Generic Challenges in Collecting Market Information in EDMEs

A company has to face a number of challenges while operating in foreign locations. The challenges are majorly due to the dissimilarities between the countries in regards to the external and competitive environment. Circumstances become critical when there is a need to release or launch a new product. Basically, the launch of a product requires a sufficient data to identify the consumer needs and wants related to the similar products of other existing companies. Every data is not important except those that are reliable and could be used to produce the relevant products. This is where the international managers struggle and face numerous barriers to get the reliable data. Problems get increased when the business is dealing with the EDMEs. There can be ample of factors which act as the barriers to the reliable data (Kornish & Ulrich, 2014, p.19). Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to identify three barriers to reliable data in the EDMEs, especially in Indonesia.

Any market research would require interacting with people by different means like by doing the online survey. The best way to interact people is to communicate with them in their local language (Brannen, Piekkari, & Tietze, 2017, p.148). A few words cannot be translated appropriately in other languages exactly meaning the same as it was in English. People may also use different variants for one particular word. For example, there are many variants which the Russian people use for the word ‘fresh’. Each of the variants carries a different meaning. Additionally, one or more words can be used for different purposes in different countries. For example, ‘Thank you’ is a commonly spoken word in the United States and in Europe which is an acknowledgement to a support. However, it can be a kind of sarcasm for many people living in India (Zhang, van Doorn, & Leeflang, 2014, p.289). In context to Indonesia, translation can be an issue. There are many languages being spoken in the country such as Javanese, Sundanese, Malay and Minangkabau. Different languages have its identity and may not be converted easily into one another (Saddhono, 2015, p.351). The diversity in languages would therefore require a database on population which speak these different languages. It is necessary to be done to identify the target audience for the online survey. However, Indonesia lacks the good quality consultancies which could supply a reliable database to international managers (Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2016, p.56). 

Indonesia being an Islamic country may discourage women going for the personal interviews. This is to be noted that data collected from personal interviews are much superior to those from online surveys in terms of reliability. Additionally, in the month of Ramadan, market research works may be postponed. Especially in interviews, ethnicity of an interviewer should be similar to those of participants or else there will be a communication gap between interviewers and the interviewees (Adida et al., 2016, p.1645). Government policy can also delay the survey process. They can consider going through the entire set of questions to ensure whether these are approvable (Guan & Yam, 2015, p.277). Budget constraints can be there because emerging nations like Indonesia do not normally have the adequate financial supports from local companies. This will affect the R&D capabilities of local research consultancies. Data analysis will then be of average quality (Howell, 2016, p.2001). Market consultancies do not also have the adequate technological infrastructure to support a quality market research (Zahra, Wright & Abdelgawad, 2014, p.488).

Challenges in Collecting Reliable Market Data in Indonesia

 The best an international manager seeking to enter Indonesia can do is to access the data showing a detailed market history of past launches. By doing this, international managers would be able to know what strategies have worked in past and what not.  

Participants are more often observed as showing strong approval or disapproval to questions. Their responses may also be an impact of their biasness for a question. They follow a response pattern which compels them to make the undesired answers. They say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a question while not putting a good analysis of the question and their feelings related to it. It appears as if such participants are casual to answering the questions. This tendency is very specific with people belonging to the collectivist culture. Asian people most commonly represent the collectivist culture. They do all that they can to maintain the interpersonal harmony with the group members they belong to. In doing so, they even suppress their thoughts or opinions just to maintain a healthy interpersonal relationship with the group members. Such tendencies encourage them to make the undesired responses (Zhang, van Doorn, & Leeflang, 2014, p.288).

International managers can, therefore, struggle to get the reliable data which is necessary to innovate to launch new products and services. Like other Asian countries, Indonesia has people who prefer respecting the group rather than expressing their self-opinions. Most of such responses would be less reliable for international clients. Additionally, Indonesia also has a very poor reputation in terms of maintaining and delivering the accurate data. They do not have an infrastructure to help them manage and record the data. Some of the transactions like the bank related transactions do not even generate the transaction details. These all happens because local agencies are not so far equipped with latest and reliable technologies (Hilbert, 2016, p.156).

Such response pattern will mostly generate the unreliable data. International managers will probably have a very limited option to go with. They cannot also rely on local agencies as such agencies have challenged from a poor infrastructural and technological developments. It is, therefore, suggested to make an analysis of how past releases have performed. Managers can benchmark their strategies against the most successful brands in Indonesia. This will help to design a robust and productive marketing plan for Indonesia (Pedersen & Nielsen, 2016, p.238).  

