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The purpose of this paper is to identify facts of effective positioning mechanism for Indian market and develop a model that integrates three essential aspects of international trade, which have not been addressed combined yet.

The article develops the information framework for Indian market positioning. The information mentioned in the framework is validated using statistical tools with R Software and refined using Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis. The outcome of analysis develops the model for effective positioning mechanism for Indian market.

The study explores three statistically significant steps for effective Indian market positioning, which are finally summarized into 18 influencing variables in contrast to 91 variables available in literature.

The 18 variables explored in this study should be considered as initial set of information, only for Indian market positioning. It should not be taken as standard paradigm to be followed in all cases. Research needs to be made to valuate such implications.

The model developed in this paper will be useful to both mature and ambitious international executives, in identifying the variables that can be considered for strategy formulation at different stages of Indian market positioning process.

This article offers a model that addresses research on Indian market positioning. It attempts to establish a relationship among the three components of international business, which can bring potential benefits to the foreign players.

This paper aims to explore different strategic avenues in international markets. In particular, the authors investigate the role of four marketing tactics – marketing network, domestic network, standardization/adaptation and positioning. The authors aim at identifying optimal use of these strategic vehicles to achieve firm performance.

The authors construct a database of 132 Norwegian exporters and identify, through cluster analysis, three different categories of firms. They use multi-group analysis to explore strategy–performance pattern in each group.

All four strategic levers impact positively on the performance, but only two of them (marketing networks and positioning) with major impact. Standardization and domestic networks play a minor role. Based on these strategic levers, the authors identify three strategic groups (opportunists, networks seekers and global marketers) with different optimal export strategy patterns. The authors argue that these groups represent firms in different stages, epitomizing a learning process in three stages.

A broader perspective of strategy variables should be included to get a more complete picture of the “optimal” model for different groups of exporters. Other marketing mix factors and the firm’s stance toward governance in international markets (operation modes) should therefore be included in the repertoire of strategy drivers determining group membership and to analyse their pattern.

Opportunists are advised to focus on positioning through domestic network relations; network seekers should concentrate on building marketing networks. Global marketers may carry out standardization strategies – preferably in collaboration with their marketing partners in export markets. For the two other groups, there is no evidence that speak in favour of such approach, nor for its counterpart, adaptation. For export promotion agencies, the authors suggest enhanced support to establish network partners.

The authors introduce strategic levers not yet explored in the export literature. Furthermore, they use a contingency causal approach to explain differences in strategy development (in international markets) and the link with performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate employment of positioning strategies in the retail bank sector of Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically using Ghana as the study context. In addition, it explores the applicability of western-based typology of positioning strategies in the Sub-Saharan African environment.

Six retail banks – three national and three foreign – are studied, each through an in-depth case study method: covert and participant observation techniques; and face-to-face interviews of chief executive officers, marketing managers, and bank branch managers provided data for the study.

The results show that the “service” positioning strategy is the most popular strategy employed by retail banks. “Value for money,” “attractiveness,” “brand name,” and “country of origin” positioning strategies are also dominant. “Top of the range” and “selectivity” strategies are minimally pursued by the sample of banks studied. The results reveal that both foreign and national retail banks employ multiple positioning strategies in the face of competition. However, foreign retail banks consistently employ a; large number of strategies relative to national retail banks. This paper supports the applicability of a western-derived set of positioning strategies in the Sub-Saharan African marketplace.

This study closes a gap in the understanding of positioning, as well as filling the empirical gap in the application of positioning. In addition, it helps resolve a contextual gap of knowledge in Sub-Saharan Africa’s retail banking sector.

This study responds to Porter (1996), Clancy and Trout (2002), and Knox (2004) for continued empirical research in positioning in service industries and specifically in Sub-Saharan African economies (Coffie, 2014, 2016; Coffie and Owusu-Frimpong, 2014). Moreover, this research adds value to the banking and marketing literatures through a qualitative case study method, which is an important yet overlooked research method (Yin, 2009).

