What social, cultural, political and practical difficulties do foreign firms face in trying to sell their products in Asia Pacific markets?
             The opening up of the Asia Pacific markets to foreign investment has been viewed by many as an opportunity not to be missed. The large and relatively unsophisticated domestic markets, low cost labour and resources and the incentives provided by many of the governments have attracted firms to set up camp in the Asia Pacific. Japan is the second largest economy in the world and has high levels of income, China is said to be the third largest economy in the world behind the US and Japan and is without doubt the world's most important emerging market and the Newly Industrialised and ASEAN economies hold great promise for the future.
             The realisation of the potential of the Asia Pacific as a market has led a large number of foreign firms to pour investment into the region but those firms that have done so have found the market more difficult to crack than first thought. The markets of the Asia Pacific differ greatly from those in the Western world and many firms have struggled to make a success of their ventures.
             With the huge domestic markets and relative lack of sophisticated competition, the Asia Pacific should be every firms dream. In fact it is still perceived by many foreign firms as a nightmare. The majority of Western firms find it difficult to come to terms with intricacies of an environment where the rules appear to be both different and rigged against them. Western firms have generally been less successful in the region than in other comparable markets. In Japan, firms have often had to settle for less than half of their normal share of the market, even in industries where Japanese firms were initially unable to equal the standards of their Western competitors.
             In this presentation we are going to look at the reasons why these firms have struggled, namely the cultural, social, p...