Service has been thought as a local-made product or solution, service firms have been considered as local establishment traditionally. However, nowadays, service sector is becoming more internationalize and expanding over nation borders. The tremendous growth of global economy leads to increasing opportunities for service to go aboard. In 1999, the service sector represented 80% of total employment and at least 78% of the gross domestic product of U.S. Note also that these data do not include internal services provided within manufacturing company (such as IBM or Boeing) or services that these manufacturers sell externally. (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the value of global trade in services was estimated at $2 trillion in 2000 which constituted about 25%of global merchandise trade. The value of global trade in services has been growing fast and this trend is expected to continue. The service sector has accounted for the highest portion of total economic activity in Hong Kong, the USA, and France since the early 1990s. In general, the shift towards a service-based economy in key trading countries has been evident since 1970. Only three countries (i.e. China, Korea and Singapore) produced a larger proportion of their GDPs from the manufacturing sector in 1992 than in 1970 (Blaine, 1996). Therefore the issues of service marketing and entry strategies are growing important to international business. .
The purpose of this article is to discuss some key challenges for service firms planning to go abroad, to present five different types of entry strategies for services and to discuss some prospects for future development in international service marketing. In the following sections, a literature review of the international services trade and the limitations and obstacles to the international marketing of services are presented. Secondly, the issue of global entry strategies for services firms is discussed.
