Imagine that you are a consultant with expertise in advising entrepreneurial fir
ID: 400334 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine that you are a consultant with expertise in advising entrepreneurial firms who are considering expanding into new, international markets. Over the course of the next few weeks, you will advise a firm contemplating overseas growth on some critical issues, including strategic considerations, a market entry mode, human resource challenges, and any ethical concerns related to the overseas expansion.
First, select a firm whose product or service is currently marketed and sold in your home country. Ideally, it should have been on the market for about 2-3 years, but has not yet sold its products in overseas markets. To make the project easier, it is suggested that, if possible, you choose a product or service that you have specific knowledge about (e.g., as a consumer). Alternatively, you can propose your own new venture, if you prefer not to select an existing firm.
(a) Describe the product or service you have chosen; the firm or manufacturer (or your proposed new venture); and its major competitors. (b) Explain how culture and the institutional context can affect the product, the firm, and its major competitors.
Explanation / Answer
For the purpose of this question, we have chosen a fictional company ‘ABC Tech.’ which is into health technology. Their products include software for medical data management (MDM) for doctors and hospitals. MDM helps doctors and hospitals analyze the clinical and administrative data for patients including:
ABC Tech. is currently based out of India and has plans to expand to the United States. The major competitors to ABC Tech. in the US include:
Effect of Culture and Institutional Context
The product needs to have an in-depth understanding of the cultural and institutional aspects of the US market. As far as culture is concerned, there is a need to find out what the US physicians want and value, which might be different from what Indian physicians may. This may be related to language (including words and phrasing), technical architecture and features. This means there will be a need to rework the product to an extent. It will be a beneficial exercise for ABC Tech. from the marketing perspective as well as they will now know the drivers and barriers of the US physicians better.
From the Institutional context, there is a need to understand about IP requirements, labor laws, restrictions, corporate governance, import/export laws, and taxation, among others. It will also be beneficial to look at Government assistance programmes (if any) and protection policies for business.