Cross-Border E-Commerce Entry Strategies for Henan Pharmaceutical Enterprises in Southeast Asia

ZHANG Xiaoyan, FENG Zhibo, MA Weiwei, GAN Weixiang, XIAO Mengfei

Abstract

Henan pharmaceutical enterprises can use cross-border e-commerce to reach Southeast Asian consumers, but digital distribution depends on product eligibility and local licensing. This paper combines transaction cost reasoning and incremental internationalisation with a comparative analysis of six markets. It separates two decisions: who controls the product registration and which digital channels support sales. Distributor-held registration can reduce initial commitment but can increase switching costs; registration controlled through an eligible local entity can protect country-specific investment at greater organisational cost. Marketplaces, independent websites and social commerce offer different combinations of reach, customer information and dependence. An exploratory market attractiveness index identifies differences in digital scale, spending capacity and ageing, without estimating pharmaceutical demand. Five propositions connect regulatory requirements, specific investment, market learning, platform dependence and digital capabilities to entry choices. Resource-constrained enterprises should begin with permitted products and limited trials; enterprises with established demand can add owned channels and stronger registration control. Entry sequencing is conditional on product classification, partner rights and firm resources. The propositions require testing with enterprise data.

Keywords

cross-border e-commercepharmaceutical enterprisesentry moderegulatory embeddednessHenanSoutheast Asia

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