No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Needed B2B marketing capabilities: Insights from the USA and emerging Latin America
Abstract
Firms from all parts of the world are expanding operations globally in a turbulent economic context, requiring the understanding of nontraditional markets. Much attention has been focused on China and India, but researchers have neglected Latin America, a region economically as important as Germany, India, Japan, and South Korea. Latin America, as is true of many developed and emerging markets, has a strong presence of industrial - or business to business (B2B) - transactions. The configuration and convergence-divergence of marketing capabilities are relevant for the understanding of the globalization phenomenon. This study aims to examine B2B marketing capabilities of firms in Chile, Mexico and Peru (as Latin American countries), seeking conceptual issues in order to comprehend their business perspectives and contribute to the almost nonexistent body of research in this region. How do the results from Latin America compare with the USA? While the study shows directional convergence between Chile and Peru, there also is interesting divergence between all Latin American countries and the USA. The findings offer a portfolio of marketing topics that we believe are worthy of practitioner and academic consideration. We propose a model of convergence-divergence of B2B marketing capabilities across nations and state propositions for hypothesis testing.
... Fortune 500 firms, especially those in business-to-business (B2B) settings, are in the midst of building up their marketing capabilities (Jaworski & Lurie, 2019;Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018). Capabilities are broadly defined as the processes and routines by which a firm transforms its resources into valuable outputs (Morgan & Slotegraaf, 2012, p. 91). ...
... Heterogeneity in organizational capabilities resembles a firm's ability to identify the nature of the served markets and their dynamics (e.g., Varadarajan, 2011). Since marketing is a contextual discipline (Sheth, 2011), the needed marketing capabilities leveraging firms' performance in the long run can differ across countries and industries (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018). In this vein, extant research calls for investigating marketing capabilities in different environments (e.g., Feng, Morgan, & Rego, 2017). ...
... This is consistent with the view of effective marketing actions as being market-driven while simultaneously driving markets (Xu, Guo, Zhang, & Dang, 2018). This duality explains the C -D tenet of marketing capabilities, suggesting that, due to institutional characteristics (e.g., cultural, political), some marketing capabilities should converge in relevance when accounting for B2B firm performance across nations (e.g., Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018). ...
Marketing capabilities in business-to-business (B2B) settings are increasingly gaining attention of international business managers and scholars. However, research has not examined which B2B marketing capabilities are most influential across developed and emerging economies from a firm performance view. Selecting the most potentially relevant marketing capabilities is driven by an executive panel and prior literature. Drawing on the crossvergence phenomenon, this study presents an empirical test of a parsimonious conceptual model, identifying the key capabilities driving customer satisfaction, sales revenue, and profitability at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. Using data from 702 senior managers in the United States (US), Denmark, and Chile, the authors find the convergence and divergence of B2B marketing capabilities influence. In particular, the results indicate that three capabilities are universal to marketing practice: (1) segmentation and targeting capability as the baseline for cultivating a higher-order marketing capability; (2) pricing capability as the main driver of SBU profitability; and (3) new offering development capability as the key driver of SBU customer satisfaction. Building over the findings, the study suggests that political view on the market, industry structure, and the more rational nature of B2B firms seem to be the pivotal tenets of the marketing capabilities convergence.
... This region is a strategically important market that has not received sufficient attention in the marketing literature. Several researchers have observed that the Latin American region has been neglected as a source of scientific development, both at the level of marketing in general and in brand equity (Fastoso and Whitelock, 2011;Manzur et al., 2011;Mora and Johnston, 2018). This lack of attention by researchers is surprising, given the significant economic performance of the Latin American region, which is the fifth-largest region by gross domestic product size after the European Union, China, Japan and the USA (World Bank, 2021). ...
... Therefore, these countries require perspectives aimed at technology transferfrom developed to developing countries, rather than developing these technologies. Mora and Johnston (2018) show that companies in Latin American countries have in common to develop less marketing capabilities than companies in the USA. Therefore, Latin American department stores may adopt best practices and innovations more slowly because they may have less access to resources, as a possible explanation (Murphy and Scharl, 2007) . ...
... greater use of order online and pay at store in Latin America). This reaffirms marketing's status as a context-dependent discipline (Mora and Johnston, 2018). Consistent with convergence theory and as observed by Mora and Johnston (2018), department store websites in Latin America, compared to their counterparts in the USA, show a weak usage on some of the responsive service nature, online experience and fulfillment dimensions of online retail brand equity. ...
Purpose
This study aims to assess how department store websites can add online retail brand equity. A quick, relatively easy and low-cost diagnostic tool for stakeholders (e.g. retailers, investors) is presented.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis of department store websites in the USA and Latin America was conducted.
Findings
The findings show that Latin American and US department store websites exhibit acceptable use of online retail brand equity dimensions related to emotional connection and trust. In contrast, compared to their US counterparts, Latin American department store websites show weak usage on some of the dimensions of responsive service nature, online experience and fulfillment. The results also show that higher online retail brand equity is positively associated with average daily time on site. This indicates the usefulness of this index for developing effective websites to creating online retail brand equity.
Practical implications
This study suggests that Latin American department stores should improve three dimensions of online retail brand equity: responsive service nature, online experience and fulfillment. The online retail brand equity index presented can serve as a diagnostic tool for department store managers to monitor the online retail brand equity they are building on their websites. It is also possible to analyze the websites of competing department stores and monitor the long-term impact of modifications made to their websites and those of competitors.
Originality/value
This paper proposes an easy-to-apply index to assess online retail brand equity through website design partially. In addition, this research is the first to evaluate how Latin American department store websites, compared to those in the USA, are building online retail brand equity.
... = − 216.9) could be threefold. First, the economic environment in Chile and Peru during 2017 was not favorable due to the fall of commodities and poor internal confidence in the market (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018). Conversely, the U.S. economy was strong during 2019, growing at a stable pace of approximately 2% since 2018 (World Bank, 2020). ...
... The latter being well-known for entertainment and glamor, can enhance motivation of booth staff, independent of participating in a TS. Third, Latin American and U.S. decision makers have different cultural backgrounds, with clear differences in individualism (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018). The dominance of the (collective) group in Chile and Peru can affect decision making regarding TS investment, with only a few managers attending a show and others remaining at their offices. ...
Trade shows (TSs) are a cost-effective method for companies to meet with customers and prospects, network with different stakeholders, and introduce new products. Although short-term, face-to-face interactions can offer cost-savings by reducing the sales cycle length or by developing closer ties with strategic partners, questions remain regarding firms’ expectations of TS participation. For example, what are the drivers of business-to-business (B2B) TS participation and total investment? This four-study research evaluates the total investment of prospective exhibitors in relation to the rationale for exhibiting at a TS and adopts the organizer’s view as the main interpretative lens. The data analysis entails Tobit modeling, replication, and difference-in-differences modeling. The results suggest that exhibitor participation is related to performance expectations. By incorporating the means-end theory, this study examines the role of intangible long-term expectations (image-building, relationship-building, motivation-enhancing) versus tangible short-term expectations (sales-related, information-gathering) in determining TS investment (as a proxy of perceived value).
... They conclude that project management implementation is affected by national culture. However, Latin American countries, in contrast, present a low level of cultural differences (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018;Silva-Martinez et al., 2018). Unfortunately, the literature fails to provide detailed discussions considering empirical data from Latin American countries, which, according to Vokoun and Daza Aramayo (2017), have a great potential for development. ...
... In addition, the results showed that many strengths and weaknesses in production line automation projects in both countries are similar. This result is consistent with the literature (Gondim et al., 2017;Montenegro, 2017;Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018;Silva-Martinez et al., 2018;Vokoun & Daza Aramayo, 2017). As such, the low level of cultural differences and the macroeconomic similarities in Latin America countries may explain the similarity between the results of analyzed countries. ...
This article aims to evaluate the production line automation projects developed by Brazilian and Colombian companies from the Project Management perspective, through the analysis of the application degree of PMBOK processes, to understand how formal techniques are being employed in these countries and also to identify improvement opportunities, when necessary. Data were collected through a survey. The similarity index between the ten processes, with the highest application degree in the Brazilian and Colombian samples, was 70%. For the processes with the lowest application degree, the similarity index was 60%. No similar study was found in the literature.
... MCs are firm-specific and can represent knowledge diffusion within a country or region (Cortez & Johnston, 2018). Weerawardena et al. (2007) argued that the most critical capabilities in INVs internationalization and international performance include a market-focused learning capability, internally focused learning capability, networking capability, and marketing capability. ...
... Regarding marketing strategy and according to Cortez & Johnston (2018), B2B segments are more important to INVs than B2C segments, since these can be reached with more limited marketing budgets than traditionally globalizing companies have. ...
