The Structure of the International Environment of Companies

Abstract

The peculiarity of Strategic International Marketing resides in the fact that it is not restricted to the sales and purchase markets proper, but that the environment of these markets becomes the major decision parameter. It is only when environmental considerations are taken into account that strategic international marketing decisions can be made. These make special demands on the information and decision processes of companies, as environmental factors first of all present themselves in a more differentiated form than is the case on the home market, because they contain political, legal, social and cultural elements which can be taken for granted at home. Secondly, they are more varied, since the world market consists of a multitude of different national and also regional sub-markets, in each of which environmental factors bear a different stamp and have a profound importance for market opportunities and risks. The significance of environmental factors for Strategic International Marketing implies that commercial decision processes are to a large extent determined not just by national economic, world-economic and world-political factors, but also by cultural ones. The traditional dividing line between business management theory and economic theory (particularly political economy), thereby loses its significance. There arises rather a typical continuum of micro- and macroeconomic determining factors.