Advances in Global Marketing

The chapter provides a systematic review of 1722 international marketing articles published in the top six international business journals during the period 1995–2015. The analysis focuses on five major areas: profiles of authors involved in international marketing research; major contributors of international marketing articles based on their productivity and impact; structural characteristics of articles published on international marketing; articles with the greatest impact in the international marketing field; and specific themes of international marketing research covered and their evolution over time. The analysis revealed that the international marketing field has experienced a significant proliferation during the investigation period as demonstrated by its continuous refinement, improved quality, and extensive topical coverage. Fruitful directions for future research on the subject are discussed.

This chapter reports on an investigation into what lies behind a firm’s first export order; a topic having received a good deal of interest in earlier studies. It draws on the lean start-up studies that has been relatively under-utilized in the existing literature and in particular focuses on the extent to which owner/managers employ evolving business models. Data were collected from interviews with key decision-makers in ten newly internationalizing UK start-up firms operating in niche B2B sectors with limited financial resources; that is, in their first year of operation. The findings highlight that varying degrees of lean start-up practices were employed by the owner/managers, with all ten providing some consideration of aspects within their respective business model when commencing an internationalization path. The contribution of the chapter is to offer a lean start-up perspective to help explain considerations that facilitate a firm’s internationalization path together with avenues for future research.

Although internationalization (entry and expansion) has been a predominantly important topic in the literature, there has been little research effort to explain it holistically with firms’ reverse internationalization (RI) behaviors in foreign markets. Despite the progress made to uncover the RI phenomenon, there still exist important issues and nuances within RI where scholarly understanding is scant. The purpose of this chapter is to review the RI phenomenon and encourage scholars and practitioners to examine its role as a topic for scientific inquiry, as well as a tool for managers of international/global organizations. This chapter highlights RI’s distinctiveness, which warrants a separate research stream within or alongside the internationalization process stream and offers suggestions for future developments.

During the last two decades numerous articles in scientific journals have discussed and studied the growing phenomena of International New Ventures and Born Global Firms. While many scholars in this burgeoning field have hitherto studied the foundation of these firm and focused on founder characteristics (such as human capital), mediating factors (such as network connections), and performance outcomes, very few studies have examined how such firms organize their on-going international marketing tasks, for example, how they identify and service customers on foreign markets. The present chapter contributes with knowledge to this gap in the literature. It conceives of marketing tasks in terms of the respective roles of the firm and its existing agents/distributors in identifying Business-to-Business customers on international markets. Prior studies either emphasize a strong role for the agents in initiating and developing customer relations or argue that the role of information and communication technology is replacing the traditional role of agents in this regard. Based on these insights, we propose a 2×2 typology of International New Ventures/Born Globals based on the extent to which they organize these particular marketing tasks in relation to their existing agents. We explore this through the use of a multiple case study of four firms in the fashion apparel design industry. The case data suggest the need for a more nuanced approach to understanding the respective roles than previously suggested.

Home country institutions (HCIs) can play a role in supporting the internationalization efforts of SMEs, although little is known about how such support comes about. Our study addresses this question, specifically with regard to post-entry development of SMEs. We examine the process by which HCIs provide support, notably through the activities of home country institutional agents (HCIAs), drawing on the concepts of boundary-spanning and brokerage to conceptualize this process. Utilizing interview data from New Zealand SMEs internationalizing into India and China, we examine how institutional support is provided by the HCIAs identified and highlight associated outcomes arising for these firms. As a further contribution, we show differences between home country based, and host country based HCIAs in regard to these elements. The study notes a number of research implications relating to SME internationalization and institutional support, as well as insights for policy-makers and SME managers.

Innovation and internationalization are important sources of growth for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). However, as SMEs often experience resource constraints, these companies may face difficulties when seeking to innovate or enter foreign markets. An important question is therefore whether these two activities may positively reinforce each other. We assess the extent to which export activities may improve innovation capabilities, by exploring the role of formal and informal learning activities. The empirical analysis builds on a sample of 380 Norwegian small and medium sized exporting enterprises. Based on structural equation modeling, the results confirm the hypothesis of a positive relationship between informal learning activities and firm innovation performance. Considering export structure, neither export share and psychic distance nor export scope had a direct effect on innovation performance. However, we did find that a high export scope combined with informal learning activities contributed to increased innovation performance. An important implication for managers is that scarce resources for internationalization and innovation might at least to some extent be compensated for by introducing systematic but informal learning activities in the organization. Furthermore, our results suggest that using more formal approaches for learning from export is not a recommendable strategy for SMEs if the goal is to increase innovation performance.

