Survive and prosper - emerging markets in the global recession

The Economist Intelligence Unit has just published a report that seeks to examine the business opportunities within emerging markets in the context of the current economic climate. They have surveyed over 500 companies during July and August 2009 to identify the issues and concerns of businesses that either already operate in emerging markets, or are actively considering doing so.

Lots of detailed and useful insights in the report. Perhaps most useful for students are some of the summarised responses to survey questions. I have highlighted some of those below:

The surveyed asked businesses:

What have been the main reasons for your company investing in emerging markets in the past two years?
The three top answers were:
- Opportunities for rapid market growth
- Lower cost base
- Competitive pressures in the home market

Another survey question was:

Which of the following government-related obstacles present the greatest challenges to your business operations in your main emerging markets?

Respondents identified these are the greatest challenges:

- Unclear bureaucratic regulations
- Political risk
- Macro-economic instability
- Weak intellectual property rights

Interestingly, the majority of companies surveyed remained optimistic about the growth prospects for emerging markets over the next few years; a large proportion expect their emerging market revenues to grow substantially: