Mexican Small Business Negotiations with US Companies: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

BRYAN W. HUSTED IS WITH THE INSTITUTO Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico. Small businesses in many parts of the world are facing the challenges of negotiating in the global marketplace, challenges which are magnified for small businesses from emerging markets which have traditionally prospered from protectionist policies. Unfortunately, there is little information available to assist the small international business negotiator. Little material deals with negotiation from the viewpoint of a small firm in a newly opened economy bargaining with the businesses of an economically advanced nation. A prime example is Mexico which, with the approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, faces an unprecidented challenge to modernise and become competitive after years of thriving in protected markets. The paper develops a portrait of Mexican small business negotiations with United States companies and of the elements essential for their success. Although the experiences of Mexican negotiators with US firms cannot be generalised to other pairs of countries, their experiences can be instructive for other small business people emerging from the safety of protected national markets.