Export Management Companies
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Universityof Nebraska,Lincoln
Abstract. This article helps to define the services and nature of export management companies in the United States. Specifically, attention is given to the organizational characteristics of these firms. Also discussed are: the breadthof country expertise, the breadth of product expertise, the factors involved in taking on a new line, and the costs that may be expected by manufacturers in using an EMC.Implications for management and for government policy are considered at the end of the article. * The U.S. Department of Commerce publishes a pamphlet titled The EMC-Your INTRODUCTION Export Department1 with the evident intent of promoting the use of export management companies by small manufacturers. This pamphlet lists many different international selling activities-such as credit, overseas travel, shipping, etc.-and in a discussion of each suggests that an EMC "may" or "is likely"to undertake such activities on behalf of a manufacturer. Significantly, almost all statements are made conditionally. The pamphlet does not even attempt a concise definition of EMCs as a group. The problem of defining export management companies is that they are service marketing institutions with almost infinite ability to adjust their service offering according to their environment; that is, their own resources, the product lines that they represent, and their market opportunities. Each firmis thus unique. The problem of not being able to include all EMCs in a general statement is evident in the following quotations from one study on exporting and from two major international marketing textbooks. In 1968, the National IndustrialConference Board published a book titled Organizing for Export by James Greene. Greene's work provides some valuable descriptions of EMCs but many statements reflect the variability in EMCoperation. Note the following selected statements. "The combination export manager (EMC) ordinarily specializes in one or more product lines . . . The (EMC's) product line and market area are usually spelled out carefully."2 Vern Terpstra says, The (EMC)needs volumeto surviveand may take on too many linesfromunrelatedproduct areas. ... The (EMC)may want a worldwideexclusive contract, but not have worldwide coverage. His marketcoverage has to be matched against the markettargets of the producer. . . .Workingwithan (EMC)generallymeans thefirmhas closer cooperationand more control.3
Cateora and Hess state that, Thecombinationexportmanager(CEM/EMC) is a particularly importantagent middlemanfor firmswith relativelysmall internationalvolume or forthose who do not wantto involvetheir own personnel in the internationalfunction. . . .EMCfirmsrange in size fromone person to about 100 and handleabout10%ofthe manufacturedgoods exported. . . .thestock intrade of the EMCis personalized service. . . . Theservices range too greatly. . . . Two of the chief
advantages of using EMC'sare that a minimuminvestmentis requiredon the part of the company in order to get into internationalmarkets, and no company manpoweror
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