Firm-level Political Behavior and Level of Foreign Market Involvement: Implications for International Marketing Strategy

Increasingly, the international marketplace is one characterized by contradiction. On the one hand, the regionalization of markets and the growing interdependencies between nations appears to signal a reduction in barriers to overseas operations. At the same time, fear of losing domestic market control, increasing nationalism around the world, and a rising sense of cultural identity globally inhibit free market access. The purpose of this study is to explore the means by which firms utilize political resources to gain foreign market access. A sample of approximately 1300 U.S. firms was contacted. The results show that political behaviors become an important early component of the marketing strategy mix when firms initiate foreign market operations. Further, as firms become more involved in foreign markets the political behaviors they favor tend to be associated with long term relations rather than being short term in nature (e.g., bribery).