A Study Of International Marketing Strategies That Help Firms To Achieve Competitive Advantage: Japanese Firms Being Successful In India Since 1980

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

ECP004N

A STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT HELP FIRMS TO ACHIEVE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: JAPANESE FIRMS BEING SUCCESSFUL IN INDIA SINCE 1980

ID NUMBER : 06035100

MODULE CODE: ECP004N JAN 11-2008

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

AIMS & OBJECTIVES

LITERATURE REVIEW

METHODOLOGY

RESOURCES

REFERENCEвЂÑ"

Introduction

At a first level and referring especially to the entrance in foreign markets found that �a traditional route for private capital moving into the developing world is as "foreign direct Investment" (FDI) of corporations setting up local plants’. Today, �FDI has expanded rapidly, as multinational corporations build a stronger presence all over the developing world.

This article presents the findings of a study of the successful international marketing strategies and headquarter-subsidiary relationships of Japanese companies operating overseas. As manufacturing and labour costs rise in Japan and the country's International competitiveness comes increasingly under the microscope more and more. Japanese companies are investing overseas. 2006 Japan became the World s fourth largest exporter of goods, besides of the US and Germany with an US$ 5, 90300. At the same time, the value of Japanese imports was on Sixth place with US$ 5, 24100. Close government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation among others have helped Japan become the second largest economy in the world, after the United States, at around US$4.5 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and third after the United States and China in terms of purchasing power parity.

Banking, Insurance, real estate, retailing, transportation and telecommunication are all major industries. The country has an large industrial capacity and is the home for some of the leading Auto-mobile industries. Distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy have included the cooperation of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and banks in closely-knit groups called �KEIRETSU’ and the guarantee of lifetime employment in big corporations. Recently, Japanese companies have begun to abandon some of these norms in an attempt to increase profitability.

The Indian market is considered to be one of the core international market for the Japanese firms. During the 80s and early 90s reflected the superiority of Japanese management styles and methods not only in production, but also in marketing. Before, and during this period, Japanese companies grew from imitators to innovators and came to dominate some industries, such as motorcycles and passenger cars. There also became increasingly competitive in, and to take larger market shares in the global industries in the late 90’s with a large number of foreign companies invested in India.

Aims & Objective

(1) To assess to what extent Japanese companies adapt their marketing strategies and

organizations to meet the needs of overseas customers; and

(2) To determine the extent to which market adaptation influences market success. The research concentrates on one overseas market the India. The Indian market is an important Asian market for Japanese companies, not so much because of its size, but because it is considered to be one of the most open and highly favorable markets for any FDI in the world.

Literature Review:

A Bunch of reasons have been proposed to account for the success of Japanese companies in marketing their products internationally since the 1960’s. Certainly, during the period 1960-1990 Japan was in an outstanding success in penetrating, growing and dominating markets in a diverse range of products mostly goods, but also services, in the international marketplace. The issues involved the reasons for or the causes of this success are complex and often interrelated and are much too diverse to be analyzed in any depth in this paper. Nevertheless certain central issues, such as the historical background of opportunity, production management techniques, general management principles, marketing management strategies, Innovation decision making as well as the role of the government and more exclusive qualities such as the work ethic, quality, perseverance and flexibility have been briefly considered. Additionally, we have considered whether isolated factors or a combination of strategy are responsible for Japanese success in the international marketplace. The success of the business’ effort for internationalization is considered as depended from a lot of parameters as mentioned. Moreover, according to Luo (1999) �host country-specific knowledge is a driving force behind international expansion performance because such knowledge cannot be easily acquired.

As Douglas et al. (1989) notice �recent years have witnessed a growing intensity of competition in virtually all areas of business, whether at home or abroad, in markets upstream for raw materials, components, supplies, capital and technology as well as in markets downstream for consumer goods and services’. According to their view �this has resulted in greater attention to analyzing competitive behavior and competitive strategies effective under different environmental conditions’. They stated more over that �in the industrial organization and business strategy literature, considerable interest has been centered on identifying generic business strategies or strategy types based on strategy components, such as the scope or domain of the business, resource deployment in marketing, production and R&D, asset management or parsimony, degree of vertical integration, etc.’. Their study led to the assumption that �the primary emphasis has been on examining the link between strategy, environment and performance, to determine the appropriate investment strategy or direction for the business, i.e., invest, maintain or harvest’ which exactly the Maruti Suzuki follows (Douglas et