nto acquisitions that pushed the conglomerate strategy in a direct way; however, they frequently did cause the company to enter into new fields. One such case was at strategic alliances with Machines Bull, a French computer firm. Nokia became the Finish agent for Machines Bull. A part of the Machines Bull operations involved transmission technology, and Nokia initiated its own research into transmission technology; in part to become a better strategic partner for Machines Bull and in part to develop a greater understanding of markets that might lead to new directions for the application of Nokia's own resources and energy (Steinbock, 2001). By the early-1980s, Nokia has positioned itself within Finland as a communications company through the acquisition of a majority stake in the state-owned telephone company, which was renamed Telenokia (Hoover's, Inc., 2001d). From that time forward, Nokia began building its new corporate persona as a global telecommunications leader ("Tomorrow's Bulging Pockets", 1991).
By the late-1980s, the company was known as Nokia Group. The company found itself at a crossroads in 1989. Effectively, Nokia had outgrown its Nordic base and was seeking expansion opportunities in the wider European market ("Finland: Upcoming EU Membership", 1993).
By this time, Nokia manufactured and marketed a full range of products to serve the computer segment of the information technology industry, as well as providing telecommunications services within Finland. The company's strongest product position, however, was in telecommunications (Gross, Hester, & Javalgi, 1995).
The central problem that confronted Nokia involved the determination of the most effective strategy to employ as the framework for its expansion into the wider European market. Management at Nokia decided to pursue what they termed a multi-domestic approach to the strategy for growth in the wider European market. Management hoped to build comp...