Innovation and exporting together form a strategic path toward growth and competitiveness for developing country (DC) firms. The purpose of this study is to understand ways of strengthening the path of more innovation for greater exporting by examining the roles of DC firm resources and environmental factors in innovation and exporting pursuits. Guided by the Contingency Resource-Based View, we studied these pursuits by Romanian wine companies by conducting interviews with firm managers and industry experts. We determined that innovation-exporting is influenced negatively and positively by five organizational and managerial resources (i.e., international market orientation, production costs, and financial and human resources, passion for excellence, and self-referencing), and six environmental factors at domestic, regional, and global levels (i.e., market development, market integrity, regional funding and regulation, country-of-origin effects, and global competitive intensity). The combination of effects indicates a complex set of dynamics shaping innovation-exporting actions of DC firms. There are several managerial implications of, and future research directions resulting from, our findings.

Innovative imitation orientation, conceptualized as a multidimensional knowledge reconfiguration process composed of learning for adaptation, strategic direction focused on innovative imitation, and transfunctional support mechanism that encourages flexibility in reverse R&D, has received little attention until recently due to exporting firms’ reluctance to admit to this and to discuss it publicly. Our research identifies three organizational-level attitudinal antecedents (export market openness, export competitive aggressiveness, and export market risk avoidance), which affects innovative imitation orientation. Drawing on the resource orchestration perspective, the authors further propose that the four constituent factors of marketing capabilities (communication, distribution, pricing and product management) interact with innovative imitation orientation to enhance export performance.

International marketing decisions are the result of complex trade-offs between global standardization and local adaptation. Similarities are too substantial and differences go too deep to be ignored. This chapter tries to articulate similarities and differences in local consumer experience across multiple contexts. It shows how language can be used as a discovery tool, along with depth interviews and checks of researchers’ interpretations by informants, to generate cognitive maps of consumption and taste experiences. Local words, used as emic signals, are combined into full profiles of the local experiences as narratives linking people to products and taste. Local profiles can then be merged to derive differences dealing with creolization patterns, local consumption experience, local preferences, perceptions and associations as well as commonalities emergent from within the contexts studied. The comparative thick description framework is applied to the beer consumption experience in ten countries (China, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, El Salvador, Mexico) and 9 languages.

Many multinational companies employ a premium price strategy, especially in Asian markets. Literature indicates that this is possibly due to Asian consumers’ higher face concerns (concern for self-image and/or status earned in a social network) than Western consumers. That is, Asian consumers perceive that a high price signals face. This study investigates the impact of product tangibility (watch vs. musical) and social presence (stranger vs. acquaintance vs. close friend) on the relationship between face concerns and purchase intentions for high-priced options. We classify high versus low face concern using nationality (Chinese vs. Dutch) as a proxy as literature suggests. The results show that on average, Chinese consumers are more likely to buy a high-priced product than Dutch consumers, but they do not differ with regard to high (versus low) product tangibility and social presence. The findings of this research are highly relevant for international marketers.

Executives spend considerable time looking for solutions to deal with paradox challenges. However, there is a lack of practical frameworks to deal with their specific needs, namely: How to select the most attractive international market in the presence of so many choices? How to benefit from economies of scale while satisfying local needs? How to explore the true potential of products/services in the target markets? How to explore a company’s growth potential in the presence of limited resources? How to provide international customers the same level of service given to the domestic ones? Over the last two decades, the VCW-Value Creation Wheel helped firms to deal with the paradox of choice and helped executives find solutions for these and many other challenges. This chapter demonstrates how the VCW meta-framework has been successfully implemented by firms to deal with international challenges while incorporating the insights of key decision makers and inputs from key internal and external stakeholders. VCW’s implications for research and practice are discussed.

Although withdrawal from a foreign market is a quite common decision for internationalized firms in the current competitive environment, it is apparent that this phenomenon has received rather scant attention in academic research. This is one of the few studies in the international marketing area establishing a direct link between market withdrawal and performance in foreign markets, as well as exploring the factors that affect this relationship. Therefore, we conducted a three-country study that investigates the effects of market withdrawal, international orientation, and marketing-related resources and capabilities on international performance of internationalized small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The evidence suggests that withdrawal from a market negatively affects international performance, whereas international orientation, and marketing resources and capabilities positively affect international performance. The empirical results further show that in the case of strong presence of international orientation, withdrawal decisions have a positive influence on international performance.

This chapter aims to assess the relationships between standardization of international strategy and performance. Additionally, it aims to study the relationships of four integration modes with international strategies. A sample of Slovene exporters is used. Managers responded to a structured survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied. It was found that integration modes play a role in allowing standardized strategies to be developed and implemented successfully. This study is the first to assess the integration modes → standardization relationships. Its findings are useful to academia and international managers.

