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4 Results, evaluation of the studies and concluding remarks
Littunen and Virtanen, 2009; Smallbone et al., 1995), including changes in
leadership and organisational structure. It should be emphasised that even
if the strategies of the ventures focus on very niche markets they may be
very successful in the international market. For example, one case firm
(Blancco Oy Ltd.) concentrates on data erasure and is a globally leading
company in this niche. Entrepreneurs cite subjective measures of success,
including independence, professional pride, family values and external
recognition as their major motives and incentives for their entrepreneurial
careers. These findings support the suggestion by Achtenhagen et al. (2010)
that entrepreneurs give several meanings for growth and success, including
both traditional performance indicators and others.
The emphasis of the case SMEs is on customer needs and listening to
customers. This finding is in line with the proposal by Barringer et al.
(2005) that customer knowledge could be a useful new variable for
analysing business practices. Sales organisation and distribution channels
in international markets were seen to be the most important, especially for
exports. This is consistent with findings by Chetty and Cambell-Hunt
(2003), and it is not surprising since most sales of some case companies
(e.g. Blancco Ltd) are generated in the international market. A resourcebased
view and direct impact of resources were also evident in some cases,
and major future challenges perceived by the case firms are connected with
management of growth and internationalisation. Therefore, their
management should adopt an agile strategy and be prepared to delegate
and share responsibilities.
Article IV addresses the following questions. What are the highly growing
industrial branches in Eastern Finland? What characteristics distinguish
firms in high-growing industrial branches from those in other branches,
and what do these small firms require from regional innovation support
services? In order to answer these questions the connections between
innovation activity and high-growth were examined using three data sets,
LRA and case study methods of analyses. The absolute and relative growth
rates of firms representing diverse branches of industry were initially
explored (using industry branch as a dependent variable in LRA), then the
study focused on analysing one high-growth sector, KIBS firms.
Analysis of the national-level data showed that the service sector was the
fastest growing branch of industry from 2002 to 2005 in Eastern Finland.
LRA identified several factors that differentiate the service sector growth
firms from companies in other sectors. Firms that were successful and
highly-growing were over-represented (relative to a priori probabilities) in
the service sector, as were firms that had several auxiliary business names,
young or had received public R&D funding. More specific analysis of the
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