, export intensity and experience in product launches – and success/failure in the product launches is investigated. The generalizability of the findings is also discussed.

The product development process is long and tedious. Companies put a lot of emphasis on the development of new products. For example during the last three decades the relative amount of R&D expenditure has risen from about 0.7% to its current level of 3.5% of GNP in 2009 in Finland. This growth of R&D expenditure has been among the fastest of OECD countries (Research.fi, 2009) enabling the success of many Finnish industries and companies. Good performance in product launches can be based on numerous variables. It can be for example achieved because the company is in the right place in the right time, rather than having an effective marketing management program (Kotler, 1994). Marketing has been cited to be a neglected area in technology intensive companies (Autio et al., 1989, Lumme, 1994, McKenna, 1985 and Shanklin and Ryans, 1987). The emphasis of this study, however, is on the company related variables and their relationship to the outcome of the international product launch. Based on the literature review, the company related variables to be included were educational background of key personnel, size of the company, industry, export intensity, and experience in product launches. The research attempts to determine whether the company related factors in Finnish high technology companies launching new products abroad significantly impact the NPD outcome. The research contributes to empirically based knowledge concerning product launches into the international markets. Thus the research question can be stated as follows: To what extent company related variables in Finnish high technology companies impact the outcome of the NPD launch into foreign markets?

The success rate when launching high technology products into the export markets was in this study 80.4%. Zirkle found out in his research concerning consumer products that the success rate was 75.3% (Zirkle, 1993). Cooper and Kleianschmidt (1988) found on the other hand that high-tech firms with an international orientation were more successful so that new products exported on a world scale achieved an % success rate (and greater profitability and a shorter payback period) while a 50% success rate was achieved for products with a home market focus only. These results are thus comparable with the results of this study (for a more detailed discussion regarding the success rates in various studies please see Griffin (1997)). Caution should be exercised, however, when comparing these findings concerning new product success rates between domestic and foreign markets, as well as between consumer and industrial markets. The present study offers empirical evidence that the size of the company and its' volume of exports have a significant impact on the NPD outcome when the new product is launched to the export markets. The two variables (the absolute sales volume of the company, and the absolute amount of export volume) differentiate effectively the successful and unsuccessful product launches. Thus it is evident that size matters in terms of export markets for the high technology companies. There were no differences, however, in the outcome of product launches between the specific industries in the context of high technology and medium high technology industries nor were there any differences in the outcome of product launches between the companies with differing experience in product launches into the export market. And also, there were no differences in the outcome of product launches depending upon the educational background of the key personnel (president and highest ranked marketing officer) of the company. The previous research indicates that the key decision maker's background does matter, but only if the background is viewed as function of educational level, years of experience, age and background. The results of this research bring important points to the attention of the management of high technology companies. They should focus their attention on trying to achieve critical mass in the export sales and overall sales volume of the company. It is important to identify all means to overcome this obstacle. For example, one possibility in the Finnish context could be to use the export sales circles established by the Finnish Foreign Trade Association. Consistently with previous research the success rate of the Finnish high technology companies in export markets is equal to those discovered in other studies. In addition when the high technology companies make key hiring decisions they should put emphasis on the broad background (e.g. educational level, years of experience, age and background) of the candidates rather than the educational background only.