Is the International Marketing Channel Strategy Adapted? An Empirical Study

In past decades, standardization versus adaptation has been a focus in global marketing. Standardization is an attempt to offer an essentially uniform marketing mix to all the markets in which firms operate around the world (Cavusgil & Zou, 1994; Dimitrova & Rosenbloom, 2010). Adaptation, on the other hand, involves tailoring marketing strategies to suit business environments, such as social, legal, and economic environments in overseas markets (Dimitrova & Rosenbloom, 2010; O’Donnell & Jeong, 2000; Wong & Merrilees, 2008). Since the publication of Levitt’s (1983) article on the globalization of markets, the issue of standardization versus adaptation in global marketing activities has been intruding into the international marketing literature. He suggested that owing to improved communications, more international travel, and the emergence of demographically similar segments in various countries, there has been an increase in the similarity of markets across the globe. This suggestion is based on a view that the world market consists of a number of uniform markets rather than a large number of different markets. Firms can gain economic benefits by approaching the world market with a standardized large-scale production. Some empirical studies on the Australia context suggest that the standardization of distribution and product strategies has an effect on firm performance (Chung, 2003).