Product Strategy of Korean Exporters in China

There are only a handful of studies dealing with the issue of product strategy in international markets. In particular, the understanding of this issue for firms from non-Triad markets, for instance, firms from emerging markets (EMFs), is rather limited. The objective of this study is to provide an initial exploratory research on product strategy for Korean firms in Chinese market, and attempts to extend current product strategy research into emerging contexts. In this study, three viable product strategies for Korean firms - economy, superior-value and premium, are defined. Using survey data collected from 131 exporters, we first examine the nature of product strategy adopted by Korean exporters in China, and then investigate their performance implications. Findings reveal that superior-value strategy is the most frequently employed strategy by Korean firms, and firms choosing more value-added strategies, such as premium or superior-value, on average, demonstrate superior performance. This study will dictate important guidelines for Korean firms to target international markets and to better understand the importance of product strategy choice in this process.