Enviromental Determinants of Overseas Market Entry Strategies*

This research examines a hypothesis, modified from one originally stated by Isaiah A. Litvak and Peter Banting,11Isaiah A. Litvak and Peter Banting, “A Conceptual Framework for InterNational Business Arrangements,” Marketting and the New Science of Planning, ed. Robert L. King (Chicago: American Marketting Association, 1968 Fall Conference Proceedings), pp. 460-467. concerning the relationship of U.S. companies’ entry strategies into overseas country markets and those countries’ positions along an environmental “temperature gradient”. Although Litvak and Banting’s original hypothesis was put forth to explain why international agent middlemen evolve into merchant middlemen, the analytical framework is relevant to explain the evolution of other marketing channel phenomena. The hypothesis is:© 1972 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1972) 3, 33–50