Market entry barriers in China

Although industrial economists and strategy theorists provide a considerable amount of research regarding market entry barriers in the context of industrialized countries such as those in North America and Western Europe, few studies focus on entry barriers in the business context of China. Consequently, an understanding of the barriers to entry to Chinese markets as perceived by Chinese business executives is limited in the marketing literature. This research, based on the development and administration of a self-completed survey of one hundred and ninety three Chinese executives, attempts to ascertain the dimensions and order of importance of market entry barriers in this context. The findings of the research indicate seven dimensions of marketing entry barriers and show that business executives in China perceive advertising effects as the most important entry barrier and capital requirements as the least important. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.