The Earth Is Flat,Almost: Measuring Marketing Standardization and Profit Performance of Japanese and U.S. Firms

ABSTRACT

Globalization has fostered greater interest in all aspects of standardization theory, including the four Ps (product, price, place [distribution], and promotion) of the marketing mix. The study researches the firm's strategy of marketing standardization as it correlates to the firm's profit. Multinational firms from Japan and the United States operating in a global environment were studied in order to correlate marketing standardization to profit performance. The results indicate there is increasing support for a strategy of standardizing marketing mix components and contributing to a firm's profit performance.     

Marketing strategies of ethnic minority businesses in the UK

This paper seeks to evaluate the influence of the entrepreneurs' educational backgrounds, the firm's target market, and the sector of operations on the marketing practices of Turkish ethnic minority businesses. The paper reports and analyses the findings of 227 face-to-face structured interviews with Turkish small business owners. The findings of the study indicate that Turkish ethnic minority businesses operating in different sectors use both transactional and relational approaches to marketing. Their choices of pursuing different marketing strategies are influenced by the entrepreneurs' educational backgrounds, the firm's target market, and the sector of operations.     

Standardization Versus Adaptation in Global Markets: Is Channel Strategy Different?

The argument over standardization versus adaptation of marketing strategy in international markets has raged for several decades. This argument has generally taken place at the aggregate level to include all four strategic areas of the marketing mix (product, price, promotion, and place) taken together. This article disaggregates the standardization-versus-adaptation argument by focusing on just one strategic area of the marketing mix—channel strategy. We argue that three underlying phenomena or forces in global markets (culturally distant distribution behavior, distributive institution rigidity, and international functional fragmentation) inhibit a firm's ability to standardize channel strategy in global markets to a greater degree than is the case for product, price, and promotional strategies.     

A Commentary on “Undergraduate Education: The Implications of Cross-Functional Relationships in Business Marketing–The Skills of High-Performing Managers”

ABSTRACT

This commentary reinforces the importance and need for developing the student's knowledge, abilities, and understanding of what is required to collaborate with the firm's internal and external constituencies, in the context of B2B marketing environment. It is an important goal to be achieved in the B2B marketing course. The new era of business marketing is built around achieving “collaborative advantage” with the new breed of customers who demand relatively more complex product and services arrangements as well as nature of relationships from their vendors. Today's customers also expect intellectual input and consultative selling approaches from group of diverse and independent marketing entities, whom they expect to work together to meet their requirements. The firm's success or failure in the market place may indeed be predicated on their ability to achieve this “collaborative advantage”. The commentary also expands the authors' suggestions in the areas of course pedagogy and design for building the student's know-how and capability for practicing the art-of-collaboration.     

Age,order of entry,strategic orientation,and organizational performance

This paper proposes an empirical test of several hypotheses linking age, order of entry, and strategic orientations to a firm's performance. Three strategies are defined: cost-leadership strategy, innovative differentiation, and marketing differentiation. The aim is to show that the impact on performance of both age and each of the three strategic orientations may differ according to a firm's order of entry into an industry.Following Lieberman and Montgomery's (1998) evaluation of their major contribution on first mover advantage, we emphasize three points. First, we develop and test hypotheses related to early and late followers' strategic orientations, broadening the scope of traditional studies on pioneers. Second, the model combines the dimensions of a firm's age, order of entry, and strategic orientations, as well as industry conditions (stage of the industry, environmental unpredictability, and technology diffusion), to establish a contingent model of performance analysis. Finally, the empirical study deals chiefly with organizational performance and not market share, which is considered a typical advantage accruing to pioneers.In addition, the scope of the study (582 French manufacturing firms) provides the means to fill a void in empirical studies because it is a broad cross-sectional test on non-U.S. data. The firms are mainly private, small to medium-sized, and single or dominant business firms. Therefore, our assumptions must be understood as particularly applicable to this type of firm.The results reveal important lessons for practitioners. First, we did not find a first-mover advantage in terms of organizational performance. In addition, pioneers' organizational performance is enhanced by the cost leader strategy—contrary to our assumption emphasizing innovative differentiation for these firms. Second, early followers' performance benefits from innovative differentiation and marketing differentiation. Finally, late entrants developing a cost leader strategy have a significantly higher performance. All groups considered, late followers are the firms most sensitive to environmental uncertainty and age effects.Our study clarifies the impact of a firm's age and strategic orientations on its performance depending on the firm's order of entry. The implications of these results are particularly relevant for practitioners and entrepreneurs. First, a cost leadership strategy seems to be a guarantee for a pioneer to increase its organizational performance. New ventures should therefore take into consideration the fact that newness and innovative differentiation might not be the best strategic orientations for high performance in the long run. Second, as a second mover, however, developing a superior product and being able to market it efficiently appear to be the enhancing factors of firm performance. Third, for both pioneers and early followers, age does not significantly reduce their performance. However, the longer a firm waits before entering, the greater is the negative effect of age on its performance. This is due to the difficulty of resisting competitive erosion, because pioneers and early followers drive the changes in the industry. The identification of these effects should help managers and stakeholders to make more effective entry decisions to sustain a firm's advantage, leading to better performance and higher probability of survival.     

