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Introduction
Comparative research of emerging market potential is a costly exercise for international marketers confronted with a multitude of diverse markets for which there is dearth of available research. Nonetheless, innovative companies are willing to shoulder the burden of looking at emerging markets (EM) that are commonly ignored because they offer growth potential through investment and sourcing opportunities. They often have to be able and willing to cope with issues such as risk of turbulent change, poorly developed communication and distribution systems, limited managerial resources and cultural differences ([43] Dunning and Bansal, 1997; [9] Arnold and Quelch, 1998; [35], [36] Dawson, 2000, 2001). Traditional market selection analysis relies on purely macroeconomic and political factors at the outset of the analysis and fails to account for an emerging market's dynamism and future potential resulting from rapid change, national attributes that affect specific sectors and market receptiveness.
To create a market selection framework that does justice to EM and enhances traditional analysis, we have sought to integrate into the assessment process tools developed by a variety of scholars. These tools include long-term market potential assessment from [9] Arnold and Quelch's (1998) market demand-driven model, [62], [63] Hofstede's (1980, 2001) cultural dimensions to measure cultural distance ([80] Kogut and Singh, 1988; [97] Morosini et al. , 1998), [111] Porter's (1990) competitive analysis of an industrial sector. Customer receptiveness to the specific foreign industry and products is introduced as a new dimension. Applied as a case study to assessing Turkey's potential, the proposed criteria complement traditional analyses by incorporating product market indicators, within country heterogeneity and future potential. The assumption of a static environment is released. The general indicators of risk are sensitized by the introduction of measure of customer receptiveness. The perceived uncertainty is partially quantified by a measure of cultural distance.
In addressing the need for a specialized approach to the preliminary assessment of EM as international expansion opportunities, this paper introduces long-term market potential, cultural distance, competitive strength of the related industry and customer receptiveness as four additional criteria for assessing EM as candidates for subsequent in-dept analysis. It argues that a specialized approach will compensate for the go-no-go approach that traditional analysis takes. Considered prior to the immediate measures of macro economic indicators and country...