In the context of an increasing importance of emerging markets in firms’ international strategies, this paper contributes to the still little researched topic of selection criteria used for international expansion when selecting among emerging markets. The existing literature on both International Market Selection (IMS) and emerging markets are reviewed in order to identify potentially important selection criteria. These criteria are then tested on a sample of professionals with work experience in business development functions at companies based in France. The results of the study indicate that 8 out of the 11 tested criteria are of major importance in IMS. One of these shortlisted criteria is less relevant for emerging markets, but another criterion not considered important in general is found relevant for emerging markets, constituting again a list of eight criteria that were identified as important when selecting a target among a group of emerging markets. Drawing on these findings, implications for managers with different kinds of responsibilities were identified to help them in the IMS process.

The past century has seen the economic and political rise of the emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Today they comprise the majority of the world’s population and land mass, and continue to sustain higher growth rates than the developed world (Kearney, 2012). They assume an increasingly important role in the world economy and attract a significant amount of the world’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, while accounting for a continuously growing share of the outgoing FDI flows (Wright et al., 2005). There is barely a senior manager of a multinational company who does not talk about the importance of being present in markets like Brazil, China, India or one of the other numerous emerging economies. The success stories are abundant (e.g., Unilever in India, KFC in China), but so are the tales of failures (e.g., Walmart in Russia, eBay in China). Not every emerging market presents the same opportunities for each company, not to mention that only a handful of firms have the resources to concentrate on multiple market entries at the same time. Selecting the right country market therefore becomes paramount importance for internationally-minded companies. But the criteria companies should use and the factors that play a role in the quest to identify the right emerging market to enter are still little researched. Thus, it is the analysis of those criteria to which the present paper wants to make a contribution.

The International Market Selection (IMS) has been a common research subject since the 1960s and a wide range of studies has already been conducted on the topic. But despite the existence of this extensive body of research, there is no agreement in the literature on which selection criteria to use and how they might be weighted to reflect their relative importance (Papadopoulos et al., 2002). Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening up of the markets of many former communist countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia two decades ago, the world’s emerging markets have also become the focus of sustained research (Kearney, 2012). This research, however, has so far barely looked at emerging markets in the context of IMS, leaving a research gap to be filled. In view of this lack of understanding of market selection criteria in a general context and the particular research gap when it comes to emerging markets, the focus of this paper is on the selection criteria for entry into emerging markets.

Business Strategy, Journal, International Market, International Market Selection (IMS), Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), International Market Selection (IMS), Emerging Markets.