Attitudes of U.S. Purchasing Managers Toward Industrial Products Manufactured in Selected Western European Nations
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* The internationalmarketplaceis becomingincreasinglycompetitiveas firmsand nations seek to capture a largershare of the worldmarket.Inthis competitiveframework, internationalmarketingis taking on increased importance.Better marketinganalysis and planningis a key element in improvingmanycompanies' and countries'abilitiesto INTRODUCTION compete successfully in the internationalmarketplace. Inthe UnitedStates, as well as in many other countries, a substantialamountof attention has been focused on the consumersector of the economy by marketingpractitioners and researchers. Increasingly,however, managerial concern and research are being focused on marketingissues thatincludethe industrialand governmentalsectors of the economy as well as the consumersector. Purchases of goods and services by consumers represent a very importantelement in the economic frameworkof any nation; yet, focusing exclusively on consumer purchases of goods and services does not capture the full complexityof business transactionsin any country.A substantialvolume of business which is classified as "industrial" is an equally essential ingredientin the operationof any economy. For many countriesa majorportionof exports involves raw materials,manufacturedproducts,and capital equipment-almost all of which is targeted forindustrialas opposed to consumer markets.To illustratethe importanceof industrialproducts as one component of imports,some recent informationabout the UnitedStates is providedinTable 1. For1976 the total importsof consumer goods and automotivevehicles (assuming that all automotivevehicles were intendedforthe consumer market)were $34.565 billion.Importsclassified as industrialsupplies and materials;capitalgoods; and foods, feeds, and beverages totaled $86.115 billion.Whereas some of the foods, feeds, and beverages includedfinished productstargeted for consumer markets, for purposes of this simple comparison the amount is treated as a tradeoff against the automotivevehicle assumption;thus, (under these assumptions) importsgoing directlyinto the industrialsector represent over two and one-halftimes the volume of importsspecificallytargeted for consumers. Beginning in 1974 these importfigures includethe higher costs of energy imports.For instance, in 1976 petroleum and productstotaled $32.211 billionwhichis 53 percentof totalindustrialsupplies and materialsimported;however, the same relationshiphas existed for some time. In 1970, for instance, importsfor consumers (consumer and automotive)totaled $13.447 billionwhileindustrialimportstotaled$25.076 billion.In1960 the comparativestatistics were $2.534 billionversus $12.099 billion. Importsand exports of industrialproducts are obviously of majorimportancein the business system of the United States as well as the other industrializednations. Further,expansion of industrialproductexports is of strategicimportanceto developing countriesas increases in productivecapacityprovideopportunitiesfor exportearnings of foreignexchange. Inthis context understandingthe industrialbuyingprocess and the * Bus
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