An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Deciphering the Former U.S.S.R. and Eastern European Markets

Abstract

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, most Western businesspersons recognized the market potential of the Eastern European Bloc of countries and later the former U.S.S.R. Both the consumer and industrial markets were in need, as they are today, of large quantities of updated products and technology. The process of segmenting the demands of consumers in various markets becomes the key to success for entrepreneurial firms. This paper describes a means to develop a dynamic segmentation strategy and entry modes that are most appropriate for each of the market segments of the former U.S.S.R. and Eastern European countries.