The Competitive Advantage of Equipment Firms

1 The market success of Nordic telecommunications equipment firms 

The home market hypothesis suggests that firms that have their headquarters in or at least are committed in the lead market gain a competitive advantage over competitors. In the case of mobile telephone equipment, a comparison between the competitiveness of Nordic firms and their competitors supports this hypothesis. Nokia of Finland and Ericsson of Sweden are the biggest mobile equipment manufacturers in the world (ITU 1999), together with the US company Motorola. In 1998 Ericsson held 30 % of the world market for wireless infrastructure. Motorola 16 % and Nokia 11 %. Nokia held a market share in mobile handheld phones of about 23 %, Motorola 20 % and Ericsson 15 % (Ericsson corporate information). 

Communications equipment firms from other countries fared less well or even failed on the world market. In contrast to Nokia and Ericsson, they either re- 

---