Marketing capabilities are argued to be one of the critical capabilities of International New Ventures (INVs) facilitating their early internationalization. Although companies from post-transformation Central and Eastern Europe Countries are active and successful participants of the global market, their marketing capabilities were not subject to the complex studies yet. This paper addresses this research gap and aims to identify the types and importance of the promotion tools applied by INVs from this region. It presents the results of the multi-mode method (CATI combined with CAWI) study of 297 Polish small and medium INVs. It shows, that they rather do not apply a very diversified set of promotional tools. The most common tools applied by them on the foreign markets are trade fairs and exhibitions, internet advertising, PR, personal sales and Internet tools other than Internet advertising, with the most importance given to PR. The most differentiated set of promotion tools is applied by companies operating both on the B2B and B2C market.
... In this study, the strategies to accelerate the natural gas business market growth have been found in a developing country context. However, the business market development growth depends on various factors including economic production, market conditions, customer demands and marketing capabilities of the business ecosystem (Cortez and Johnston, 2018). Hence, identified strategies may be change in the future, and other strategies can emerge as potential strategies for the natural gas business market development and growth in emerging country like India. ...
Purpose
Rising energy demand and the quest for achieving climate change targets have been pushing emerging markets like India to bolster the natural gas share in their energy mix. The country has set an aggressive target of increasing natural gas share in the energy mix to 15% by 2030. The purpose of this study is to acknowledge the need for adopting and developing strategies for natural gas business market development to ensure a reliable supply at an affordable price. Hence, this study explores the natural gas market business development strategies and assesses them through cause/effect analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
This study proposed an integrated framework based on the Grey concept and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to assess and determine the interdependence among the natural gas business market development strategies by cause-and-effect group analysis. The application of Grey theory reduced the uncertainty and subjectivity involved in the decision-making process. Later, sensitivity analysis is also performed to check the robustness of the framework.
Findings
The natural gas business market development strategies are identified through a systematic literature search and contributions from industry experts. The findings of this study highlight the importance of developing pipeline and storage infrastructure facilities, ensuring supply security through long-term imports and overseas investment, implementing free-market-based pricing, simplification and standardization of regulatory processes at state and national levels, etc., for the development of the natural gas market development in India.
Research limitations/implications
This study acknowledges the natural gas market development strategies and evaluated them into cause-and-effect groups which are limited to Indian context. All evaluations in the Grey-based DEMATEL method were made in this study based on the decision team inputs which limits the generalization to other geographies. Moreover, the opinions of the experts can be subjective and differ. The selection of the experts is done through non-probability sampling process.
Practical implications
This study could support the government and decision-makers in formulating the appropriate strategies to develop the domestic natural gas market. The cause-and-effect relationships are helpful for the companies, management, government, regulators and other stakeholders to understand the criticality of the causal strategies that must be implemented for developing the favorable natural gas business market scenario.
Originality/value
This study explores and evaluates the strategies that successfully bolster the natural gas business demand in India using Grey-based DEMATEL framework. By focusing on those critical strategies, relevant stakeholders would ensure a reliable natural gas supply at affordable prices.
... For example, firms could inform about the experience of dealing with a technical challenge in the field using a supportive picture or video. In addition, the copy of a post could include slang or terms used in a particular segment as part of their industrial subculture (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018). ...
In business-to-business (B2B) settings, social media provide a novel context for investigating customer engagement. While B2B firms are increasingly investing in social media, there is limited understanding about the type of content to be published and how customers may react to their posts. The authors address these research gaps by developing a conceptual framework that relates posts’ brand personality dimensions (sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness) to customer engagement. Using data from a small-sized Chilean-Swiss consultancy firm accounting for 114 weeks of LinkedIn activity, the authors specify a VAR model with exogenous variables (VARX). Focusing on the cumulative elasticities, the study uncovers the engagement mechanisms of customers. The results show that an increase in impressions (exposure) leads to an increase in likes, clicks, and shares (perceptions), an increase in clicks leads to an increase in new followers (actions), and an increase in new followers leads to an increase in impressions. Furthermore, the results indicate that an increase in posts’ excitement leads to an increase in impressions and likes, an increase in posts’ competence leads to an increase in clicks, and an increase in posts’ ruggedness leads to an increase in new followers.
... Several studies have analyzed DMCs in the international context of companies in advanced economies (e.g., born globals and International Ventures) and also, have focused on exploring more complex channel structures according to the buyer's journey. Therefore, this leaves out the realities of Latin-America (Mora and Johnston, 2018). Indeed, there is still a limited understanding of the link between the international process of DMCs (Tartaglione and Formisano, 2018) and channel integration (Gallino and Moreno, 2014) in LATAM. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to determine the relationship between dynamic marketing capabilities (DMCs) and the integration of distribution channels of exporting companies from Latin American (LATAM) countries and how this relationship will impact the international development of a company.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study uses the explanatory multiple case approach of Yin (2011) to test the research questions, revise existing theories and establish causal relationships from semi-structured interviews that were applied to 15 Peruvian and Colombian companies. To analyze qualitative data and ensure credibility, the authors applied six stages of Sinkovics and Alfoldi’s (2012) methodology. For analysis, computer-based qualitative software was used.
Findings
The study reveals the following: a set of specific DMCs that effectively help agro-food companies generate synergy with their intermediaries to launch their first international ventures; a better understanding of how the market orientation as a DMC is, rather than a multi-dimensional organization which mediates other marketing processes; the impact of DMCs in channel integration that changes with respect to agents and distributors. Producers and distributors developed networking, market adaptation and innovation capabilities. At the same time, agents also developed market orientation capabilities to provide relevant product information, manage transactions and fulfill orders without regard to market adaptation capabilities.
Research limitations/implications
Qualitative methodology was applied, limiting the generalization of the findings. The authors also emphasized the initial stages of internationalization without considering other advanced processes that could be useful for larger LATAM companies, which operate in different foreign countries and manage multiple channels. As a result, this study lays the foundation for establishing a model that will enhance a quantitative measurement to support the findings.
Practical implications
This study illustrates specific marketing techniques that are useful to better identify and coordinate intermediaries, especially agents and distributors to ease their internationalization processes. The research also provides a framework for marketing managers to leverage the DMCs developed by the different actors of the distribution channel, as well as, obtaining positive outcomes in communication, information on products and services, transactions and customer service functions. Finally, managers and professionals can find a methodology to evaluate how DMCs can be developed to optimize their internationalization processes through the integration of the main channel functions. This will broaden their vision on the usefulness and scalability of this type of dynamic capabilities in key business processes for the generation and sustainability of competitive advantages.
Social implications
If producers identify DMCs, they will promote ethical business practices that may reduce their vulnerability and risk with more experienced international intermediaries. This leads to favoring the socio-economic equity of the territories with traditional economies in which they operate.
Originality/value
The study provides a set of DMCs that influence the functions of distribution channels and favors international processes in small and medium enterprises which then offer a better understanding of the definition and applicability of this construct in the agro-food sector in LATAM. This study also gives a structural perspective to determine which functions of the distribution channel should be integrated and how depending on the type of intermediary (agents and distributors).
... B2B (Business to Business) is the sale of a company's product or service to another company. For details, seeBrennan, Canning, and McDowell (2020),Cortez and Johnston (2018),Lankova, Davies, Archer-Brown, Marder, and Yau (2019). ...
This study analyzes how to improve and build high technology export strategies for high tech companies in Turkey. In this framework, oil prices and the real effective exchange rate are selected because Turkey’s export companies hugely depend on imported inputs, and oil prices are essential imported products. Besides, the real effective exchange affects the cost of the imported inputs and shows countries’ comparative advantages in foreign trade. Within this context, comprehensive different theoretical frameworks and literature reviews are presented to lead the companies’ correct way. Subsequently, an investigation is performed with Vector Autoregressive Analysis (VAR) on data covering 2016-Q1 and 2018-Q3. According to results, the real effective exchange rates and oil prices have an essential impact on the high-tech companies’ performance. Regarding the relationship between the real effective exchange rate and the high-tech exports, the J curve condition is valid. Besides, an increase in oil prices leads to expanding the high-tech exports in Turkey from the first month to the third month because the oil-exported countries are imperative partners for the Turkish export companies. Furthermore, the effects become reversed since an increase in oil prices leads to production costs. Regarding the results, the energy diversification policies, less dependent imported inputs, and expanding the market will contribute to developing the high-tech exports in Turkey.
