Identifying strategic factors for a market entry process for professional development education export in the United States market area

Abstract

Education export (EE) has been gaining traction globally, and the Finnish education system is among the most awarded in the world. However, Finnish EE has not reached its full potential globally, partially due to lack of EE capabilities in international new market entry. This study aims to solve this issue by combining business and education academia with extensive empirical data, providing understanding for two major themes. First, understanding the best practices for professional development (PD) EE into the US market area, and second, how education as a product alters that PD EE process. The study uses most accepted theories of market entry, EE, and PD, and reflects the empirical findings from 22 interviews to these theories. The findings present viewpoints on PD EE, such as focusing on pedagogics rather than practicalities, private education sector rather than public education sector and on needed capabilities rather than capability development. These are examples of the differences in the market entry processes, resulting to an eventual logic that market differences between target market and home market should be decreased to conduct a successful market entry. Overall, the study observes a multifaceted and intricate case of PD EE in the US market area, providing concrete tools for the internationalization process: first, understanding the market entry contingencies, then decreasing the market differences and developing capabilities, and finally developing a strategic roadmap based on the previous two steps.