Partner Selection for International Marketing and Distribution in Corporate New Ventures

The software industry offers numerous options for a firm to arrange its international marketing activities. Although a prominent way to enter the international market is through co-operation, there is a limited amount of research regarding partner selection. The purpose of this paper is to explore how entrepreneurial corporate new ventures use partners in their international marketing. A representative case study is used to illustrate the partner selection and evaluation process in the software industry. Our findings indicate that small entrepreneurial firms can and should use partners in their internationalization. However, a more analytical approach to their selection is needed.