Standardization versus adaptation of the marketing mix strategy in foreign markets has been one of the key research areas in international marketing since the late 1960s. Based on the existing studies we have a broad understanding of factors having an effect on standardization and adaptation levels, and the implications of the marketing mix on performance. However, the findings in the field can be partly described as contradictory and fragmented. We suggest that adopting a configurational approach to marketing mix strategies would offer a richer description of the strategic options available. This would mean that the potential different combinations of marketing mix elements are taken into account, increasing the understanding of the holistic treatment of the marketing mix package. Based on a two-country sample of SMEs we identified five distinct patterns of marketing mix strategies, which also had implications for the performance.

Increased global sourcing of manufacturing and service activities from independent suppliers has been a prominent part of the restructuring of firms’ supply chains since the 1980s. Academics and consulting companies have advocated global sourcing as one of the key drivers of superior corporate strategy that has a direct impact on marketing performance, including market share, product quality, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty, among others. In this chapter we first discuss the trend and nature of global sourcing strategy as it has evolved in response to the climate of the time since the 1980s. We then discuss how global sourcing levels must achieve a strategic fit with the environment. Finally, we combine these balance and fit perspectives to suggest how changes in the fit alter the required balance in global sourcing over time. From this synthesis we develop several future research questions related to important conceptual and theoretical perspectives on global sourcing.

In this contribution, we systematically review the academic literature on foreignness in the context of exporter-importer social relationships published between 1997–2016. We consolidate the scholarship, analyze the nature of the phenomenon, its operationalization and measurement, and contribute to the resolution of the problems that affect this field of study. We find that the literature on foreignness in export and import relationships is relatively scarce and dispersed, lacks theoretical guidance and suffers from a low confirmation rate of the hypotheses. We contend that many problems stem from the inadequate conceptualizations of the phenomenon, the rationales underlying operationalization and the measures employed. The later includes various forms of measure objectivization, the managerial relevance of the indicators, the unit of analysis used, and the misspecification of the measurement instruments. We analyze these issues, seek solutions, and we conclude that future efforts will need to address these neglected areas of research as much as offer actionable recommendations for export/import managers.

Franchising is an increasingly popular foreign-market entry and expansion strategy for retailers domiciled in slow-growth Western markets. Within the traditional model of franchising, the role of the franchisee is to implement the franchisor’s brand values and operational standards. Yet, there is reason to expect that the rigid approach to franchisee management, based on a comprehensive franchise agreement document and monitoring routines, is not ideally suited for penetrating culturally distinct markets. Our qualitative study investigates the case of a large U.K. franchisor that has enjoyed considerable success through a marketing strategy of developing and managing international franchising relationships in emerging markets. Specifically, it sustains a set of area development franchising relationships on the basis of open relationships characterized by mutual trust and ongoing communication. Our findings show how the openness and willingness of the franchisor to listen to the franchisee allows the identification and discussion of problems facing the partnership and opportunities for adaptation, growth, and mutual profits.

Intercultural service encounters (ICSEs) involve interactions between customers and employees from diverse cultures and these are growing in importance due to the increase in the number of immigrants, migrant workers, students, tourists and businesspeople traveling to other countries, with the rapid rise in globalization in recent years. Prior research on ICSEs has used diverse theoretical perspectives to study this phenomenon, exploring the effects of perceived cultural distance, interaction comfort, inter-role congruence, service outcomes and roles on customer evaluations such as perceive service quality and customer satisfaction. A few studies also explore the role of consumer ethnocentrism and intercultural competence as moderators. However, due to the nascent nature of this field of research, there are still many unanswered questions and research gaps. This book chapter reviews the extant literature on intercultural service encounters to identify a few important research gaps and proposes many useful directions for future research to address those gaps in a meaningful manner.

Rising fuel prices, concerns over global warming, and increased consumer demands for more ethical business operations have prompted scholars to look into ethics and sustainability issues from a research angle. Thousands of articles have been published on the subject since the 1960s. However, despite the global nature and importance of ethics and sustainability issues, less attention has been paid to such issues within the international business domain. In addition, while a number of reviews were conducted in this area, these are too generic in focus to provide in-depth assessments of particular thematic areas of importance. Our work focuses on a specific international business area, namely the intersection between ethics and sustainability with culture. It identifies, reviews, and synthesizes previously published work in this area. The study uncovers inconsistencies, reveals critical knowledge gaps, and presents fruitful opportunities for researchers investigating the role of culture within the ethics and sustainability domains.