International Market Selection Methodology for Exporting Cheese from Colombia Jose Alejandro CANO, Universidad de Medellín, Medellín, Colombia, jacano@udem.edu.co Jose Jaime BAENA ROJAS, Institución Universitaria CEIPA, Medellín, Colombia, jose.baena@ceipa.edu.co Emiro Antonio CAMPO, ESACS – Escuela Superior en Administración de Cadena de Suministro, Medellín, Colombia, eacampo@unal.edu.co Abstract This article aims to provide a quantitative methodology of easy implementation and understanding in order to support the international market selection (IMS). The proposed methodology allows weighing factors related to cost, logistics, trade barriers, and culture. In order to validate the proposed methodology, we study the international market selection for cheese from Colombia, and we apply a sensitivity analysis which tests the impact of these weights. In this sense, it is concluded that France is the most appropriate market followed by the Netherlands according to the weights assigned to the variables and factors. Keywords: International market selection, internationalization, exports, multi-criteria model. Introduction Nowadays, international expansion has become a strategic problem for most companies. In this sense, market research represents an essential tool to identify and evaluate foreign markets through reliable information that reduces the uncertainty in terms in terms of policy-making (Ozturk & Cavusgil, 2015). In this way, many organizations conceive the internationalization of business activities as a possibility to strengthen competitiveness, due to all that companies have to adapt to the demanding conditions of the global market (Olevsky, 2016). Then, the internationalization of companies can be understood as a set of actions within organizations aiming to improve the position of companies within the market, taking advantage of networks and synergies offered by the global environment (Schweizer & Johanson, 2010). Therefore, the internationalization of companies is becoming more common, considering the economic benefits that this model can offer to organizations, overcoming paradigms that traditionally focus on conquering local markets (Maekelburger & Kabst, 2011). Governments aware of the advantages of internationalization, design and promote policies, programs, and incentives for both large companies, and small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve a successful international market selection (IMS) for the expansion of their businesses, which brings interesting economic benefits for the states (Papadopoulos & Denis, 1988) To perform the IMS process, it is necessary to have an adequate process facilitating the management and weighting of multiple variables used to evaluate the countries that represent new market opportunities (Ozturk & Cavusgil, 2015). Among these variables affecting the IMS, it is possible to highlight some variables related to culture, logistics, economics, geopolitics, among others (Frass, et al., 2016; Cano, Campo, et al., 2017). However, the process of searching international customers may involve several attitudes associated with the decision-making process, such as resistance to change Vision 2020: Sustainable Economic Development and Application of Innovation Management 3763