世界正在成為一個地球村，所有國家都以不同的方式相互聯繫。全球化不斷推動貿易和商業邊界，越來越多公司正試圖在本國以外的地方擴張。雖然在他國的創業和擴張似乎總是有利可圖，但也需要面對隨之而來的挑戰、障礙，以及各種疑慮，才能在本地和國際競爭中生存。由於經濟成長和良好 的商業環境，中國(China)和中華民國(R.O.C.)是外國投資者高度探索的兩個國家。本研究考察了多個社會、經濟、政治，和許可因素。這些因素在規劃不同國家的公司創業時，必須成為決策考量的一部分。本研究藉由階層分析法(AHP)辨識最重要的關鍵因素，從而簡化商業決策者的決策過程。本研究將所有因素歸納並分類為兩個層級:第一層級包含地理位置、公司規模、政治環境，和智慧財產權保護(IPP)等主要領域，每個領域再細分為四個第二層因素。本研究總共收集了15份問卷，並以AHP分析問卷調查結果。本研究最終提出了一個金字塔決策模型，該模型總結了所有因素相關的排名和風險等級。

The world is becoming a global village, where all countries are connected to one another in one way or the other. Globalization is continuously pushing trade and business borders, where more and more companies are trying to expand in countries other than the home country. While business startup and expansion in a foreign land always seems lucrative, it comes with a lot of challenges, barriers, and considerations to survive the local and international competition. China and Taiwan have been two of the highly explored countries by foreign investors because of their growing economy and favorable business environment. The present study looks into a multi-fold of social, economic, political, and licensing factors which have to be part of a decision-making process, when planning a business startup in a different country. Rather than presenting all the important factors, the present study has used an AHP-based ranking approach to identify the most important factors, easing the preference setting process for business decision makers.

Two levels of factors were used; level 1 defined the major domains of geographical location, firm size, political environment, and IPP, and each domain has four associated factors, as the level-2 factors. A total of 15 questionnaires were collected for this 2-level business considerations and then were analyzed using the AHP tool. A Pyramid decision-making model has been presented in the study, which summarizes the ranking and risk-level associated with all test factors.

Table of Contents
中文摘要..............................................................................................................................II
Abstract ...............................................................................................................................III Acknowledgement ...............................................................................................................V Table of Contents .................................................................................................................VI List of Tables........................................................................................................................VIII
1.Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................1
1.1. Background.................................................................................................................1
1.2. Problem Statement .....................................................................................................3
1.3. Research Aim and Objectives.....................................................................................3
1.4. Research Questions ....................................................................................................4
1.5. Significance of the Research ......................................................................................5
1.6. Report Structure..........................................................................................................6
2.Chapter 2: Literature Review ..............................................................................................7
2.1. Theoretical Understanding of Business Startups........................................................7
2.2. Entering a New Cultural Market ................................................................................9
2.3. Barriers and Challenges to business in China and ROC ..........................................11
2.4. Managerial Considerations in a Foreign Market Entrance.......................................13
2.5. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model and Decision Making ............................15
3.Chapter 3: Research Methodology ....................................................................................17
3.1. Research Method ......................................................................................................17
3.2. Conceptual Model ....................................................................................................18
3.3. Data Collection .........................................................................................................19
3.4. Research Framework Variables ................................................................................21
3.5. AHP Weighting Process ...........................................................................................23
3.6. Consistency Check ...................................................................................................24
4.Chapter 4: Results & Findings ..........................................................................................25 4.1. Demographic Results................................................................................................25
4.3. Weights and Priority of Evaluation Factors..............................................................27
4.4. Consistency Analysis ................................................................................................29
5.Chapter 5: Discussion and Analysis ..................................................................................30
5.1. Business Considerations: Domain Priority Analysis ................................................30
5.2. Business Considerations: Sub-Domains Priority Analysis .......................................32
5.3. Decision-Making Model...........................................................................................34
6.Chapter 6: Conclusion........................................................................................................35 6.1. Conclusion ................................................................................................................35 7.References ............................................................................................................................38 8.Appendix ..............................................................................................................................42


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Proposed conceptual model ...................................................................................18
Table 2: Tabular definition of evaluation factors .................................................................21 
Table 3: Weight comparisons for variables..........................................................................23
Table 4: Demographic information of the study participants ..............................................26
Table 5: Local and global priorities result from the AHP Model.........................................27
Table 6: Pyramid Decision-Making Model..........................................................................34

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