... B2B market segmentation is the "core of good industrial marketing" (Bonoma & Shapiro, 1983). Despite the perceived usefulness to B2B practice (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018), more knowledge about why B2B market segmentation is "particularly difficult to execute" (Boejgaard & Ellegaard, 2010) and "whom to address with which kind of content" is still needed (Müller, Pommeranz, Weisser, & Voigt, 2018). ...
Segmenting industrial markets is a key challenge for the marketing field. More than 30 years of research has not produced comprehensive guidelines for developing robust B2B market segments; only a few studies have empirically tested the impact of segmentation and the literature today appears to be more fragmented than earlier. The present study integrates prior endeavors via a systematic literature review, scrutinizing 88 papers in detail. It develops a three-layer framework comprised of: (1) conceptualization of B2B market segmentation, (2) segmentation as a process, and (3) context. The authors use the framework to evaluate scholarly efforts during the 1986-2019 period and propose a broader view on segmentation as a continuous process. Marketers can benefit from the study by adopting four activities for segmenting markets: (1) pre-segmentation, (2) segmen-tation, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation. Finally, the authors identify several gaps and offer a rigorous, practice-oriented research agenda, providing direction for academicians.
... Hohenberg and Homburg (2016) finds that sales force steering effectiveness strongly depends on sales reps' national culture. In that way, Cortez and Johnston (2018) affirm that "Latin America, as is true of many developed and emerging markets, has a strong presence of industrial transactions. The configuration and convergencedivergence of marketing capabilities are relevant for the understanding of the globalization phenomenon. ...
In this paper we look at cultural influence (Individualist vs Collectivistic) in salespeople Regulation of Emotion, Interpersonal Conflict, Customer Orientation and Job Performance. In both an individualistic and a collectivist culture, regulation of emotions is negatively related to interpersonal conflict. In a collectivist culture, sales people who perform better emotional regulation will achieve better customer orientation. Sales managers should make it a priority to train salespeople to strengthen their emotional regulation and create conflict management mechanisms for job performance improvement. key words: emotional intelligence; emotional regulation; salespeople behaviors; cultural influence Resumen En este artículo analizamos la influencia cultural (individualista vs colectivista) en la regulación emocional, conflicto interpersonal, orientación al cliente y el desempeño laboral de vendedores. Tanto en una cultura individualista como colectiva, la regulación de emociones está negativamente relacionada con el conflicto interpersonal. En una cultura colectivista, los vendedores con mejor regulación emocional lograrán una mejor orientación al cliente. Los gerentes de ventas deben capacitar a vendedores para fortalecer su regulación emocional y crear mecanismos de gestión de conflictos. Palabras clave: inteligencia emocional; regulación emocional; comportamientos de vendedores; influencia cultural
... Developing and delivering successful value propositions has been a key issue within marketing literature and business practice for decades (Anderson et al., 2006), and is still managerially relevant (Eggert et al, 2018; Mora Cortez and Johnston, 2018). The topic has been studied within the model of promise theory since the early 1990s (Bitner, 1995;Grönroos, 2000;Calonius, 2006;Little et al., 2006). ...
Purpose
Customer value creation is dependent on a firm’s capacity to fulfil its brand promises and value propositions. The purpose of this paper is to explore frontline employees’ (FLEs’) motivation to align with value propositions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores FLEs’ motivation to align with a firm’s value propositions as operationalised brand promises. A longitudinal, three-phase case study was conducted on a business-to-business company in the building and technical trade sector.
Findings
This study reveals factors that foster and weaken employees’ motivation to align with a firm’s brand promises and value propositions. The findings show that co-activity and authentic, practice-driven promises and value propositions foster FLEs’ motivation to uphold brand promises and value propositions, whereas an objectifying stance and power struggle weaken their motivation.
Practical implications
The study indicates that a bottom-up approach to strategising is needed and that FLE is to be engaged in traditional managerial domains, such as in developing value propositions. By creating space and agency for FLE in the strategising process, their motivation to align with value propositions is fostered. Four motivational modes are suggested to support bottom-up strategising.
Originality/value
The paper is unique in its focus on FLEs’ motivation. Developing value propositions traditionally falls within the domain of management strategising, while employees are ascribed the role of enactment. Contrary to the established norm, this paper highlights employees’ active role in strategising and developing value propositions.
... The market setting (e.g. country) provides a relevant force for shaping marketing capabilities (Mora Cortez and Johnston, 2018). Capabilities are context dependent and market economic maturity (i.e. ...
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the elevation of the business-to-business (B2B) marketing field at the business school level. Design/methodology/approach-The study follows a Delphi method. The authors conducted two rounds of discovery to answer: why do you think universities do not highly appreciate publications in Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing or Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing? What would you suggest for improving the impact of such journals not only in the USA but around the world? Findings-Through the analysis of the coding transcript, four categories were found to elevate the B2B marketing field at the business school level: B2B as uncommon ground, B2B researcher practices, marketing science underpinnings and B2B marketing journals management. Originality/value-The value of current research is based on its explorative nature and application of grounded theory to provide a framework to analyze how to elevate the B2B marketing field at the business school level.
... The market setting (e.g. country) provides a relevant force for shaping marketing capabilities (Mora Cortez and Johnston, 2018). Capabilities are context dependent and market economic maturity (i.e. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the elevation of the business-to-business (B2B) marketing field at the business school level.
Design/methodology/approach
The study follows a Delphi method. The authors conducted two rounds of discovery to answer: why do you thin universities do not highly appreciate publications in Industrial Marketing Management , Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing or Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing ? What would you suggest for improving the impact of such journals not only in the USA but around the world?
Findings
Through the analysis of the coding transcript, four categories were found to elevate the B2B marketing field at the business school level: B2B as uncommon ground, B2B researcher practices, marketing science underpinnings and B2B marketing journals management.
Originality/value
The value of current research is based on its explorative nature and application of grounded theory to provide a framework to analyze how to elevate the B2B marketing field at the business school level.
... In market research and assessment of consumers, the latter are increasingly referred to in theory as producers (Cova, Dalli, 2009). Some researchers emphasize that marketing currently faces a task to provide rational support to marketers in the form of necessary recommendations and procedures (Agic, Cinjarevic, Kurtovic, & Cicic, 2016;Cortez, Johnston, 2018). ...
Purpose – to review modern marketing concepts, definitions of the constituent elements in the marketing system at enterprises and to substantiate the basic postulates underlying the development of innovative marketing at enterprises in order to improve competitiveness of products.
Design/Method/Approach. In the course of the study we used methods of theoretical generalization, reasoning and abstraction, as well as analytical, monographic, dialectic methods.
Findings. We have revealed the essence and content of the concept of marketing. It has been substantiated that the development of marketing support is a sophisticated dialectical process of interaction between factors from the external environment and the targeted influence of drivers associated with the production of competitive products that satisfy certain market needs. We have reviewed and substantiated the essence, objectives, basic tools and principles of marketing function. We have developed and scientifically substantiated organizational components in the innovative marketing at enterprises based on ensuring the coordinated interaction between their innovation and marketing activities. The essence, content, and principles of the term "innovative marketing" have been defined. We propose a classification of varieties of innovative marketing depending on their functional belonging.
Practical implications. Results of the study can be used in the development of proposals related to the effective formation and application of marketing at an enterprise.
Originality/Value. We have devised a classification of the marketing function at an enterprise. The basic principles of marketing function have been substantiated. We have defined the methodological provisions for studying the marketing function at an enterprise. The essence, content, and structure of innovative marketing have been determined as an important and integral component of conducting an economic activity by an enterprise, which implies the creation of a fundamentally new product (good, technology, service); the application of innovative marketing has been emphasized for improving business processes at an enterprise.
Research limitations/Future research. The task is to develop an effective mechanism for the efficient functioning of marketing under different situational and market-led fluctuations under conditions of market volatility.
Paper type – theoretical.
... National culture relates to people's values, habits, beliefs, norms, roles, symbols, signs, and behaviors (Keegan & Green, 2016). From a marketing perspective, national culture is a force that affects reasoning and emotional patterns of business practitioners and, as a consequence, their views of managerial hurdles and concepts (Mora Cortez & Johnston, 2018;Nakata & Sivakumar, 2001). Hofstede's five cultural dimensions adjust the self and personality of practitioners, influencing both mental and social processes. ...
Creating effective business-to-business (B2B) communications is an increasingly complex challenge for marketing managers. It requires a theoretical understanding of a number of puzzling, interacting components of an advertising stimulus. However, few academicians have pursued the goal of integrating and modeling how the B2B advertising process should be conceptualized. Gilliland and Johnston (1997) provided the first comprehensive model of the process, but B2B advertising has changed dramatically since this paper and demands an update to capture the new dimensions of the phenomenon. Using a systematic literature review to summarize recent trends, this paper incorporates the key changes in B2B advertising over the last 20 years. In particular, the authors explore a revised model of B2B effects, including (1) social media, (2) creativity and emotional appeals, (3) national culture, (4) brand equity and credibility, (5) ad experience social context, and (6) competing messages.
