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Companies that successfully incorporate international sourcing into their international marketing strategies enhance their abilities to provide their customers with quality products at acceptable prices. To a large extent, an effective international marketing strategy depends on a firm′s ability to segment its international markets. Previous studies addressed country segmentation on the basis of clustering a group of countries by an array of macroeconomic factors. These studies focussed their attention on segmenting countries on the factors important to making marketing decisions. Focusses on the making of sourcing decisions. More specifically, analyzes the extent to which countries belong to the same grouping on the basis of purchasing patterns of materials, components, finished products or technology. One‐hundred‐and‐thirty‐five firms representing 42 different countries were surveyed. The countries were clustered on the basis of these firms′ sourcing strategies. The market segment approach enables industrial marketers who are inexperienced in marketing internationally to borrow from the experience of firms which are already present in such markets. Furthermore, the availability and reliability of data and the proposed methodology can serve as useful tools in conducting such research.

Explores the factors that motivate companies to utilize offshore sources or prevent them from doing so. One‐hundred‐and‐fifteen firms representing 68 different industries were surveyed. The findings indicate that buyers in the responding companies followed a more traditional approach to purchasing, concentrating on a search for the lowest cost source of supply. The ability to access and rely on a global network of world‐class suppliers holds the key to competitiveness in today′s environment.