Publication:

International market selection: an application of the shift-share model to the spanish wine industry

Internationalization is one of the most important and challenging strategic decisions companies take nowadays. Considering the need of minimizing the potential adverse consequences of targeting inadequate markets, systematic International Market Selection (IMS) methods are employed. Nevertheless, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) cannot afford these sometimes costly and complex models in their internationalization process due to lack of knowledge, time and resources. Instead, they follow their intuition or other company’s suggestions. In order to solve the proposed problem, this project provides an application of the Shift-Share model, a well-known method for analyzing growth rate variations. The selected study subject is the Spanish wine industry by virtue of its importance internationally and the predominance of SMEs. The stepwise description, the use of accessible data and the easy-tounderstand results are some of the key strengths the suggested model holds in its attempt to reinforce the widespread in use of IMS methods among SMEs.