International Business: The New Realities, 5th Edition

Assessing the True Potential of Emerging Markets

1. 8.3 Learn how to assess the true potential of emerging markets.

Firms targeting emerging markets for sales, manufacturing, or sourcing must seek reliable information to support managerial decision making. However, emerging markets are characterized by unique circumstances that usually hinder managers’ ability to acquire needed facts and figures. Limited data, unreliable information, or the high cost of conducting market research pose formidable challenges for estimating the true potential of emerging markets. In such cases, MNEs may need to improvise and use creative methods to generate needed findings.16

In the early stages of market research, managers examine three important statistics to ...