| Foreign-market opportunity analysis is the most frequent objective of international marketing research (Czinkota and Ronkainen 2007).;The importance of foreign market opportunity assessment has been well noticed by both marketing managers and scholars. However, a foreign market opportunity analysis model based on theory that goes beyond aggregate demand is still lacking. This dissertation proposes a new model by combining marketing-based Overall Market Opportunity Index (OMOI) scheme with the economic-based gravity model of international trade. Hypotheses were tested as well as the usefulness of OMOI/Gravity Hybrid Model through three separate models with empirical analyses structured as follows.;The first model extends existing screening methods by combining both OMOI and gravity models. Unlike previous studies using ad hoc or equal weights on variables, this study employs Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and weight derived from regression coefficient on each factor under study and thus gives a more realistic estimation of the potential for aggregate exports.;The second model goes beyond the previous work on aggregate exports by examining data at the sector and category level. In this study, comparisons were drawn between the OMOI/Gravity Hybrid Model in three sectors (manufacturing goods exports, agricultural goods exports and service exports) and 10 1-digit SITC categories (SITC 0 to SITC 9).;The third model moves from the OMOI/Gravity Hybrid Model to the Industry Market Opportunity Index (IMOI)/Gravity Hybrid Model. This model develops a framework that analyzes market potential for specific industries classified by 2- and 3-digit SITC. |
