A recent study indicates that Iowa businessmen intend to expand their business activities in China and South America within the next five years.

The companies with a strong interest in trading with China and South America are generally from sectors of agribusiness and agribusiness processing, said Steffen Schmidt, an ISU political science professor conducting the survey.

“International Needs Assessment of Iowa Businesses: The Implications for Iowa State University’s 1995-2000 Strategic Plan,” was a survey conducted by directors and professors. The survey was developed within three colleges at ISU, including the College of Agriculture, College of Business and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The study was aimed at providing better services to Iowa businesses engaged in international commerce, thus collecting more sources to the internationalization of university curriculum.

The study interviewed 440 companies which came from all kinds of business sectors in Iowa. The companies, Schmidt said, were categorized by the number of employees and total annual revenues or sales range. Schmidt said half of the respondents were small enterprises with 25 or fewer employees.

Schmidt said respondents considered foreign language training as an important area for international trade.

The study showed Spanish, Chinese and Japanese were the top three language-training needs of the companies.

Schmidt said the training needs were consistent with the countries that the respondents currently had trading relationships. These countries were Canada, Mexico, Japan and China.

“As the respondents currently do business mainly with North American countries, they therefore want to expand their business in China and South America,” Schmidt said.

The companies also needed strategic market research for international trade. The research included knowing the countries’ economies and identifying the long-term risks of trading with them.

The study team had already organized several one-day workshops for the respondents by using information from the study.

Schmidt said the connection between ISU’s international alumni and ISU itself could further assist the companies in creating more trading opportunities.

“The ISU Alumni Association is now doing a match-making job to see if any international alumni can fit the companies’ interests,” Schmidt said. “But the problem of this job is to need time to convince the alumni the significance of being a part of the study.”

The follow-up of the study also covered the creation of the World Wide Web and how it works as an international business center.

“The study is an interdisciplinary collaboration between colleges, which gives chances for each college to understand the needs of each other,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt is now working in the Council on International Programs of ISU, which serves the purpose of advising the provosts, the school policies of internationalization and exchange program. Each college has a representative in the Council.

“The university is very eager in promoting internationalization on campus,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt also works with John Wong, an associate professor in marketing, on a project named “Iowa World Trade,” which is a step toward the establishment of a world trade center in the state of Iowa.

“I want to have more action programs rather than just doing research in school,” Schmidt said.