... Product marketing strategies will play a special role in the petrochemical segment of the market. Foreign manufacturing is now reoriented to the production of more high-tech products, petrochemical complexes, for example, are engaged in the development of new catalysts and technologies [10,11]. In the domestic market, the most promising are product areas with significant potential for import substitution, that is the production of synthetic rubbers, polyamides and polystyrene. ...
The market of petrochemical products is a key segment of the Russian economic system, and its subjects play a key role in the formation of the revenue part of the state budget and the active balance of payments of the Russian Federation. Hydrocarbon raw materials are indispensable and having no alternative base of technological functioning of petrochemical enterprises. Oil and gas are irreplaceable strategic resources, so their rational use, deepening of processing, is a task of national scale. It is the transition from direct export of hydrocarbons to their deep processing, to the strategic development of oil and gas and petrochemical complexes that will minimise the dependence of the Russian economy on adverse fluctuations in the world market. In the current geopolitical conditions, the subjects of the market will have to move in line with the ongoing transformation of the industry, making maximum use of strategic marketing planning tools to strengthen their own market positions, adequate to the market of increasing production volumes, winning new markets, increasing sales of products with high added value.
... Creative use of "member checking" submitting drafts for review by participants in the research is one of the requisite forms of validation of qualitative research (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). To enhance the construct validity (Gibbert et al., 2008;Eisenhardt, 1989) and to ensure the trustworthiness of our results, we applied data triangulation (Cortez and Johnston, 2018). This was achieved by combining local secondary sources and the verbatim comments of the resellers interviewed, which yielded the description and presentation of the industry context. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how context influences the quality of business relationships. This theoretical question is studied from the point of view of trust, one of the important components of business relationship quality. The authors study how trust is related to the dynamics and management of the business relationship in the context of an emerging market.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on qualitative interviews with 15 spare-parts resellers in the Tunisian automotive industry. The authors take a monadic view, interviewing resellers about their relationships with their wholesalers-importers. The decision to undertake the research in Tunisia is based on three factors. First, Tunisia is an emerging country and there is very little published research based in the Maghreb countries. Second, the Tunisian automotive parts market structure is relatively simple and, hence, easily understood, with most spare-parts being imported because of the low level of local production. Third, the actors in the study are all Tunisian companies, so research allows us to explore relationships between local companies in an emerging country.
Findings
The authors find that different kinds of trust play different roles over the dynamics of the relationship. Perceived trust is more important at the emergent stage of a relationship, and as the two parties learn from each other, experienced trust becomes more important in the established relationships. The initial perceived trust creates the possibility of building trust, and when mutual trust exists between the parties, it motivates them to maintain the relationship, but there is always the threat of the degradation of the quality of the relationship because of the violation or destruction of the trust.
Research limitations/implications
This paper shows that more care should be taken when using trust as the variable under scrutiny. Different aspects of trust manifest themselves at various stages of the relationship building cycle.
Practical implications
The results emphasize that when initiating a business relationship, managers first need to create perceived trust. Thereafter, once trust is built up, it is the trust that may “manage” or act to control the on-going relationship as long as the partners’ behavior or network changes do not violate the trust.
Originality/value
The results of this paper show that there is a mutual but not necessarily symmetrical or balanced influence of trust on the behavior of the partners involved. The influence of the different parties is dependent on the power architecture, the history of the relationship and the network position of the actors.
... The vision of many practitioners has already been established that large companies operate according to completely different rules, mainly preliminary negotiations between business owners and direct sales, but is it true? Cortez and Johnston (2018) give an example of the organization of international cooperation in Latin America (namely Chile, Mexico and Peru -differing each from the other both in terms of economic development and social models that form a lifestyle and, accordingly, entrepreneurial environment and consumer demands). ...
Now there is no single approach to the planning of normative indicators of the foreign trade structure and the optimization of foreign economic operations, including marketing mix, which consider the priorities of socio-economic development of the territories acting as the global market agents. The work proposes an expanded method for using the Grubel-Lloyd and Horvath indices when assessing the level of inter-industry trade, which will determine the priority fields of international cooperation in the process of developing a foreign economic strategy both at the state level and for an individual company interested in expanding the geography of trade in the global market via finding new partners and using non-discriminating marketing methods.The article reveals the existing trends in foreign trade of Ukraine that predispose current economic policy and foster the initiation of a new exporting strategy. Namely, the volume of total external debt exceeded GDP in 2014–2016; although a significant reduction of this ratio has been observed since 2017 due to the GDP shortening. Unfavorable trends were supplemented by the negative total balance of trade in goods and services in 2014–2018, with redistributing geographical structure in favor of the EU instead of the CIS countries (however, the exports in services, measured by absolute income, exceeded imports). The Grubel-Lloyd and Horvath indices, calculated for the recent trade data, proved a high level of diversification of Ukraine’s foreign economic activity, with significant intra-industry trade, but the scores of the Grubel-Lloyd index did not coincide by the geographical and commodity structure for the prevailing majority of countries. Nevertheless, new potential exporting destinations may be found, precisely because of the detected imbalances.
... In addition to this, there are other external marketing abilities. For example, the capacity to direct an exhaustive examination of the organization's external business condition (Ellis, 2006;Mavondo et al., 2005;Morgan, 2012;Krush, Sohi, Saini, 2015), the capacity to process and break down data to map market prerequisites (Medina-Borja, An., and Triantis, 2006;Akroush, 2011), the ability to coordinate an organization's recognized competencies with external open doors in the marketplace (Liu et al., 2015;Pham et al., 2017;Cortez and Johnston, 2018), and the capacity to distinguish the strategic operations that lead the organization to accomplish an upper hand in the market. Every one of those capacities will influence the organization's position in the market and will have a positive affect on its market performance. ...
Objective-The role of knowledge management and competencies related to marketing skills are essential for Indian and Maldivian businesses, due to the emerging economy and globalization. This study therefore aims to identify the impact of marketing competencies on organizational performance in automobile sales centers, by reviewing the relationship between marketing competencies and firm performance, to support interest and investments in such a concept. Methodology/Technique-424 respondents (327 Indian samples and 97 Maldivian samples) were randomly selected for the research, with a 71% response rate. The first section of the questionnaire consists of questions related to marketing competencies (32 items) and the second section contains items related to organizational performance (10 items), and the last part includes questions about the respondents' demographical differences. After the data collection, construct validity and reliability statistic tests were conducted to check the validity and reliability of the instrument using IBM SPSS AMOS 23. Findings-The structural equation modelling results for the Indian and the Maldivian samples reveal that marketing competencies have a significant and positive affect on organizational performance. Novelty-This study may be useful for policymakers and top-level managers in the automobile sector; this study provides empirical insights into how the performance of the firm is affected by marketing competencies. Type of Paper: Empirical.
... A company with strong marketing capabilities is in a vantage position to target and manage its products, identify customers' needs better and improve the understanding of factors that influence customer decisions (Krasnikov and Jayachandran, 2008). Therefore, marketing capabilities are reflection of market evolution (Mora Cortez and Johnston, 2018). The more sophisticated the marketing capabilities, the more sophisticated the market, and vice-versa. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine predicted business-to-business (B2B) marketing capabilities for the next three to five years by companies in advanced, emerging and developing economies.
Findings
The authors identify the prevalent marketing capabilities in industrial companies operating in an advanced economy (USA), two emerging economies (Chile and Peru) and one developing economy (Bolivia), consolidating the themes in firms’ orientations. The study offers a taxonomy of the marketing role in different stages as per country development.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative approach based on grounded theory.
Originality/value
This manuscript contributes to the understanding of B2B marketing across different levels of market development. The authors offer theoretical and practical implications regarding the paradigms reigning the role of marketing. The coding scheme emerging from the data illustrates how companies and markets evolve in a two-way interaction.
Our research focuses on the influence of the internal
and external context on the way SMEs orchestrate three highly complementary marketing capabilities: market and demand research capabilities, marketing strategy formulation capabilities, and value proposition management capabilities. Our inductive classification approach allowed us (i) to observe three marketing configuration profiles (static, dynamic-agile and dynamic- proactive), and (ii) to demonstrate that the organizational alignment of marketing capabilities depends on two specific factors: the degree of uncertainty of the market environment and the level of annual turnover.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how the owners of less competitive micro-firms (MFs) perceive the “crisis–innovation–change management” triangle. It examines whether their understanding of these overarching entrepreneurship theory principles is inadequate compared to the relevant scientific literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative analysis follows principles based on the inductive method and grounded theory, thickly describing the results from research conducted in a sample of 38 tertiary-sector MFs in the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region – one of the least developed and competitive areas across Europe. It triangulates the data with 11 respective small firms.
