MARKETING RESEARCH

Marketing Research

[Name of the Institute]

Marketing Research

Question1) Why have so many companies extended their worldwide operations and what are the main implications for management of this trend?

The increasing role of multinational enterprises in the global economy has resulted to business men as well as researchers in these areas engaging in intensive enquiry in analyzing the most suitable strategy to be applied. Due to the complexity of market entry strategy selection process, it becomes very hard for many organizations to determine the most appropriate thereby shunning away from exploring new markets. The process is associated with strategy success, profit return, resource transfer and exposure of the firm to high risks which many organizations are not ready to risk. It is for these reasons that different researchers including Ekeledo and Sivakumar 2004, Rasheed 2005, and Jiang 2005 have engaged in research, attempting to identify factors that affect the expansion and entry modes in to new ventures by different companies.

A successful entry and expansion in any company is to greater extent determined by the entry strategy applied in relation to products being traded or introduced, available resources and size of the target market. According to Ekeledo and Sivakumar (2004), the performance of a firm and its survival is highly dependent on selection of an appropriate market entry strategy. Similarly, Pak et al (2002) postulate the importance of accurately determining an appropriate market entry strategy when they state that 'failure to select an appropriate market entry strategy is a license to corporate failure'. Since one of the integral factors in achieving a positive outcome is selecting the appropriate market entry strategy, firms must be keen in the selection process if they are to evade failure and maximize the benefit of exploring new markets (Ekeledo, 2004, pp: 101).

Implications for Management trend

High levels of competition, economic globalization and the emergence of new technologies are just three of the many factors that have pushed the organizational change and renewal processes, which are based on continuous innovation, are now a steady business. The corporate life is a sea change in which there are high tides sometimes and other times it is quiet, but there are always waves. Every day companies face new challenges, whether an established organization or a small business that is just beginning there are always new issues that affect their behavior and performance. In these times of rapid change, new challenges seriously threaten the survival of organizations, new foreign competitors, capital mobilization, difficulty in retaining human talent and changing technologies are elements that force people who hold the reins of the firms to be prepared for change and not only that but to have the ability to motivate people to achieve continuous renewal.

Change management is not to introduce new models of management that ultimately turn out to be only temporary theories, but rather is to build the business environment changes for the good of the firm, therefore, companies must not only be flexible but those who manage them must develop a keen insight ...