It is said that eco innovation is the future of Europe’s competitiveness and by that Swedish companies face an exciting opportunity within the field of clean tech. This industry is expected to continue growing worldwide but Swedish companies still have a low export rate even though they have great potential due to their advanced technology. The purpose of this paper is to study the development of firms marketing strategies regarding product-market scope and differentiation and the impact of external conditions. The study will concentrate on the development of Swedish clean-tech firm’s marketing strategies in the U.S. How the perception of competition is impacting entrant firms’ market strategies has been scrutinized with help from a model developed by the authors based on perception of barriers and incumbent’s market strategies. The findings derived from three case companies claim that there is a relationship between the perception of barriers and incumbent’s market strategies on entrant firms’ market strategy. This implies that relying on advanced technology is not enough to become successful in new markets and that a successful market strategy is dependent on more than the product itself. The entrant firm must consider its situation and its options with help from their knowledge about barriers and incumbent’s market strategies.   Key words: Strategy, clean tech, barriers, product/market scope / Svenska miljöteknikföretags marknadsexpansion

<p>It is said that eco innovation is the future of Europe’s competitiveness and by that Swedish companies face an exciting opportunity within the field of clean tech. This industry is expected to continue growing worldwide but Swedish companies still have a low export rate even though they have great potential due to their advanced technology. The purpose of this paper is to study the development of firms marketing strategies regarding product-market scope and differentiation and the impact of external conditions. The study will concentrate on the development of Swedish clean-tech firm’s marketing strategies in the U.S.</p><p>How the perception of competition is impacting entrant firms’ market strategies has been scrutinized with help from a model developed by the authors based on perception of barriers and incumbent’s market strategies.</p><p>The findings derived from three case companies claim that there is a relationship between the perception of barriers and incumbent’s market strategies on entrant firms’ market strategy. This implies that relying on advanced technology is not enough to become successful in new markets and that a successful market strategy is dependent on more than the product itself. The entrant firm must consider its situation and its options with help from their knowledge about barriers and incumbent’s market strategies.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Key words:</strong> Strategy, clean tech, barriers, product/market scope</p> / Svenska miljöteknikföretags marknadsexpansion

In emergent high technology industries, entrepreneurs and their new ventures play a critical role in enhancing economic growth. In these industries, we can easily see some new ventures grow more rapidly to outperform their competitors. However, looking beyond the surface, new ventures’ growth path is idiosyncratic. More specifically, when growing, new ventures pursue different paths in terms of 1) which technologies they develop, 2) which products they make, and 3) what markets they enter. The question that has struck me is why high-tech new ventures differ on these key strategic choices. Building on literature on entrepreneurship, strategy, industry evolution, and network, this dissertation tries to answer this important question by focusing on intra-firm factors, more specifically, the individual and structural attributes of new ventures. Types of founder experience and new ventures’ knowledge structure are examined in depth. My three studies, each presented as a separate essay herein, investigate how individual (i.e. founder experience) and structural attributes (i.e. knowledge structure) affect key strategic choices regarding i) product market scope (Wernerfelt and Montgomery, 1988), ii) technological search scope (Katila and Ahuja, 2002), and iii) the types of new products (Sanchez and Mahoney, 1996; Henderson and Clark, 1990), respectively. In each, I discuss the relevant theories, methodology, data sources, results and implications. By investigating intra-firm factors that trigger different entrepreneurial strategies, my dissertation responds to an important call – micro-foundation of strategy formation – thus filling a key gap in the entrepreneurship literature. / Business Administration/Strategic Management