People living in the European countries and in America can have a different parameter of product selection than those living in the Asian countries. Hence, it is important that products are made feasible with consumers’ needs. Such needs have created the urgency to have digital surveys being conducted to collect the data from various parts of world. Also that people in most parts of world use their laptops and PCs to participate in surveys. These are all the reasons why visual materials and questionnaires are designed especially for laptops and PCs. A survey designed this way can create problems for international managers at a time when they will be needed to deal with regions that use internet by their phones (Hollier et al., 2016, p.197).  

Language Barriers

Indonesia like other emerging nations has people using their laptops and PCs to access the internet. It is also being said that data reliability will be less while surveying people on laptops and PCs. International managers are bound to include the universally accepted questions which may affect the data reliability due to unintentional response patterns of the participants. Platform variance creates a situation where researchers are forced to make the universally accepted questions. On the other hand, participants are very casual with their response patterns. Such situations are just difficult to be handled. This would not just affect a product but the entire supply chain. A lot more thing is followed to produce a product. Adhering to unreliable data will affect the sales and will ultimately impact the stakeholders and the shareholders (Thompson, 2014, p.12).

Additionally, the country lacks the technological infrastructure which is needed to generate the record saving option. In this reference, it would be educating to know that the country has so far struggled to keep the accurate records. It is being informed publically that both public and private sectors are now looking for the ‘Blockchain Technology’. It is to overcome the data management challenges. The technology will help to manage data on shared computers which was initially being taken care in a centralized system (CNBC, 2018).  

It is recommended to improve the technological infrastructure such as the adoption of the “Blockchain technology”. The technology will enhance the data accuracy level which Indonesia is struggling with.

3. Conclusion:

In summary, it can be said that international managers face a number of barriers in accessing to reliable data in EDMEs. They face a lot of issues while translating the survey paper in the regional languages being spoken in Indonesia. Some of the words have more than just one meaning and it is really difficult to translate the word into its most appropriate Indonesian form. Local market researchers can help in this regards provided that, they are able to deliver the quality leads. Response pattern is another issue as people have the tendency to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without at all thinking about what they actually feel. This will require international managers to take the help of the past launches to understand the response behavior of the Indonesian people. Reliable data can be generated provided that questionnaires do not have too much translation issues and also that the ‘Blockchain technology’ is widely adopted in Indonesia.  

References: 

Adida, C. L., Ferree, K. E., Posner, D. N., & Robinson, A. L. (2016). Who’s asking? Interviewer coethnicity effects in African survey data. Comparative Political Studies, 49(12), 1630-1660.

Brannen, M. Y., Piekkari, R., & Tietze, S. (2017). The multifaceted role of language in international business: Unpacking the forms, functions and features of a critical challenge to MNC theory and performance. In Language in International Business (pp. 139-162). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

CNBC. (2018). Indonesia looks to blockchain to fix its dodgy data challenges. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/03/reuters-america-indonesia-looks-to-blockchain-to-fix-its-dodgy-data-challenges.html

Guan, J., & Yam, R. C. (2015). Effects of government financial incentives on firms’ innovation performance in China: Evidences from Beijing in the 1990s. Research Policy, 44(1), 273-282.

Hilbert, M. (2016). Big data for development: A review of promises and challenges. Development Policy Review, 34(1), 135-174.

Hollier, L. P., Pettigrew, S., Slevin, T., Strickland, M., & Minto, C. (2016). Comparing online and telephone survey results in the context of a skin cancer prevention campaign evaluation. Journal of Public Health, 39(1), 193-201.

Howell, A. (2016). Firm R&D, innovation and easing financial constraints in China: Does corporate tax reform matter?. Research Policy, 45(10), 1996-2007.

Jones, P., Hillier, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 36-67.

Kornish, L. J., & Ulrich, K. T. (2014). The importance of the raw idea in innovation: Testing the sow’s ear hypothesis. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(1), 14-26.

Pedersen, M. J., & Nielsen, C. V. (2016). Improving survey response rates in online panels: Effects of low-cost incentives and cost-free text appeal interventions. Social Science Computer Review, 34(2), 229-243.

Saddhono, K. (2015). Integrating Culture in Indonesian Language Learning for Foreign Speakers at Indonesian Universities. Journal of Language and Literature, 6(2), 349-353.

Thompson, W. R. (2014). Worldwide survey of fitness trends for 2015: what’s driving the market. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, 18(6), 8-17.

Zahra, S. A., Wright, M., & Abdelgawad, S. G. (2014). Contextualization and the advancement of entrepreneurship research. International small business journal, 32(5), 479-500.

Zhang, S. S., van Doorn, J., & Leeflang, P. S. (2014). Does the importance of value, brand and relationship equity for customer loyalty differ between Eastern and Western cultures? International business review, 23(1), 284-292.