Geography in International Business

The involvement decision is conditioned by a variety of internal and external factors such as firms' export policy, resources and product range, volume of export business, regulatory and procedural conditions to be fulfilled both from exporting and importing angle.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that the scope of international marketing for a firm will be determined by its decisions regarding the means of entry into foreign markets as well as by the kind of involvement the firm wishes to have in its international marketing operations. It cannot be said that one kind of operation/orientation is better than the other, as each has its own advantage and disadvantage depending on the operating environmental factors.

However, a firm can adopt a policy of common or differential approaches in respect of different marketing decision areas.

In practice, planning the ethnocentric approach is found to be most common when overseas volume is insignificant, compared to the total sales turnover, or if the firm does not want to go for higher volume of overseas sales for some reason. Since little or no investment is needed, ethnocentric oriented firms have the least risk.

Main Points

An exporting company's international operation involves the following strategies.

Ethno centric Operational strategy :

(with the help of overseas Agents)

Product formulation

Product specification

Pricing strategy

Distribution

Promotional measures

Regiono Centric Operational strategy : Catering to a group of Countries having similarity in Marketing in market characteristic

Geo Centric Operational strategy : Creating globally through well Co-Ordinated Net work

Poly centric operational