Findings
MF owners perceive the crisis as an ostensibly exogenous phenomenon, innovation as something quasi-unattainable – although vaguely significant – and change management as a relatively unknown process. This understanding lies somewhat distant from the extant literature that examines the structural nature of crises, the innovational power to exit profound restructurings and the rebalancing requisite for building new overall organizational methods to survive this internal–external transformation. In essence, the triangle crisis–innovation–change management is a blind spot for the examined MF owners as they ignore its significance as an adaptation mechanism – contrary to several direct competitors.
Social implications
Based on the reluctance of these individuals to cultivate their systematic business knowledge, it seems unrealistic that they would seek to pay the necessary high price for business consulting in the future. An ideal solution would be to build public entrepreneurship clinics to provide these less dynamic and adaptable organizations with free preliminary or in-depth counseling. The Institute of Local Development-Innovation could aim to provide free consulting services to reinforce organizational physiology by coordinating different socioeconomic actors.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this empirical research is one of the first to test the comprehension of weaker MFs – less competitive and developed in organizational terms – to the triangle crisis–innovation–change management.
With the development of technology, the changes experienced in consumers’ expectations have directed especially marketing world to new searches. Starting to take place in the literature and featuring the digital marketing because of that the traditional marketing approach for companies is not able to adequately meet the needs of our age, SAVE marketing mix consists of solution (S), access (A), value (V) and education (E) elements. The starting point of this new mix is customer focus, which is now at the forefront. It is an approach that creates value for the customer, tries to find quick solutions to possible problems of the customer by communicating with them constantly, provides convenience to the customer regarding access to the product, and that can educate its employees by raising awareness on these issues. The aim of this study is to examine the SAVE marketing approach, which is one of the marketing dynamics being changed along with the process created by the digital transformation in the world. Surely, it is possible that various changes or additions would also be experienced in this marketing mix over time. However, it is an undeniable fact that the sense of marketing of the future will be shaped by carrying SAVE marketing mix.
Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) reflected the firm"s to engage in strategic behavior in order to achieve competitiveness in global markets. The born global firms produced an innovative effect on traditional business in the area of International entrepreneurship business. The born global firm's entrepreneurial orientations are created to innovation and organizational dynamic capabilities and improve the firms' International performance and development. The objective of this study, comprehensive view the relationships of International entrepreneurial orientation (EO), network relationships and the utilization of government export promotion programs (EPPs), international performance in the context of born global firms. It is hypothesized that International entrepreneurial orientation positively predicted to (EPPs) and export promotion programs, international performance. The samples 258, collected from born global firms in achieving higher international performance in the Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and mediation analysis is applied to empirically test the proposed hypotheses. The Reliability and validity of each part of the instrument which are calculated in the acceptable range. The result is shown that, the proposed framework, theoretical and practical implications for supporting the born global firms.
Purpose
This study aims to extend the understanding of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) by investigating the international EO (IEO) from the perspective of the international performance of born global firms. The born global firm's EOs toward global firms led to innovation and dynamic organizational capabilities and to improve the firms' international performance and development.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a hypothesis that IEO predicted that utilization of export promotion programs (EPPs) would be positively associated with international performance. The samples of 405 respondents were collected from born global firms to acquire higher international performance of firms in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and mediation analysis are processed to test the proposed hypotheses empirically.
Findings
The results from the SEM test revealed that the network relationships and utilization of EPPs fully mediate the effect of IEO on international performance. These results indicate that not only IEO is an important factor of network relationships but also the utilization of EPPs and international performance for born global firms. IEO can motivate managers to find the right network relationships and ultimately improve company performance. The IEO of the initiative has strong impact on the performance of international firms.
Originality/value
There is a comprehensive view among the relationships of IEO, entrepreneurial competencies and the network utilization of government EPPs, international performance in the context of born global firms. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail.
Purpose
This paper aims to empirically validate an integrated model, combining fuzzy analytical hierarchy processing and quality function deployment, used to construct a purchasing performance (PP) matrix for engineering procurement and construction companies (EPCs). The relationship is established by linking internal customer needs (“whats”; product-related factors), with engineering requirements (“hows”; buyer-related factors [BRFs] and organization-related factors). Three different of buying types are included: new task, straight rebuy and modified rebuy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses qualitative and quantitative techniques to determine the factors affecting PP and the extent of their influence. Evaluation of the factors affecting the PP of EPC companies is based on 32 industry experts’ opinions, supported by the academic literature.
Findings
The most significant finding is that researchers should explicitly consider BRFs like buyer knowledge, which has been missing in earlier PP models. BRFs appear to be a link between different types of buying; ignoring their importance can lead to less optimized PP and erroneous findings.
Originality/value
This research is unique, as PP models of EPC firms have neither been published nor validated empirically, either nationally or internationally. This exploratory study adds to the body of knowledge both by identifying the emerging factors that constitute the construct of the PP of EPCs and by filling the gap between theory and practice concerning an evaluation of the PP of EPCs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
The study examines specialized marketing capabilities’ role in the early internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Emphasis is on sales and communication capabilities and on contrasting international new ventures (INV) from the mature economy of Italy and the posttransformation economy of Poland. Individual expert interviews, including a card-based game, and an entrepreneurial marketing conceptual framework were conducted with representatives of seven manufacturing INVs. The findings obtained through content analysis of interviews with CAQDAS software
show how the main specialized marketing capabilities contribute to early expansion of INVs through an interaction with architectural marketing capabilities.
Introduction. In the conditions of globalization of Ukraine, there is a need to increase the effectiveness of marketing management of the formation and development of competitive advantages of economic systems at different levels of management, creation of a modern institutional base to ensure favourable conditions for increasing the competitiveness of domestic producers in the domestic and foreign markets. Today, the development of the economy depends on the viability and creativity of the marketing system, which is an effective means for solving the problem of quality management and competitiveness of goods and services. Methods. The methods of theoretical and creative understanding of the selected topic were used in the study. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the position of economic theory, scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists on marketing. The following research methods were used: monograph – in studying the essence of marketing at the enterprise, dialectical method of cognition – in the study of planning and substantiation of the concept of marketing; theoretical generalization and comparison – for the development of the conceptual apparatus and the study of marketing support; abstract and logical – in the theoretical generalization of the essence and mechanisms of marketing management. Monographic works and scientific publications on its subject were the informative basis of the research. Results. The essence and content of the concept of marketing are revealed. It is substantiated that the development of marketing support is a complex dialectical process of interaction of environmental factors and purposeful influence of factors related to the production of competitive products that satisfy certain market needs. The essence, tasks, basic tools and principles of marketing support are considered and substantiated. Organizational components of innovative marketing of enterprises are developed and scientifically substantiated on the basis of ensuring coordinated interaction of their innovation and marketing activities. The essence and content of the term “innovative marketing” are defined. The classification of varieties of innovative marketing depending on their functionality is offered. Discussion. In the future, an effective mechanism of rational marketing functioning for various situational and market fluctuations in the conditions of market volatility will be developed. Keywords: marketing, marketing support, marketing environment, enterprise management, marketing research, competitiveness.
Purpose
Global brands are attracted to emerging markets because of increasing wealth among their middle classes. However, amid increasing levels of consumer financial stress in many emerging markets, evidence points towards increased preferences for domestic products. The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychological constructs that mediate and moderate the relationship between reduced perceived financial well-being (PFWB) and domestic product purchases.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a model drawing from three theoretical perspectives: consumer stress and coping, consumer information processing and social identity theory. Hypotheses are tested via structural equation modelling and moderated mediation analyses using data from a survey of Brazilian consumers (n=1,043).
Findings
Results show that the positive relationship between reduced PFWB and domestic product purchases is partially mediated by perceived value of global brands and frugality descriptive norm. Further analyses demonstrate that consumer confidence moderates the mediating effects of perceived value of global brands and pro-social consumer ethnocentrism on the relationship between reduced PFWB and domestic product purchases.
Research limitations/implications
The antecedents of domestic product purchases identified in this study indicate opportunities for marketers of domestic and foreign products to respond to reduced PFWB, especially in relation to pricing, branding and communications. Future research should examine implications of PFWB on different populations, including other emerging markets, developed markets and lower-income consumers.