User engagement for mobile payment service providers – introducing the social media engagement model

Twitter is being used by mobile wallet firms for customer acquisition, relationship management, marketing and promotional purposes. This study examines service advertisement and promotional tweets by mobile wallet firm's on Twitter. For this study, timeline data of top four mobile wallet firms of India, Paytm, MobiKwik, Freecharge and Oxigen Wallet were extracted from their Twitter screen (firm generated tweets). The user generated tweets were also extracted, using the search terms as firm's name. This study proposes a Social Media Engagement model for understanding user dynamics. The study provides three interesting inputs for promotional marketing tweets, firstly, firm should post mix of the tweets with respect to content type (i.e. informational, entertainment, remuneration and social). Secondly, a periodic campaigning is needed by the firms; and lastly, firms should focus on increasing their network size. The implications of these findings can help firm's managers and marketers in planning effective social media marketing campaigns.     

Geographic export diversification: Determinants and their link with export performance

This study examines company‐specific factors that may help explain the choice of an export‐market strategy and explores how the selected export strategy contributes to explaining company's export performance (XP). Concentrating on a specific area within a broad spectrum of export behavior analysis has enabled us to examine these factors in greater depth. The results of our research, which was carried out using a sample comprising Spanish exporting companies, show a firm's size, a firm's age, and a firm's greater foreign ownership in its share capital are all determining factors for adopting a strategy geared to export‐market diversification. A greater level of investment in R&D and greater international commitment are also important in this regard. We suggest reinforcing these two factors because there is evidence of a better XP among firms that have a wider range of foreign markets.     

Entrepreneurial proclivity: its environmental conditions and growth consequences

To contribute to the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) literature, this study investigates how business unit growth relates to environmental risks and rewards (i.e., environmental dynamism and market growth rate) and three facets of entrepreneurial proclivity (i.e., innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness). The authors find that perceived environmental dynamism has a direct and positive influence on strategic business units' innovativeness and proactiveness. Moreover, this study explores the interplay between the risk and reward facets of the market environment and reveals that firms are most likely to adopt EM strategies in a high-growth, highly dynamic business environment. The results also show that whereas the industry growth rate promotes a firm's market expansion, but not market sustention, the firm's innovativeness and proactiveness positively influence both market expansion and sustention.     

