International Marketing in Rapidly Changing Environments: Volume 24

The rising opportunities in emerging countries have attracted numerous multinational corporations to invest in the new regimes. Knowledge management between headquarters and their foreign subsidiaries, thus, becomes particularly crucial in navigating host country environmental uncertainties. Despite its criticality, how foreign subsidiaries can benefit from effectively managing knowledge remains unclear. This study examines the extent to which market and technological turbulences influence two specific knowledge management platforms, knowledge transfer and knowledge codification, and subsequently, market responsiveness of foreign subsidiaries. Results from a survey of 140 foreign subsidiaries in China show that knowledge transfer and knowledge codification serve as two important platforms to mitigate the effects of environmental turbulence on local market responsiveness.

Key account management plays a pivotal role for managers and practitioners in maintaining successful customer–supplier relationships. Yet, little is known conceptually and empirically as to how suppliers can develop international key account management capabilities in international customer–supplier relationships. Drawing from resource-based view and dynamic capability literature, we develop and test a model of the impact of IT capabilities on international key account management capabilities and firm performance. An explorative case study of Taiwanese electronics suppliers reveals that IT capabilities are critical to develop supplier international key account management capabilities. Moreover, IT capabilities can enhance supplier performance through improving international KAM capabilities.

Learning through international strategic alliances is usually influenced by dispersed locations and cultural difference between the countries of the two firms. This research highlights the importance of contextual factors on learning through international strategic alliances. Based on an empirical study of 271 alliances, our findings reveal that successful alliance learning not only depends on the partner’s openness to share knowledge but also relies on the firm’s capacity to identify and absorb such knowledge. Institutional differences between the countries from where partner firms originate are considered to hinder the alliance learning by decreasing the firm’s absorptive capacity and by enhancing knowledge ambiguity. However, our research suggests that frequent direct communication and high levels of mutual trust and reciprocal commitment between partner firms positively moderate the noxious effects of institutional differences on the alliance learning process.

Despite some attempts to integrate the market orientation construct into the international marketing area, most conceptual and empirical studies have been conducted in the context of domestic operations. To address this gap we examine whether competitive intensity moderates the relationships among the components of market orientation and export performance. Data was used from 197 Brazilian export companies. Results suggest that interfunctional coordination enhances customer and competitor orientation. Moreover, customer orientation has no direct effect on export performance, while competitor orientation has a positive effect on firm’s international performance. Findings also indicate that competitive intensity moderates all the relationships tested in the model.

The present chapter demonstrates how the use of neural network software such as CATPACII^TM can aid researchers to map a vast amount of literature in order to identify emerging and established research trends. Furthermore, the use of this methodology allows for the generation of research ideas. This is particularly relevant in view of the substantially increasing number of global scholarly contributions. The utilization of the methodology is exemplified at the intersection of literature bodies in entrepreneurship, information and communication technologies (ICT), and economic development.

In recent years, many firms from developing countries (LDCs) have engaged in foreign direct investment (FDI). Interestingly some of these firms locate their investments in developed countries (DCs) (i.e., upstream FDI), instead of in countries economically similar to or less than their home countries (i.e., downstream FDI). However, only a few researchers have examined the issues related to upstream FDI. Furthermore, when examining FDI, most studies have focused on manufacturing subsidiaries but paid less attention to sales subsidiaries. Due to the differences in nature, management of manufacturing and sales subsidiaries should be different. Using a case study approach and focusing on the behaviors of Taiwanese firms, we address two research questions: (1) what are the channel strategies adopted by the sales subsidiaries of Taiwanese high-tech firms (i.e., multinational corporations (MNCs) from LDCs (LDCMNCs)) in DCs? and (2) how do these subsidiaries manage their channels in DCs? Our findings are: (1) LDCMNCs tend to use multiple sales channels, to work with large national distributors, and to adopt high touch channels to market products in DCs; (2) to reduce channel conflict, less powerful LDCMNCs tend to adopt multiple independent channel system, instead of dual channel system; and (3) due to limited resources, LDCMNCs make more effort on designing channel conflict prevention mechanisms than designing channel conflict resolution mechanisms, emphasize more on building relationships with distributors and tend to use financial incentives/high-power incentives than use other types of incentives to motivate distributors. The findings of this study are helpful for LDC firms to operate their sales subsidiaries more effectively in DCs.

While organization theories acknowledge the influence of specific assets on dependence and increasingly represent the latter as a structure of mutual dependence (dependence of A on B and dependence of B on A), there is, to the best of our knowledge, no empirical test concerning the impact of specific assets on a structure of dependence. Our chapter aims to fill this gap. It is all the more original in that it considers a case study where dependence changes sides according to the characteristics of the transaction. We examine the dependence between Chilean exporters and European importers when trading fresh produce. Such dependence originates with the need for just-in-time coordination and compliance with a compelling demand in a context of high price uncertainty.

Using a unique dataset from international trade in fresh produce between Chile and the rest of the world, we justify the use of a concentration sales ratio as a proxy for dependence and test the influence of a variety of specific assets on the side of dependence by using both categorical and dimensional approaches. Original findings show that certain transaction attributes have a strong influence on the side of dependence. In particular, the higher the frequency and the level of specific assets such as volume, niche varieties, and joint sales with other products, in the transaction, the greater the likelihood of a higher ratio of dependence for the importer rather than the exporter. Conversely, in the event of low levels of specific assets and less frequent operations, dependence tends to be greater on the side of the exporter.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are converging world cultures by creating common consumer lifestyles across countries through standardized products. However, little is known about how consumers’ exposure to foreign cultures affects their purchase experience from the country. This study explores this gap in the literature by investigating how consumers’ exposure to foreign cultural source (e.g., entertainment) shapes their attitude toward its country. This attitude is conceptualized to influence the perceived product quality and corporate ability of the country’s MNCs, which are further hypothesized to influence consumers’ purchase experience with products offered by the MNCs. Furthermore, the impact of product quality and corporate ability on consumer purchase experience is expected to be moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. The study framework is tested in the context of the Korean Wave (or “Hallyu”) using data consisting of 533 Indonesian consumers. The results support most of the study hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

The pervasiveness of the globalization phenomenon has triggered a significant number of studies related to the measurement of globalization and its implications for firms. Interestingly, most of the work is based on objective data, neglecting the importance of subjective and perceptual measures of degree of company globalization (DoCG). This study reviews the preliminary attempts to develop a subjective construct and a perceptual measurement tool for company globalization. Based on the work of Cavusgil, Yeniyurt, and Townsend (2004) a confirmatory factor analysis with partial least squares (PLS) path modeling illustrates relevant factors that capture the degree of globalization from a sample of multinationals. Post-hoc tests for the applicability of the generated framework are conducted to examine the consistency of results from the factor analysis. We also test the relationship between subjective and objective measures of company globalization. Although the small sample size does not allow the generalizability of the findings, this study contributes to the body of research aspiring to clarify the nature of a global company, offers a subjective measure for this phenomenon that can stimulate survey-based research with corporate elites, and thus provides a platform for further research.

International marketing is an important topic in business education. However, the traditional lecture class is viewed as inadequate in delivering the topic because of its passive learning style and lack of realism. In this research we examine the effectiveness of an alternative approach to teaching international marketing that emphasizes experiential learning. The results of an empirical investigation show that experiential learning provides the students with better benefits on acquiring various skills and competences in international marketing. The findings shed light on how to invigorate business education with innovative alternatives.