Originality/value
This study contributes to international marketing literature by examining the hitherto unexplored influence of reduced PFWB on domestic product purchases.
Maps capture data expressing the economic complexity of countries from Albania to Zimbabwe, offering current economic measures and as well as a guide to achieving prosperity
Why do some countries grow and others do not? The authors of The Atlas of Economic Complexity offer readers an explanation based on "Economic Complexity," a measure of a society's productive knowledge. Prosperous societies are those that have the knowledge to make a larger variety of more complex products. The Atlas of Economic Complexity attempts to measure the amount of productive knowledge countries hold and how they can move to accumulate more of it by making more complex products.
Through the graphical representation of the "Product Space," the authors are able to identify each country's "adjacent possible," or potential new products, making it easier to find paths to economic diversification and growth. In addition, they argue that a country's economic complexity and its position in the product space are better predictors of economic growth than many other well-known development indicators, including measures of competitiveness, governance, finance, and schooling.
Using innovative visualizations, the book locates each country in the product space, provides complexity and growth potential rankings for 128 countries, and offers individual country pages with detailed information about a country's current capabilities and its diversification options. The maps and visualizations included in the Atlas can be used to find more viable paths to greater productive knowledge and prosperity.
Data based on qualitative judgments are prevalent in both academic research in marketing and applied marketing research. Reliability measurement of qualitative data is important to determine the stability and quality of the data obtained. The authors assume a decision theoretic loss function, formally model the loss to the researcher of using wrong judgments, and show how this produces a new, proportional reduction in loss (PRL) reliability measure that generalizes many existing quantitative and qualitative measures. Because the PRL measure is often cumbersome to compute directly, they provide reference tables that enable the researcher to apply their approach easily. They then use this new approach to explore several important practical issues in conducting marketing research with qualitative judgments. In particular, they address the issues of (1) how reliable qualitative data should be (extending directly from Nunnally's rule of thumb for Cronbach's alpha in quantitative measurement), (2) how many judges are necessary given a known proportion of agreement between judges, and (3) given a fixed number of judges, what proportion of agreement must be obtained to ensure adequate reliability.
In the last decades, our discipline has made tremendous progress in addressing scientific and managerial marketing problems. However, our knowledge of marketing phenomena derives almost exclusively from research conducted in high income, industrialized countries. We believe it is paramount for the future of marketing science and practice that we conduct more research in so-called emerging markets (EMs). EMs present significant departures from the assumptions of theories developed in the Western world that challenge our conventional wisdom. In this article, we take the view that marketing science is built on the generalizability of our findings across studies, across cultures, across national boundaries. EMs are natural laboratories in which theories and assumptions about their underlying mechanisms can be tested, generalizations derived and boundary conditions identified. We propose a framework delineating four stages through which EM research contributes to the growth of marketing science. The four stages are 1) theory development, 2) acquisition of meaningful data, 3) analysis of the data to test one's theories, and 4) learning. Through the process of deductive logic, general theories are operationalized in specific settings while, through the process of inductive logic, specific findings are used to arrive at more general conclusions. We discuss the unique issues and contributions of EM research for each of the four stages of this framework. Subsequently, we elaborate on the implications of EM research for development and implementation of marketing strategies. Our discussion reveals that some research has started to address these issues, but we have only begun to scratch the surface. In this spirit, we present an agenda for future research in EMs.
International relationships are increasingly critical to business performance. Yet despite a recent surge in international research on relationship marketing (RM), it is unclear whether or how RM should be adapted across cultures. The authors adopt Hofstede's dimensions of culture to conduct a comprehensive, multivariate, metaregression analysis of 47,864 relationships across 170 studies, 36 countries, and six continents. To guide theory, they propose four tenets that parsimoniously capture the essence of culture's effects on RM. Study 1 affirms these tenets and emphasizes the importance of taking a fine-grained perspective to understand the role of culture in RM because of the high degree of heterogeneity across different cultural dimensions and RM linkages. For example, the magnitude of individualism's effect is 71% greater on RM than other cultural dimensions, whereas masculinity has almost no effect; however, accounting only for individualism ignores significant moderating effects of power distance and uncertainty avoidance dimensions. To guide managers, Study 2 adopts a country-level approach and reveals that RM is much more effective outside the United States such that relationships are 55% more effective, on average, for increasing business performance in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
In their effort to differentiate themselves from cost-driven rivals, many industrial companies are beginning to serve their customers through value-based offerings. Such companies often engage actively in collaborative value creation with their customers. To capture a fair share of the value created, they need to adopt a value-based pricing approach. Therefore, value-driven competition necessitates value-based pricing (VBP). The present study explores the barriers to exercising value-based pricing and suggests ways to overcome those obstacles in putting value-based pricing into action in B2B sales. The study is implemented as an exploratory multi-case study applying an abductive research methodology. Our cases show that industrial sellers try to understand and influence their customers' desired value perception, influence customer-perceived value (CPV), and improve their bargaining position as means to overcome these barriers to improved value capture. Hence, our findings deepen the current understanding of value-based pricing in industrial buyer–seller relationships. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on customer value, organizational capabilities, business models, and sales management in previously unexplored areas. Moreover, the study provides guidance to business practitioners willing to develop value-based pricing as part of their business model.
One aspect of globalisation is the convergence of income, media and technology, which in turn is expected to lead to homogeneous consumer behaviour. This convergence thesis is increasingly questioned. With converging national wealth there still is substantial variation of consumer behaviour across nations, which is not disappearing. Variation is found in all aspects of consumer behaviour: in consumption of packaged goods, in usage and ownership of durable goods, and in media behaviour. With disappearing differences of GNP per capita, culture is a powerful explaining variable. This paper provides evidence of divergence of consumer behaviour rather than convergence, it describes the influence of culture, how cultural variables can explain variance of consumption, and presents the consequences for international brand management and for global advertising.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE W ORKING WITH DATA COLLECTED through a team effort or in multiple sites can be both challenging and rewarding. The sheer size and complexity of the data set sometimes makes the analy-sis daunting, cbut a large data set may also yield richer and more useful in-formation. In this chapter, we explore strategies for combining qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques for the analysis of large, qualitative data sets. Large is a relative term, of course, and many of the techniques de-scribed here are applicable to smaller data sets as well. However, the bene-fits of the data reduction techniques we propose increase as the data sets themselves grow in size and complexity. In our selection of techniques, we have taken a broad view of large qualitative data sets, aiming to highlight trends, relationships, or associations for further analysis, without deempha-sizing the importance of the context and richness of the data themselves. This perspective also brings focus to the multiple interpretive lenses that a group of researchers brings to team-based analysis. Throughout the chapter, we use examples from some of our research to illustrate the use of the methods discussed. In doing so, we identify the strengths and weaknesses of each method and suggest ways in which an ap-propriate technique may be chosen for a given research question and its corresponding data set.
OVERVIEW: There is a real shortage of breakthrough initiatives in businesses’ development portfolios. A major challenge in developing these high-risk projects is portfolio management—how executives make R&D investment decisions. Financial approaches, such as net present value and the productivity index, are traditionally recommended to lend rigor to go/kill decisions. An overreliance on financial tools favors incremental projects whose financial forecasts are reliable, however, producing an abundance of small, low-hanging‐fruit projects and a failure to allocate resources to strategic projects. Different toolsets must be used to assess high-risk breakthrough initiatives, including strategic buckets, expected commercial value, and spiral development processes. All of these must be supported by a climate and culture that provide the appetite to take on risky projects.
We analyze convergence across countries over the last half century as a result of globalizing forces. Drawing on theories of modernization, dependency, the world-system, political trade blocs, and the world-society, we consider economic, demographic, knowledge, financial, and political dimensions of convergence. Using a new methodology, we calculate the minimum volume ellipsoid encompassing different groupings of countries, finding that during the 1960–2009 period, countries have not evolved significantly closer or similar to one another, although groups of countries based on their core-periphery status or membership in trade blocs exhibit increasing internal convergence and divergence between one another.
The impact of the marketing function on firm performance has been the focus of much recent research in marketing. Thus, the effect of marketing capability on firm performance, compared with that of other capabilities, such as research and development and operations, is an issue of importance to managers. To examine this issue and generate empirical generalizations, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of the firm capability–performance relationship using a mixed-effects model. The results show that, in general, marketing capability has a stronger impact on firm performance than research-and-development and operations capabilities. The results provide guidelines for managers and generate directions for further research.