International Catalog Mix Adaptation

Abstract

Striking the right balance of adaptation of the international catalog mix may be the key to profitability. U.S. catalog firms, new to international markets, have less experience in adapting than firms in more globalized industries. The literature on international marketing strategy adaptation reveals that this decision depends on the environment, industry, market, product, and characteristics of the firm. This paper examines the influence of market similarity, type of business and the firm's international experience on international catalog adaptation, and explores the effects of catalog adaptation on a firm's performance. We hypothesize that the greater the market similarity, the less likely it is that firms will adjust their catalog. We also argue than adaptation is greater for consumer catalogs than for business-to-business catalogs. A third hypothesis is that more internationally experienced firms will adapt more and a final hypothesis is that a greater degree of adaptation will increase the international catalog performance. The results did not support the association of international catalog adjustment and market similarity, experience, and type of catalog. Findings are mixed both on catalog adaptations and firm performance. We found that some but not all adaptations in the catalog lead to improved performance. We speculate that U.S. catalog firms are making adaptations to reduce the costs of international marketing operations. This cost reduction strategy may not necessarily lead to profitability, thereby discouraging other firms from entering international markets.     

An Exploration of Factors Influencing Inward Technology Licensing Performance

This article describes an exploratory study of firms' performance in the use of technology licensed from foreign non-affiliate companies. It focuses on identifying the factors that distinguish between licensee firms with high and low performance. The results suggest that a firm's internal distictive competencies in manufacturing and marketing; and mangers' perceived costs and bengits of inward licensing significantly explain the firm's performance in the use of licensed technology.     

Effective Nonverbal Communication Techniques

Developing effective marketing strategies for profes- sional service firms presents many unique challen es and is an im- portant area of practice development that many &ns often wer- look. Professional service firms ossess very distinctive P characteristics which differentiate them rom other service firms and require specialized marketing strategies. The purpose of this article is to assist practitioners in their efforts to develop promotional strat- egies which will enhance their firm's professional image and in- crease the firm's ability to engage new clients. These strategies arc aimed specifically at certified public accountants, lawyers, archi- tects, and other professionals.     

Beyond the Return on Advertising: Elasticity of the Return on Advertising as a Diagnostic Metric to Maximize Profit

With increased marketing expenditures, managers need to be equipped with valid and reliable measures capable of showing links between marketing investments and a firm's profitable performance. In this paper we demonstrate that traditional return on advertising (ROA) can be a misleading metric if a firm's goal is profit maximization. Then, we introduce a new diagnostic tool: the elasticity of ROA and show how this metric can help marketing managers to choose more profitable levels of advertising. This new measure has the same virtues as other traditional measures of elasticity and provides real advantages over the conventional metrics.     

沃尔玛、家乐福在华市场营销组合比较研究

在综述营销组合及零售营销组合理论的基础上,构建了其分析维度,进而从产品、服务、价格、地点、店面设计、促销、人员、物流配送等方面对沃尔玛和家乐福在华市场的营销组合进行比较研究,同时也对国内零售企业给出相应的几点启示。     

Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth

The Internet has been shown to facilitate elements of internationalisation such as information accumulation and network opportunities. However, there is limited understanding of how the Internet combined with marketing capabilities drives international market growth. This study, based on a sample of 224 Australian firms, develops and tests, using structural equation modelling (SEM), a conceptual model of Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth. Results indicate that firms deploying Internet marketing capabilities will benefit due to the reduction of information uncertainty and increased capacity to develop international network capabilities. Moreover, Internet marketing capabilities indirectly lead to international market growth when the firm has a high level of international strategic orientation and international network capabilities. Overall, Internet marketing capabilities enhance the firm's ability to generate other internal capabilities within the firm, which in turn have a positive impact on the international market growth of the firm.     

Marketing management and marketing research

Abstract

A sample of marketing graduates was surveyed to identify the factors that caused some of them to feel that they had become ‘professional marketers’ consequent to their early experiences of work in graduate marketing positions. A model of the possible determinants of the form of ‘workplace identity’ that a marketing graduate would assume was developed and tested. The model hypothesised that: (i) a firm's approaches to training and management development, mentoring, appraisal and reward; (ii) the natures of the tasks allocated to graduate marketing recruits and the task culture prevailing within an enterprise; and (iii) specific characteristics of the individual employee affected the emergence of particular types of workplace identity. Levels of each category of professional identity observed among the sample members were then correlated with job and organisational satisfaction and commitment, self-assessed operational performance, and intention to remain with an enterprise.     

