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Thursday, June 20, 2019

Trade fairs to advance SME internationalisation

The purpose of the study is to find out how trade fairs affect the factors in theory and practice, and how scarce resources should be allocated to gain an efficient trade fair outcome.
Black (1986) defines trade fairs as “events that bring together, in a single location, a group of suppliers who set up physical exhibits of their products and services from a given industry or discipline”. Trade fairs can be roughly categorised based on their geographical coverage, i.e. whether they have international, national or local focus.  Moreover, market coverage classifies fairs regarding their appeal on one particular industry, i.e. vertical trade fair, or appeal on all sorts of goods and services from different industries, i.e. horisontal trade fairs. (O’Hara 1993.)10 most common objectives of trade fair participation: 1. make direct sales, 2.maintain contact and image with former customers 3. make contact and create image with new potential customers, important especially for companies penetrating new market areas 4. introduce a new product or a new line, fairs are a more efficient way to introduce a new product than traditional sales call 5. demonstrate nonportable equipment 6. on-the-spot technical problem solving, increases time usage efficiency 7. find new ideas or applications 8. build morale of local sales representatives 9. counter participation by competitors, enables attendees to compare own products to competitors’ ones 10. recruit personnel.
Authors Miika Kreivi, Matti Muhos, Lingyun Wang, and Pekka Kess illustrate the benefits with 3 cases from China fair. 

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