Guanxi refers to the durable social connections and networks a firm uses to exchange favors for organizational purposes. This study examines how and when guanxi operates as a governance mechanism that influences firm marketing competence and performance in the transitional economy of China. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors propose an integrative framework that unbundles the benefits and risks of guanxi and delineates the organizational processes to internalize guanxi as a corporate core competence. The authors surveyed senior executives in 282 firms in China's consumer products industries. The findings confirm guanxi's direct effects on market performance and its indirect effects mediated through channel capability and responsive capability. The authors also confirm that technological turbulence and competition intensity can be effective structure-loosening forces, thus reducing the governance effects of guanxi. The findings suggest that firms can improve market access and growth through guanxi networks, but managers need to capitalize on them from the personal to the corporate level. In addition, managers should be aware of guanxi's dark sides, which include reciprocal obligations and collective blindness. This study shows that personal networks are popular universally, but in China, they have unique, distinct ways of operation.
China and India are the fastest-growing major markets in the world and the most popular markets for foreign entrants. However, no study has examined the success or failure of these entries. Using a new definition of success and a uniquely compiled archival database, the authors analyze whether and why firms that entered China and India succeeded or failed. The most important findings are rather counterintuitive: Smaller firms are more successful than larger firms, and firms entering more open emerging markets have less success. Other findings are that success is greater with earlier entry, greater control of entry mode, and shorter cultural and economic distances between the home and the host countries. Importantly, with or without control for these drivers, firms have less success in India than in China. The authors discuss the reasons for and implications of these findings.
This paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and, more generally, the resource‐based view of the firm. We argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development, strategic decision making, and alliancing. They are neither vague nor tautological. Although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence, they have significant commonalities across firms (popularly termed ‘best practice’). This suggests that they are more homogeneous, fungible, equifinal, and substitutable than is usually assumed. In moderately dynamic markets, dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines. They are detailed, analytic, stable processes with predictable outcomes. In contrast, in high‐velocity markets, they are simple, highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes. Finally, well‐known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities. In moderately dynamic markets, the evolutionary emphasis is on variation. In high‐velocity markets, it is on selection. At the level of RBV, we conclude that traditional RBV misidentifies the locus of long‐term competitive advantage in dynamic markets, overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage, and reaches a boundary condition in high‐velocity markets. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The literature reflects remarkably little effort to develop a framework for understanding the implementation of the marketing concept. The authors synthesize extant knowledge on the subject and provide a foundation for future research by clarifying the construct's domain, developing research propositions, and constructing an integrating framework that includes antecedents and consequences of a market orientation. They draw on the occasional writings on the subject over the last 35 years in the marketing literature, work in related disciplines, and 62 field interviews with managers in diverse functions and organizations. Managerial implications of this research are discussed.
Considerable progress has been made in identifying market-driven businesses, understanding what they do, and measuring the bottom-line consequences of their orientation to their markets. The next challenge is to understand how this organizational orientation can be achieved and sustained. The emerging capabilities approach to strategic management, when coupled with total quality management, offers a rich array of ways to design change programs that will enhance a market orientation. The most distinctive features of market-driven organizations are their mastery of the market sensing and customer linking capabilities. A comprehensive change program aimed at enhancing these capabilities includes: (1) the diagnosis of current capabilities, (2) anticipation of future needs for capabilities, (3) bottom-up redesign of underlying processes, (4) top-down direction and commitment, (5) creative use of information technology, and (6) continuous monitoring of progress.
In the “underdeveloped” countries of the world, the more “glamorous” fields such as manufacturing or construction are generally high-lighted while marketing is treated with neglect, if not with contempt. Yet marketing holds a key position in these countries. It is generally the most backward of all areas of economic life.
Marketing is also the most effective engine of economic development, particularly in its ability rapidly to develop entrepreneurs and managers. And it contributes what is the greatest need of an “underdeveloped” country: a systematic discipline in a vital area of economic activity … a discipline which is based on generalized, theoretical concepts and which can, therefore, be both taught and learned.
The second edition of International Business features 10 new in-depth case studies specially created for this edition. For undergraduate students majoring in international business or post-graduate courses in international business
The economic power of B2B transactions hasn't been reflected in the amount of published research in marketing journals, and the relevance for practitioners of the studies issued has been questioned during the last 20. years. How can we bring academicians and practitioners together? After studying the history of B2B marketing, building on configuration theory, and prospecting the future challenges for marketers, the authors argue that the research efforts should be focused on six major areas of inquiry: Innovation, Customer Journey and Relationship Value, Data Analytics, Harnessing Technology, Marketing/Finance Interface and Revenue Growth, and Industry Context or Ecosystem. Specifically, they propose 20 theoretical sub-categories that are compelling for academicians and relevant for B2B marketers. The research conclusions and propositions were established by an expert panel through an exhaustive ranking-type Delphi method and refined using a coding scheme from grounded theory. The authors discuss the implications for theory development and managerial interest.
Research on international entrepreneurship field is still in its infancy, where innovation is particularly emphasized in the pursuit of opportunities. The literature exhibits considerable gaps related to how newly born international firms, known as born globals, can overcome their asset-constrained conditions to enhance performance. In this regard, numerous scholars have proposed controversial arguments, such as that born global should leverage the highest levels of innovation for superior performance. However, innovation is asset-consuming and born global firms are asset-constrained. Drawing from the competitive advantage theory, we develop and test an original framework exploring the role of a balanced innovation approach, the ambidextrous innovation of born global firms. Our study reveals how the moderation effect of ambidextrous innovation could strengthen the link between marketing capabilities and positional advantage. Also, our findings suggest that positional advantage has an important mediating role in the relationship between marketing capabilities and export venture performance. Likewise, positional advantage mediates the relationship between competitive strategy and export venture performance. Additionally, we propose that competitive strategy mediates the relationship between marketing capabilities and positional advantage. This study presents valuable managerial implications to monitor closely ambidextrous innovation as key decision-making input for performance enhancement of born global firms. The empirical context for the study is a sample of high-technology born global firms from Mexico—an important emerging market yet relatively understudied.
This paper advances theory development in international and comparative HRM regarding convergence–divergence trends in HRM systems and practices across nations. Shortcomings in existing theory, such as universal versus contextual paradigms, are identified and critiqued, as are ambiguities in existing definitions and measures of HRM convergence and divergence. The paper then presents new ways of defining and measuring HRM convergence–divergence and a new theory perspective for explaining and predicting these trends. The new theory perspective involves incorporating economic principles of international trade and economic geography to explain the effect of global competition on the cross-national pattern of industry, firm, and production location and consequent patterns in HRM practice. On balance, economic theory predicts globalization likely leads to HRM divergence over time.
What does international competition mean for competitive strategy? While there is an ample literature on the problems of becoming a multinational, the specific strategic needs of established multinationals requires closer examination in light of the increasingly competitive international environment. We need to distinguish between multidomestic industries and global industries. If American firms are to catch up with the Japanese, they must strive to achieve global platforms rather than engage in competition on a country–by–country basis. A global strategy requires that a firm rebalance the configuration and coordination of its activities so that comparative as well as competitive advantage is achieved. The increasing globalization of international competition requires strategic responses that overcome country parochialism. © 1986, The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
This paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and, more generally, the resource-based view of the firm. We argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development, strategic decision making, and alliancing. They are neither vague nor tautological. Although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence, they have significant commonalities across firms (popularly termed 'best practice'). This suggests that they are more homogeneous, fungible, equifinal and substitutable than is usually assumed. In moderately dynamic markets, dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines. They are detailed, analytic stable processes with predictable outcomes. In contrast, in high-velocity markets, they are simple, highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes. Finally, well-known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities. In moderately dynamic markets, the evolutionary emphasis is on variation. In high-velocity markets, it is on selection. At the level of REV, we conclude that traditional REV misidentifies the locus of long-term competitive advantage in dynamic markers, overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage, and reaches a boundary condition in high-velocity markets. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The study examines the mediating role of competitive strategies (cost leadership and differentiation) in the marketing capability-performance relationship using data from 264 micro and small family firms in Ghana. The bootstrap method for exploring mediating relationships was used to examine the hypotheses. The findings indicate that although differentiation influence performance, cost leadership does not influence performance after controlling for firm age and firm size. However, marketing capability significantly influence performance. The findings further revealed that marketing capabilities do not have any indirect relationship on performance through cost leadership. However, the results indicated that marketing capability influenced firm performance through differentiation strategy. The findings indicate the need to implement both competitive strategy and marketing capability to enhance performance of micro and small family businesses.
Understanding sources of sustained competitive advantage has become a major area of research in strategic management. Building on the assumptions that strategic resources are heterogeneously distributed across firms and that these differences are stable over time, this article examines the link between firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Four empirical indicators of the potential of firm resources to generate sustained competitive advantage-value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability are discussed. The model is applied by analyzing the potential of several firm resources for generating sustained competitive advantages. The article concludes by examining implications of this firm resource model of sustained competitive advantage for other business disciplines.
