Chapter 9: Market Entry and Expansion Flashcards
A model of international entry and expansion
Slide 2
The major motivations for firms to go international have been differentiated into…
- Proactive motivations
- Reactive motivations
Proactive motivations
Stimuli to attempt strategic change (i.e., firms go international because they want to)
Reactive motivations
Influence firms that respond to environmental shifts by changing their activities over time (i.e., firms go international because they have to)
Proactive stimuli
- Profit Advantage
- Unique products
- Technological advantage
- Exclusive information
- Economies of scale
- Market size
Reactive stimuli
- Competitive pressures
- Overproductoin
- Declining domestic sales
- Excess capacity
- Saturated domestic markets
- Proximity to customers and ports
Change agents in the internationalization process: Internal
- Enlightened management
- New management
- Significant internal event
Change agents in the internationalization process: External
- Demand
- Competition
- Domestic distributors
- service firms
- business associations
- Governmental activities
- Export intermediaries: Export management companies, trading companies
Export: Corporate export stages
- Awareness
- Interests
- Trial
- Evaluation
- Adaptation
Awareness
Awareness of international market opportunities
Interests
Interests in international activities.
Eventually, firms will answer inquiries, participate in export counseling sessions, attend international trade fairs and seminars, and even begin to fill unsolicited export orders.
Trial
Trial or exploratory stage. The firm begins to export, usually to psychologically close countries.
Evaluation
Management conducts an evaluation of its export efforts.
After two years of the initial export, management is likely to conduct an evaluation.
Adaptation
Success can also lead to the process of export adaptation.
The firm is now an experienced exporter and adjusts its activities to changing exchange rates, tariffs, etc.
Modes of export for firms’ products
- Direct export
- Through export intermediaries (e.g., export management company and trading company)
- Selling goods to a domestic firm who in turn sells abroad
What is EMC?
Export management Companies
What are export management companies (EMC)?
Domestic firms that perform international marketing services as commission representatives or distributors for other firms.
Two primary forms of operation of EMCs (Export management companies)
- Take title to goods and operate internationally on their own account
- Perform services as agents
What are the most famous trading companies?
The sogoshosha of Japan
What does the sogoshosha do?
- Importing
- Exporting
- Countertrading
- Investing
- Manufacturing
What are the reasons for the success of the Japanese sogoshosha?
- The firms are organized to gather, evaluate, and translate market information into business opportunities. They have developed a strategic information advantage.
- Their vast transaction volume provides them with cost advantages. For example, they can negotiate preferential transportation rates.
- They serve large markets around the world and have transaction advantages.
- They had access to capital, both within Japan and in the international capital markets. They can carry out transactions that are larger and riskier than is feasible for other firms.
E-commerce
The ability to offer goods and services over the Web.
How can companies enter e-commerce?
By exporting through a variety of business-to-consumer and business-to-business forums (e.g., eBay, Alibaba)
Licensing agreement
One firm (the licensor) permits another firm (licensee) to use its intellectual property in exchange for compensation designated as a royalty
Property (IPR)
- Patents
- Trademarks
- Copyrights
- Technology
- Etc.
Advantages of licensing
- Capital investment or knowledge or marketing strength is not required
- Royalty income provides additional return on R&D investments incurred
- Reduces the exposure to both government intervention and terrorism
- Allows a firm to test a foreign market without major investment of capital or management time
- Preempts a market for competition
- Increases global protection of intellectual property rights
Disadvantages of licensing
- Licensor gets limited expertise
- Licensor creates its own competitor
Franchising
A parent company (the franchiser) grants another independent entity (the franchisee) the right to do business in a specified manner
The major forms of franchising are:
- Manufacturer-retailer systems (e.g., car dealerships)
- Manufacturer-wholesaler systems (e.g., soft drink companies)
- Service firm-retailer systems (e.g., fast-food outlets)
Reason for the international expansion of franchise systems:
- Market potential
- Financial gain
- Saturated domestic markets
How does the franchisee benefit?
Benefits from the reduced risk of implementing a proven concept
Franchising concerns
- The need for standardization
- Protection of the total business system (e.g., fighting with local imitation)
- Selection and training
Master franchising system
Where foreign partners are awarded the rights to a large territory in which they can sub-franchise
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
International investment flows that acquire properties and plants. The international marketer makes such investments to create or expand a long-term interest in an enterprise with some degree of control.
FDI: Portfolio investment
Focuses on the purchase of stocks and bonds internationally
Reasons for FDI: Marketing factors
- Growth and profit motivations
- Wider market access to maintain and increase sales
- Circumvent barriers to trade
- Local customers’ preference for domestic goods and services
- Obtain low-cost resources and ensure their supply
Positive perspectives on FDI
- Bring in capital, economic activity, and employment
- Transfer technology and managerial skills
- Encourage competition
Negative perspectives on FDI
- Leads to dependence
- Drain resources from host countries
- Discourage local technology development
- Bring in outmoded technology
- Create new competition for local firms
Types of ownership: Full ownership
- 100% ownership
- Result of ethnocentric considerations based on the belief that no outside entity should have an impact on management.
