Suppose your firm has marketed its line of DVD players only in the home country. Management has
Question:
Suppose your firm has marketed its line of DVD players only in the home country. Management has made the decision to begin marketing DVD players abroad and has given you the task of researching a collection of foreign countries, to evaluate their viability as potential export markets. You will examine such factors as market size, market growth rate, and nature of potential foreign markets. Your task is to conduct research and write a brief report in which you formulate and explain a ranking of the best export markets that management should target with exports of portable DVD players. In developing your report, you are to focus your research on the following six countries: Germany, India, Italy, Nigeria, Peru, and the Philippines. For each of these countries, you are to gather data on the following variables:
Population Per-capita GDP Projected per-capita GDP Growth Status and stability of the national economy (for example, inflation rate, level of government debt) Degree of political stability Extent of government intervention Level of technology In general, for exporters it is best to target countries with high per-capita incomes, substantial population levels, and relatively rapid GDP growth. Exporters also favor countries with a relatively stable economy and government, minimal government intervention, and a level of technology suitable for the exported product or service.
You should perform the following tasks:
For each of the six countries, visit the websites listed below and collect data on each of the variables listed above. Convert the data for each of the indicators into a standardized point score (say, on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being lowest and 10 being highest) so that the performance of each country can be numerically compared to that of each of the other countries. One approach for making comparisons is to use the country with which you are most familiar as a benchmark, and then set the ratings for all the other countries by comparing them to the benchmark. Assign relative weights for each indicator based on the importance of each. Assigning weights is a somewhat subjective process. You must decide which variables are most important and then assign the appropriate weights. Not all indicators are equally important as predictors of export market potential. Some indicators are more important than others.
International Economics
ISBN: 978-1429278447
3rd edition
Authors: Robert C. Feenstra, Alan M. Taylor