This study investigates the intellectual structure, development, and evolution of business-to business (B2B) branding research by undertaking a bibliometric analysis of scholarly articles on B2B branding over the 43-year period from 1972 to 2015. The analysis covers 169 scholarly articles by 395 authors and 10,270 citations from 33 academic journals in which B2B branding articles appeared. By identifying and evaluating the underlying structure and evolution of scholarly research in B2B branding, this study provides an exhaustive review of this discipline as well as a baseline on which future researchers in the field can build a sound theoretical foundation. The bibliometric analysis results reveal the most cited articles, keywords, authors, institutions, and countries in B2B branding discipline. Further, the study identifies major areas of B2B branding research. The study closes with implications of findings and a report on emerging trends as well as directions for future research.
Although research continues to debate the future of the marketing concept, practitioners have taken the lead, appraising customer experience management (CEM) as one of the most promising marketing approaches in consumer industries. In research, however, the notion of CEM is not well understood, is fragmented across a variety of contexts, and is insufficiently demarcated from other marketing management concepts. By integrating field-based insights of 52 managers engaging in CEM with supplementary literature, this study provides an empirically and theoretically solid conceptualization. Specifically, it introduces CEM as a higher-order resource of cultural mindsets toward customer experiences (CEs), strategic directions for designing CEs, and firm capabilities for continually renewing CEs, with the goals of achieving and sustaining long-term customer loyalty. We disclose a typology of four distinct CEM patterns, with firm size and exchange continuity delineating the pertinent contingency factors of this generalized understanding. Finally, we discuss the findings in relation to recent theoretical research, proposing that CEM can comprehensively systemize and serve the implementation of an evolving marketing concept.
The core idea of this article is that five key characteristics-market heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, chronic shortage of resources, unbranded competition, and inadequate infrastructure-of emerging markets are radically different from the traditional industrialized capitalist society, and they will require us to rethink the core assumptions of marketing, such as market orientation, market segmentation, and differential advantage. To accommodate these characteristics, we must rethink the marketing perspective (e.g., from differential advantage to market aggregation and standardization) and the core guiding strategy concepts (e.g., from market orientation to market development). Similarly, we must rethink issues of public policy (e.g., from compliance and crisis driven to purpose driven) and the marketing practice (e.g., from glocalization to fusion marketing).
Unstable market conditions caused by innovation and increasing intensity and diversity of competition have resulted in organizational capabilities rather than served markets becoming the primary basis upon which firms establish their long-term strategies. If the strategically most important resource of the firm is knowledge, and if knowledge resides in specialized form among individual organizational members, then the essence of organizational capability is the integration of individuals' specialized knowledge. This paper develops a knowledge-based theory of organizational capability, and draws upon research into competitive dynamics, the resource-based view of the firm, organizational capabilities, and organizational learning. Central to the theory is analysis of the mechanisms through which knowledge is integrated within firms in order to create capability. The theory is used to explore firms' potential for establishing competitive advantage in dynamic market settings, including the role of firm networks under conditions of unstable linkages between knowledge inputs and product outputs. The analysis points to the difficulties in creating the "dynamic" and "flexible-response capabilities" which have been deemed critical to success in hypercompetitive markets.
The unification of Europe offers major opportunities for firms providing products and services to the consumer market of nearly 400 million people. To capitalize effectively on these opportunities, firms must comprehend fully the changing macroenvironmental and consumer behavior trends in the European Union (EU). Recent research indicates that, though individual member countries differ substantially, convergence is increasing in the EU market. This observation requires a major revision in the marketing strategies of most firms; Pan-European marketing may be the name of the game for the future. This study empirically investigates changing consumer trends in the EU by comparing diffusion rates for new products introduced during the first and second half of the unification process. Managerial implications are drawn on the basis of the research findings.
This study of the international partner selection of firms from emerging (Mexico, Poland, and Romania) and developed (Canada, France, and the United States) markets supports resource-based and organizational learning explanations of such partner selection, a critical factor for success with international strategic alliances. Emerging market firms emphasized financial assets, technical capabilities, intangible assets, and willingness to share expertise in selection of partners more than developed market firms. In contrast, developed market firms tried to leverage their resources through partner selection. In particular, they emphasized unique competencies and local market knowledge and access in their partner selection more than emerging market firms.
In the "underdeveloped" countries of the world, the more "glamorous" fields such as manufacturing or construction are generally high-lighted while marketing is treated with neglect, if not with contempt. Yet marketing holds a key position in these countries. It is generally the most backward of all areas of economic life. Marketing is also the most effective engine of economic development, particularly in its ability rapidly to develop entrepreneurs and managers. And it contributes what is the greatest need of an "underdeveloped" country: a systematic discipline in a vital area of economic activity... a discipline which is based on generalized, theoretical concepts and which can, therefore, be both taught and learned.
Although research and managerial practice have demonstrated great interest in the role of marketing departments within firms and have raised repeated concerns that their influence is in sharp decline, prior research has not analyzed whether marketing departments are truly losing ground. To do so, we build on the work of Homburg et al. (1999), which assessed the influence of the marketing department two decades ago. Drawing on structurally equivalent data, the results demonstrate that the marketing department has indeed lost significant influence. Additionally, we analyze which department has benefited from this loss of influence. Interestingly, it is the sales department that has gained influence, rather than the finance department, as one might assume. We also study the performance consequences of the intraorganizational distribution of influence among the marketing, sales, R&D, operations, and finance departments. Our results are alarming because an influential marketing department makes the greatest contribution to company performance.
Although changes to the channel system are among a firm's most critical decisions, prior research has neglected to examine the impact of channel expansions on firm value. This article investigates whether a firm's announcement of an increase in distribution intensity or the establishment of a new channel influences firm value. The authors also consider the moderating role of context-specific firm, market, and channel strategy contingencies. They test their hypotheses with an event study of 240 announcements of major channel expansions in the United States, Germany, and China. The results indicate that channel expansions affect firm value (i.e., through abnormal stock returns). However, the two types of channel expansions affect firm value differently. Whereas the establishment of a new channel positively influences firm value, reactions to an increase in distribution intensity are highly contingent. For example, firms operating in exceedingly turbulent or competitive markets experience firm value reductions in response to an increase in distribution intensity. Notably, the same two environmental contingencies enhance firm value when the firm establishes a new channel.
The authors introduce and examine a new marketing concept that a small set of leading firms has begun to adopt: marketing doctrine. Marketing doctrine refers to a firm's unique principles, distilled from its experiences, which provide firm-wide guidance on market-facing choices. As such, marketing doctrine provides a firm-wide common approach to decision making. Importantly, marketing doctrine helps a firm address the classic consistency flexibility conundrum by providing high-level guidance to all decision makers in the firm (thus ensuring consistency) but not specifying execution details (thus allowing for local flexibility). Across three samples, the authors explore the concept using a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach with 35 executives from several industries. This article makes four contributions. First, it offers a parsimonious definition of the marketing doctrine construct and contrasts it with related constructs. Second, it offers insight into how firms can develop marketing doctrine. Third, it develops a conceptual model that identifies the antecedents and consequences of marketing doctrine use. Finally, the authors explore the moderating effects of three unpredictable environments (competitive intensity, market turbulence, and structural flux) on the marketing doctrine use performance relationship.
Suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) markets often approach their customers' customers with marketing activities. However, marketing research lacks an integrative conceptualization of this phenomenon. The authors address this void by conceptualizing a B2B supplier's marketing approaches to indirect customers. Drawing on a literature review and a qualitative empirical study, the authors identify three indirect customer marketing approaches: direct customer downstream support, cooperative indirect customer marketing, and independent indirect customer marketing. They also propose external (value chain-related) and internal (B2B supplier-related) moderators that influence the relationship between a B2B supplier's marketing approaches to indirect customers and its financial performance. The authors argue that although power constellations and product value contribution in the value chain determine the specific indirect customer marketing approach that will lead to financial success, internal professionalization of a B2B supplier's organizational structure and processes further strengthens the positive financial impact of each approach.
The purpose of this article is to extend the existing research on the relationship between eight different types of marketing capability and social enterprise performance. More specifically, we examine third-sector organizations that have transformed their traditional business model to become more business-like social enterprises and how these marketing capabilities influence the success of this transformation in both the UK and Japan. We identify, among other things, that not all marketing capabilities are positively associated with social enterprise performance. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom that market-driven organizations must develop all types of marketing capability. We suggest that social entrepreneurs should develop their marketing capabilities selectively according to their specific performance objectives.