International marketing communication decisions of Finnish technology-oriented born globals in the context of social media

The field of international marketing communication has been in the middle of transformation lately. The rise of social media has enabled new ways for resource-constrained firms to communicate cost-efficiently without borders. Development of communication tools and platforms have forced many international and entrepreneurial firms to re-evaluate their social media communication strategies and practices. This master’s thesis seeks to gain a deeper understanding about the role of social media in international markets and the role of different decision-making logics when international and entrepreneurial firms start to form these important decisions. The role of social media is examined from international marketing communication perspective and decision-making through Sarasvathy’s (2001) effectuation theory. The purpose is to fill this research gap by increasing knowledge of international social media communication and decision-making of international and entrepreneurial, born global firms. The empirical data of this study was collected through semi-structured interviews from 4 technology-oriented born global firms. The interviewees were employees who were in charge of case companies’ international marketing and communication strategies. Based on the empirical data, it was found that Finnish born globals seem to fluctuate between effectual and causal decision-making logics when forming international marketing communication decisions. The empirical data indicated that firms which favored causal decision-making logic, seemed to highlight international brand-oriented activities, emphasized higher activity level through systematic communication and longer-term goals in social media. The firms which favored effectual decision-making logic, highlighted international sales-oriented communication activities, emphasized experimental attitude and shorter-term goals in social media. Furthermore, it was found out that when born globals form international marketing communication decisions, they are influenced by other important factors like internal marketing resources and capabilities, use of marketing data and other external industry-specific factors.HUOM! Tämän gradun saa julkaista ainoastaan rajatulla saatavuudella eli siten, että gradu on kokonaan saatavissa vain Tritonian asiakaskoneilla