- A major concern is the “fairness” of profit repatriation, or transfer of profits, and the extent to which firms reinvest into their foreign operations.
- Can be limited through legal restrictions or thorough measures designed to make foreign ownership less attractive.
Types of ownership: Joint ventures
- Collaborations of two or more organizations for more than a transitory period
- Partners share assets, risks, and profits
- Reasons for joint ventures are governmental and commercial
- The partners’ contributions to the joint venture can vary widely and can consist of funds, technology, know-how, sales organizations, or plants and equipment.
Advantages of joint ventures
- Pooling of resources
- Better relationship with local organizations
- The partner’s knowledge of the local market
- Minimize exposure to political risk
- Tap local capital markets
Disadvantages of joint ventures
- Different levels of control are required
- Difficulty in maintaining the relationship
- Disagreements over business decisions
- Disagreements over profit accumulations and distributions (profit repatriation)
What is true about internationalization regarding stimuli?
There are a variety of stimuli both pushing and pulling firms along the international path.
What is another way of explaining the difference between proactive and reactive motivations?
Proactive firms go international because they want to, while reactive ones go international because they have to.
Proactive stimuli: Profits
Profits provide the strongest incentive to become involved in international marketing
Proactive stimuli: Unique products or a technological advantage
A second major stimulus results either from unique products or a technological advantage.
A firm’s goods or services may not be widely available from international competitors or may offer technological advances in a specialized field. Uniqueness can provide a competitive edge and result in major business success abroad.
The intensity of marketing’s interaction with the research and development function, as well as the level of investment into R&D, has been shown to have a major effect on the success of exported products.
Proactive stimuli: Exclusive market information
This includes knowledge about foreign customers, marketplaces, or market situations that is not widely shared by other firms. Such knowledge may result from a firm’s international research, special contacts, or being in the right place at the right time (for example, recognizing a good business situation during a vacation trip).
Proactive stimuli: Economies of scale
The size of the international market may enable the firm to increase its output and slide more rapidly on the learning curve. Increased production for the international market can also help reduce the cost of production for domestic sales.
What did research by the Boston Consulting Group show?
That a doubling of output can reduce production costs up to 30%
What do firms do with reactive stimuli?
Here firms respond to changes and pressures in the business environment rather than blaze new trails.
What may a firm do in reaction to competitive pressures?
a firm may fear losing domestic market share to competing firms or losing foreign markets permanently to new competitors.
Reactive stimuli: Overproduction
A major reactive motivation. Instead of developing an international marketing perspective by adjusting the marketing
mix to needs abroad, firms stimulate export sales with short-term price cuts. As
soon as the domestic market demand returns to previous levels, international marketing activities are curtailed or even terminated. Firms that have used such a strategy once may encounter difficulties when trying it again because many foreign customers are not interested in temporary or sporadic business relationships.
What is a safety-value activity?
Historically, during downturns in the domestic business cycle, markets abroad provided an ideal outlet for high inventories. Such market expansion often does not represent a commitment by management but rather a temporary safety-valve activity.
Reactive stimuli: Stable or declining domestic sales
Whether measured in sales volume or market share, these also stimulate firms to expand internationally.
Products marketed by the firm domestically may be in the declining stage of the product life cycle; thus, the firm may opt to prolong the life of the product by expanding the market.
What are “just-dated” technologies?
High-technology items that are outdated by the latest innovations
What is an example of “just-dated” technology?
Slightly obsolete medical equipment
When can “just-dated” technology be useful?
It can be highly useful to economic development and offer vast progress.
Reactive stimuli: Excess capacity
Can be powerful motivation. If equipment is not fully utilized, international expansion can help achieve broader distribution of fixed costs. Alternatively, if all fixed costs are assigned to domestic production, the firm can penetrate international markets with a pricing scheme that focuses mainly on variable costs. Such a strategy may result in the offering of products abroad at a cost lower than at home, which may trigger dumping charges. In the long run, fixed-costs recovery needs to ensure the replacement of production equipment used for international marketing activities.
Reactive stimuli: Proximity to customers and ports
Physical closeness to foreign markets can encourage the international activities of a firm. This factor is much less prevalent in North American nations than in many other countries, since most American firms are situated far away from the border. Consider a typical 200-mile activity radius of U.S. firms, which would likely mean doing business in another state. In Europe, however, such a radius makes most firms international simply because their neighbors are so close. As an example, a European company operating in the heart of Belgium needs to go only 50 miles to be in multiple foreign markets.
Psychological distance
Refers to the lack of symmetry between growing international markets with respect to cultural variables, legal factors, and other societal norms.
Explain psychological distance
Geographic closeness to foreign markets may not translate into real or perceived closeness to the foreign customers because a foreign market that is geographically close may be psychologically distant.
What is one example of psychological distance?
U.S. firms perceive Canada to be much closer psychologically than Mexico.
What are two major issues that frame the context of psychological distance?
- First, some of the distance seen by firms is based on perception rather than reality.
- Second, at the same time, closer psychological proximity does make it easier for firms to enter markets.