MARKET ATTRACTIVENESS OF DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

Companies operating in international markets must be able to evaluate the potential market attractiveness of developing countries with which they may wish to do business. To make decisions about where to go for business, they have access to much information from specialized sourc es and from statistical data supplied by international institutions. S uch vast and diverse information is rarely used in a systematic way in the management decision processes. When it is used, the process is of ten inadequately formalized. The available information generally deals with economic factors, while in the present international arena, judg ments about politics must also be taken into account. This paper inves tigates the applicability and advantages of the Analytical Hierarchy P rocess (AHP) to this decision process, using it to create maps of join t economic progress and political stability in a number of countries f or two time periods, 1990-91 and 1995-97.