Monika Alimienė’s scientific contributions

With the growth of international business integration and globalisation, internationalisation of company activities has become a necessity seeking to survive and develop own business regardless of company size, managed resources, and nature of activities. And although many companies still internationalise their activities slowly following the evolutionary trajectory of activity internationalisation, there are more and more dynamic companies that start their activities in foreign markets very quickly after their establishment. These new international companies, also called born global firms, are defined as small, technologically-oriented, entrepreneurial business organisations that seek to acquire a competitive advantage starting from their establishment acting in an international market, applying innovative business strategies, and thus acquiring the necessary resources for activities and selling their products in many countries. Up till now formation of marketing decisions in international markets has been assessed as a consistent evolutionary process when companies change marketing decisions depending on the stage of involvement in activities in foreign markets and set goals of activities in international markets. But evolving marketing decisions cannot be applied to all companies that are active in foreign markets, or they should be used with exceptions with regard to the particularity of the internationalisation process of these companies. Analysis of theoretical and empirical studies allows to state that companies that are involved in activities in international markets more actively apply adaptation of marketing decisions more often than their standardization. Standardization of marketing decisions for companies that get involved in activities in international markets quite slowly is one of the essential factors of their successful international activity. The research objective of this article is to assess differences of marketing decisions of traditional exporters and born global firms. Methods for the research – analysis and generalization of systematic academic literature and an empirical research (questionnaire survey) of marketing decisions of Lithuanian traditional exporters and born global firms Lithuanian exporting firms. Empirical research has revealed that the analysed Lithuanian born global firms, when compared with traditional exporters, adapt their marketing decision more often than they standardize them; born global firms seek for immediate communication with consumers in international markets more often, born global firms create new products or services for certain international markets more often than traditional exporters do, and they adapt price and promotion actions for international markets also more often than traditional exporters. Summarizing the results of the performed research of standardization/adaptation of marketing decisions of Lithuanian traditional exporters and born global firms it is possible to state that Lithuanian born global firms, when compared with traditional exporters, are more inclined to a more often adaptation of marketing decisions, which is determined by characteristics of born global firms and the process of involvement in activities in international markets.

Analysis of the change of marketing solutions in the process of internationalisation of a company reveals that the formation of marketing strategy in international markets is an evolutionary process and decisions made during that process differ based on the stage of international development of the company. As activities evolve, companies encounter a critical choice: to standardize or to adapt strategic marketing solutions. The use of competitive advantages acquired during unique multinational operations is the main success factor when forming a marketing strategy in the global market. Until now most research claimed that in order for a company to be successful in foreign markets, it should evaluate its marketing solutions and experience and to choose one strategy - standardization or adaptation - when pursuing its aims. But researchers still do not agree on the definitions of standardization/adaptation and analyse these strategies from different aspects of these strategies. Research shows, that standardization of marketing solutions determines the use of the same marketing mix in the whole global market, but standardization is often of no use to companies because of differences of language, culture, consumer preferences, laws and rules, marketing infrastructure and competition structure in different countries. Complete adaptation of marketing solutions is also not useful because in such case companies cannot use advantages provided by scale economy, marketing knowledge and information acquired in other markets. But adaptation helps companies to evaluate and effectively use cultural differences of foreign markets as well as separate products, their properties and possibilities of usage. The newest research shows that changes of the global market influenced by globalization changed also the solutions of international marketing: seeking for successful international performance companies do not have to choose one extremity, and companies that can combine several alternatives may satisfy needs of consumers of the global market and pursue their aims more effectively. The objective of the global marketing strategy is to find an optimal combination of integration and rationalisation of operations and solution systems in a global market. Therefore this work tackles the polemic of standardization/adaptation of marketing solutions in the internationalization process of firms' activities, analyses research on standardization and adaptation of marketing solutions/evaluates perspectives of integration of these strategies.