Surprisingly, piracy and distribution were rated as least problematic. The two or three major markets within Europe, Asia, and Latin America, were selected for examining differences in the occurrence of these problems. Surprisingly, on most issues, Mexico had ratings comparable to those of the major European and Asian markets. Among the European and Asian nations, Taiwan was cited for high cost of entry, high cost per transaction, likelihood of piracy, and likelihood of bad debts. Product adaptation was the least likely type of adaptation necessary in foreign markets, whereas changing target customers and changing competitive strategy were listed as the most common types of strategy adaptation.
Chile demands high levels of adaptation with respect to most strategies, with Taiwan a close second.
Table 2 contains more details of these differences. Similarly, changing target customers was reported to be higher for the U.K., Taiwan, Chile, and Mexico. Major changes in competitive strategy were noted for Taiwan and Chile. Given the generally high rates of export success of the respondent firms, having patents, using proprietary standards, and being the first to enter the foreign markets, may be important competitive advantages in foreign markets.