Unlike most of the questions, which asked respondents for a quantitative response, questions 11 and 12 sought qualitative answers. 93 respondents answered this question, suggesting a wide range of answers, many of which touched on several considerations they found relevant.

To provide an analytical framework allowing a review of these answers, it was decided to tabulate responses into three categories, consisting of MACRO (i.e., market potential, exchange rates, political stability, etc.), MICRO-Internal (i.e., sales presence, financing of JV, local talent, etc.) and MICRO-External (i.e., IPR protection, regulatory interference, ease of entry into market, etc.) In some cases, however, it was not easy to judge this differentiation exactly, so these responses were counted in multiple categories. For example "Need for my product" was counted in both MACRO and MICRO-External and "To be able to import to the states" in both MICRO-Internal and External. For that reason and because some respondents listed multiple factors, there were more than 93 factors registered and these should not be considered precise differentiations.

While this type of analysis does give some insight into the types of factors cited most often, it should be noted it does not provide a weighting, therefore one must be careful not to read too much into it. For example, one might mention numerous MACRO factors and only one MICRO factor, even though that one might be the most important to the individual and outweigh all the others.

In any case, using the methodology described above, there were 52 MACRO, 34 MICRO-Internal and 30 MICRO-External responses registered. While this finding provides some further evidence to support the conclusion to the previous question, i.e. that macro considerations are most prevalent during the initial stages when a company is evaluating the potential of international expansion, it should be noted there were a considerable number of MICRO concerns as well, especially if one combines the internal (those focusing on how the firm organizes itself) with the external (those focusing on how the local market impacts the firm). This underscores that international market entry requires a careful balance between macro and micro concerns, both of an internal and external nature.