Phased market entry for B2B enterprises

Entering emerging markets poses a persistent strategic challenge for B2B firms offering standardized industrial products. While distributor-based market entry is frequently employed to manage uncertainty and resource constraints, existing internationalizations theories provide limited guidance on how such strategies can be structured and governed over time. Prior research insufficiently explains how learning, control, and commitment evolve when market access is delegated to local distributors. This thesis addresses this gap by examining how B2B automotive firms can implement distributor-based market entry and penetration strategies in emerging markets, and which product characteristics align with this approach. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study situated in the Indian industry, the analysis reveals that distributor-based entry is not a temporary or purely transactional solution, but a phased and relational process shaped by governance mechanisms, trust development, and selective commitment decisions. The findings demonstrate that established internationalization perspectives—such as the Uppsala model, network theory, and real options logic—each capture important aspects of this process but fail to account for their interaction under conditions of limited control. Based on this insight, the thesis develops an integrative conceptual framework that explains distributor-based market entry as a negotiated and conditional progression rather than a linear escalation of commitment.