Which doesn t mean that it is just about sitting next to someone on a plane who happens to be an importer, receiving a fax from someone who saw your product when on holiday in Australia or talking to someone at a party who knows someone who has a cousin living in Brazil. By doing so you can find more order than you might think, and what seems to be a random event can often be understood, explained and even predicted. First of all, consider the system itself. Economic forces play a role, of course, but there are other issues involved too.
Business systems are social as well as economic.
Personal contacts are important. An Austrade survey of 434 Australian and British exporters showed that 22 per cent of exporters made contact with their overseas distributors through friends or other acquaintances, while 21 per cent knew the overseas distributor from a previous job or business. Social networks explained the market entry, not market forces and strategic plans. This partly explains some of the links between immigration and export growth. Much of Australia s success as an export nation in recent years is due to the efforts of the many post-war immigrants who ended up leading successful companies.