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on positioning strategies, categorise them as typologies and taxonomies and propose generic positioning strategies for organisations from a theoretical viewpoint.

Typologies and taxonomies are defined and characterised, and then all product or brand positioning strategies are examined. Articles published in reputable marketing and strategic marketing journals from 1969 to 2022 are analysed for this purpose. The analysis was done using qualitative text mining: classification, coding and text analysis.

The review enables the identification of three generic positioning strategies widely accepted in the literature, as well as the distinction between conceptually derived positioning strategies (typology) and empirically derived positioning strategies( taxonomy).

This study provides a comprehensive overview for researchers who wish to get broad-picture research on generic classifications in positioning strategy. Moreover, most notably for academics, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to classify positioning strategies into typologies and taxonomies based on their evolution.

Knowledge of positioning typologies and taxonomies can assist managers in developing and implementing a strategy that allows their company to maximise the potential of its product/brand and achieve better results. The literature review contributes to theory development and helps companies understand their positioning strategies.

Despite considerable interest in positioning research, little effort has been made to examine positioning strategies’ current or future development. Some authors use the term taxonomy to describe their conceptually derived classification of positioning strategies, and it was discovered that authors frequently interchangeably use the terms typologies or taxonomies. When attempting to understand and compare the various classifications, this liberal use of the term’s typology and taxonomy creates misunderstanding and confusion. This paper fills that void.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the important but neglected role of retail formats in the transfer and positioning decisions of international retailers. The paper examines the role of core and country-specific attributes of particular formats in determining retailers’ local positioning in inter-format competition.

Focussing on three distinguished grocery formats (i.e. discounters, supermarkets, and hypermarkets) and using multiple-group structural equation models, the authors conducted consumer surveys in Germany and Romania to evaluate consumer perceptions of the core attributes of those formats and their influence on retail brand equity and consumer loyalty.

Although consumer perceptions of core attributes differ between formats in Germany and Romania, most of the core attributes of the formats affect retail brands with equal strength in both markets. Retail brand equity determines loyalty to all formats in both countries.

Retailers transferring their formats to foreign countries should place particular emphasis on managing the core attributes of a specific format, as these attributes are of paramount importance in establishing a strong brand. Additional country-specific attributes are also relevant to varying extents, depending on the particular format that is used. Assessing causal relationships extends retailer knowledge of the role of format attributes.

This study proposes a format-specific approach that is novel to international retailing research. The country comparison strengthens the study's implications, considers both a developed and an emerging economy, and accounts for the preference of Western European retailers to expand into Eastern European countries. The paper concludes that format transfer and positioning decisions occur within the boundaries of core format attributes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the internationalization characteristics of companies from an emerging market (internationalized company stage and presence of a sales subsidiary abroad) moderate the influence of country of brand origin positioning over the companies' financial performance.

The authors performed an ex-post-facto study of internationalized companies from Brazil spanning 16 years. Generalized estimating equations in panel data revealed the results with market share, return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q as dependent variables.

The result revealed that country of brand origin positioning is worth doing for internationalized companies from an emerging market, especially for multinationals with sales activity in the destination country. It positively affects all three financial metrics. For exporters, it is effective in increasing market share and returns on assets.

The research demonstrates the effectiveness of the image positioning of exporting and multinational companies that have internationalization initiatives and allocation of external sales activities.

In emerging markets, country of brand origin positioning is a branding strategy used by companies seeking to internationalize. This research shows that the contexts of the characteristics of internationalization strategies change the results, and therefore the need to be considered for testing the effectiveness of country-of-brand-origin positioning.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

In international marketing research, the researchers are often required to prespecify the salient attributes of a product or service. However, research that prespecifies attributes imposes cultural bias on the results, whereas research that does not specify attributes is open to culturally biased interpretations. The purpose is to present a way of minimizing this bias by using correspondence analysis in a new way that minimizes this source of cultural bias. This is done by using a non‐attribute‐based approach to correspondence analysis. The approach is applied in a real‐life setting to analyze data obtained from a foreign country. Evidence on the validity of the approach is presented and compared with traditional multidimensional scaling. Several applications of this approach in minimizing the attribute prespecification bias in international marketing management are discussed, including image tracking and positioning.