基于现代信息技术的营销组合决策研究

本文以现代信息技术为主要手段,以营销组合模型的构建和应用为研究对象,通过在非价格营销因素的市场反应模型的基础上引入非价格因素的递延效应,对价格与非价格营销因素组合原理和方法进行研究;通过论述价格与非价格营销因素之间的相互影响及其组合效应,构建了价格与非价格营销因素的组合决策模型;基于已构建的市场反应模型和营销组合模型,研发了具有高度人机交互性和可操作性的营销决策支持系统,并以模拟数据验证了模型的有效性。     

Adaptation of Marketing Mix Elements in International Markets

ABSTRACT

This research identifies the extent to which individual marketing mix elements are adapted for international markets and how company, industry, and market factors influence the level of adaptation. The study is based on a survey of executive-level managers in U.S.-based companies that market products internationally. The survey obtained information on the extent of adaptation across the marketing mix elements and on company, industry, and market factors that influence this process. The results indicate that adaptation is greatest for distribution, followed by price, promotion, and product. Product adaptation is influenced by market factors, price adaptation is influenced by market and industry factors, promotion adaptation is influenced by market factors, and distribution adaptation is influenced by company factors. The results of the research can be used to both understand and manage the extent of adaptation necessary for products in international markets.     

It pays to pay attention: How firm's and competitor's marketing levers affect investor attention and firm value

Investors' attention to a firm's stock has been demonstrated to influence stock returns (Da et al., 2011). But does a firm's marketing information draw attention to a firm's stock? Research in finance, accounting, and marketing has investigated advertising as one potential driver of investors' attention to a firm's stock. How about other potential marketing drivers? The authors develop hypotheses related to the impact of the changes in four marketing levers: advertising, product development announcements, WOM, and customer satisfaction on the change in investor attention to a firm's stock. Furthermore, they investigate the moderating role of competitors' marketing levers in these relationships.To test the hypotheses, they compile a panel dataset with 349 firms covering the 2007–2017 period. The results suggest that the changes in the focal firm's advertising and WOM have a positive and significant impact on the changes in investor attention to the focal firm’s stock. Furthermore, these effects are amplified when there is an increase in competitors' advertising spending and WOM, respectively. For the customer satisfaction lever, the results suggest that the change in competitors' customer satisfaction enhances the impact of the change in focal firm's customer satisfaction on investor attention. Collectively, the results suggest that investors attend to the firm's and its competitors' marketing information in a much more nuanced manner than previously thought.     

Internationalization's effect on marketing learning: A study of Syrian firms

The aim of the present study is to understand the effects of international expansion on firms' acquisition of marketing learning. This study's focus on marketing learning complements previous research on the impact of internationalization on the development of foreign-market and technological knowledge. The research finds that the scope of a firm's international activities, perception of gaps in marketing knowledge, and external social capital positively influence firms' acquisition of marketing learning. However, firm's age at initial international market entry appears not to be a significant factor. The study adds to the very limited body of research on the marketing learning outcomes of international expansion, while also offering rare empirical insights from the Middle East on this important subject matter. The paper discusses implications for international managers, policy makers, and future researchers.     

The impact of internal,external, and competitor factors on marketing strategy performance

ABSTRACT

Strategy formulation is commonly understood as the match between a firm’s internal resources and skills and its external environment. Marketing strategy performance is the function of a dynamic, interactive process incorporating internal firm resources, external environmental factors, and competitive actions. The study aims to assess the impact of competitor actions on marketing strategy performance. We develop a model that accommodates the effects of 29 variables (comprising internal marketing strategy variables, external environmental factors and competitors’ marketing mix variables) on business performance. We empirically test the model using simultaneous equation modelling of time-series data on UK car manufacturers collected from publically available resources and annual reports. The results show that external factors, in particular competitors’ marketing mix elements, have a greater influence on a company’s business performance than internal (marketing and non-marketing) strategy variables. Implications for marketing theory and management are discussed.