The Who, Where, What, How and When of Market Entry

• Published date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Christopher Tucci,Igor Filatotchev,Reddi Kotha,G. Tyge Payne,Peter Gianiodis,Gideon D. Markman,Eric Gedajlovic
• Date: 01 November 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12448

© 2019 Society for the Adv ancement of Management Stud ies and John Wiley & Son s, Ltd.

The Who, Where, What, How and When of Market

Entry

Gideon D. Markmana, Peter Gianiodisb, G. Tyge Paynec,

Christopher Tuccid, Igor Filatotcheve, Reddi Kothaf and

Eric Gedajlovicg

a Colorado State Un iversity and Gent Uni versity; b Duquesne University; c Texas Tech University;

d Imperial Coll ege Business School and E PFL; e King's College London a nd Vienna Universi ty of

Economics and B usiness; f Singapore Mana gement University; g Si mon Fraser University

ABST RACT This introduct ory, along with t he eight articles contained with in this Special Issue,

highlights a nd brings greater clarit y to entrant-incumbent interactions and to fi rm movement –

when entrants traverse ma rket territories for the creation and/or delivery of offering s, where

‘markets’ include serv ice or product categories, technology or resource spaces, i ndustries, sectors

and/or geographies. Collectively, th is Special Issues explains t hat firm movement across market

boundaries is h ighly consequential, inf luencing resource-capabilit y mixes inside firms , interfirm

relations, market log ic and industry value chains , and of course, people, communities and even

nations. Specif ically, we develop a field-wide perspect ive of market entry by expanding on the

framework of market entry t hat Zachary and his colleag ues developed (Zachary et al., 2015) –

i.e., the who (pl ayers such as incu mbents, entrants, suppliers, etc.), when (the tim ing and sequence

of entry), how (the strateg y, resources, capabil ities, etc.), where (the space of entry) and what ( prod-

uct, service, bus iness model, etc.) – to include two additional categories: com plements (networks ,

platforms, ecosys tems) and non-market elements (government, polit ical, social and cultur al ar-

rangements). We also summar ize the eight highly diverse and in sightful articles that ma ke this

Special Issue, a nd conclude with a discussion to highl ight foundational quest ions that point to

new directions i n future research in this f ield. In sum, we hope to inspire scholar s to go beyond

counting outcomes (e.g., entry/exit rates, or profiling succes sful versus unsuccessful entr ants), to

consider contexts, processes and contingencies (e.g., cost, time, collaboration, competition, inter-

firm r elations, etc.) and to discover boundary condit ions that inform a theory of market entry.

INTRODUCTION

Functioning as an expansion modality, market entry refers to a planned movement into

a new or adjacent market for the creation and/or delivery of offerings, where ‘markets’

Journal of Man agement Studi es 56:7 November 2019

doi:10. 1111/jo ms. 1244 8

Address for re prints: Gideon D. Mark man, Colorado State Univer sity and Gent University, 218 Rockwell

Hall, Fort Col lins, CO 80523-1275, USA (gideon.ma rkman@colostate.edu).

1242 G. D. Markman et al.

© 2019 Society for the Adv ancement of Management Stud ies and John Wiley & Son s, Ltd.

are defined quite broadly to include service or product categories, technology or re-

source spaces, or in terms of industry, sector and/or geography. While some firms can

operate inside their market niches with limited growth and others grow at the rate of

market expansion, many enter a new market as a means to either grow sales, develop

capabilities, or diversify in terms of both a product range and geographical presence.

Regardless of the underlying motivation, market entry modalities and strateg ies require

a thorough analysis of key stakeholders (e.g., competitors, customers, suppliers, com-

plementors), along with important contingencies including the strategy-resource mix,

barriers to entry, the precise location and timing for entry, among others (Zachary et

al., 2015). Further, these considerations are exacerbated when entering international

markets because one must also consider additional institutional factors such as local

regulations, trade barriers, taxation and labour laws, and cultural differences. Overall,

entry into new markets is neither a simple choice nor a punctuated event, but rather a

complex and lengthy process, where uncertainty, ambiguity, unexpected setbacks, and

costly detours are often the norm.

Figure 1 visually demonstrates how the prominence of ‘market entry’ as a scholarly

topic has grown steadily over four decades; arguably, interest in this area was catalysed

by Porter’s Five Forces framework first introduced in 1979 (Porter, 1979). Our interpreta-

tion of this trend is that, conceptually and empirically, the topic of market entry remains

important because entrants are a formidable force, often mounting significant threat

to incumbents’ performance, market equilibrium, industry profitability, and ecosystem

logic. Put differently, just as industry profitability depends quite heavily on how firms

interact with each other (Hawawini et al., 2003; McNamara et al., 2005; Misangyi et al.,

2006; Porter, 1979), entry choices influence subsequent interfirm relations and can shift

Figure 1. Number of ar ticles with ‘market entr y’ in their title or abst ract*

*Includes all a rticles in peer-reviewed jou rnals contained wit hin the EBSCO busines s complete database

(1979–2017), which means more than 660 ac tive full- text, peer-revie wed journals a nd nearly 300 act ive full-

text, peer-rev iewed journals wit h no embargo in the areas of acc ounting, fina nce, economics, informat ion

systems, marketing, management and oper ations. [Colour figu re can be viewed at wile yonlinelibrary.

com]

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