The purpose of this paper is to review state-of-the-art literature on product/brand positioning to re-examine the positioning concept and developing a more comprehensive definition from a theoretical viewpoint.

A systematic review of positioning was conducted. The review conformed to a rigorous set of core principles: it was systematic (organized according to a method designed to address the review questions), transparent (explicitly stated), reproducible and updatable and synthesized (summarized the evidence relating to the review question).

The literature review reveals that there is lack of coherent definition for positioning, and there is no mutual agreement among marketing scholars and practitioners about the exact meaning of the concept. Therefore, comprehensive definition of positioning encompassing the five underlying positioning perspectives (competition; empty slot/mind; consumers’ perception, differentiation and competitive advantage) is suggested.

This paper will be useful for academicians to analyze the current nature of academic research in this area and will provide an added advantage to managers to design and implement positioning strategies for their product/brands that will allow their organizations to gain competitive advantage. This study acknowledges limitations with respect to its exclusive search criteria, which might affect its generalizability.

Position and positioning is of relevance in society in broad terms, e.g. in sports, politics and culture. Positioning strategy is discussed and implemented in different industries (business-to-business and consumer), for all kinds of brands (including, for instance, corporate brands) and for “brands” in the very widest sense (such as places or people).

This is the first systematic review of positioning that provides a detailed understanding of the current state of positioning research on a single platform and also draws a comprehensive positioning conceptualization.

Integrating network attributes from studies of social networks, business relationships and small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization, this study adopts a perceptual view of a firm’s focal “net” of relationships to examine foreign market entry mode choice. This study aims to examine how the interaction between knowledge-intensive service (KIS) firm’s network ties, embeddedness and position is related to choice of mode and subsequently the firm’s perceived insidership status within its focal net.

This research is based on qualitative interviews with 25 small- to medium-sized KIS firms engaged in direct exporting or foreign direct investment (FDI). This study derives an empirically grounded framework of four distinct network patterns of these KIS firms through an iterative process of triangulation between cases and theory.

The four network patterns illustrate the complex interaction between network attributes and entry mode choice by KIS firms. The findings suggest formal ties and centrality in closed network relationships provide the “central controller” firm discretion over their entry mode choice. Resource-intensive FDI by “opportunistic investors” proved essential to securing centrality through formal, institutional ties. Less optimal patterns lacking institutional ties and centrality, however, precluded choice of FDI by “specialized exporters” and “client followers.” The study finds that entry modes are less likely to be influenced by the firm’s embeddedness in open or closed network relationships, but rather by the desire to achieve a more central network position and legitimacy through more formal, less imitable ties.

The findings demonstrate the importance of network structure, a position of centrality, and strength of professional and institutional ties to small KIS firm internationalization. By adopting a more finely grained examination of the interaction between key attributes of the firm’s focal net, this study provides a valuable first step in conceptualizing the complexities associated with networking and adoption of export/investment internationalization modes.

There are a number of implications for the strategic and operational facets of smaller KIS firm internationalization. To avoid excessive network liability for resource-deficient SMEs, practitioners should consider network positioning as a strategic activity, with the costs associated with building and maintaining networks offset against economic- and resource-related returns.

The authors contribute to a better understanding of entry mode choices of KIS by taking a network perspective that accounts for the combined effects of different network attributes. The four network patterns identified extend current theoretical knowledge on the role of networks for entry mode choices of small KIS by highlighting that entry mode choices reflect the particular firm’s focal net and its attempt to achieve insidership status through high centrality and formal ties.