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Building on contingency theory, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which the “4Ps international adaptation strategy” and internationalization intensity shape the servitization–profitability relationship.

The authors use primary (survey) and secondary (archival) data to perform multiple regression analysis.

The results indicate a positive relationship between servitization and profitability, and international intensity strengthens this association. The effects, however, are not consistent across the 4Ps – the price international adaptation strategy strengthens the positive relationship between servitization and profitability, while product and place international adaptation strategies weaken that relationship.

The findings have implications for the role of international intensity and the 4Ps in the marketing servitization context.

The study provides guidance for small firms in realizing higher performance by leveraging the 4Ps in the servitization context. Counter to expectations, placement and product lead to lower performance with increasing servitization, whereas price strengthens this relationship. The study adds to the international industrial management and marketing literature, providing evidence that contingency factors such as international marketing mix adaptation/standardization strategies moderate the servitization–profitability relationship.

Marketing is all about understanding your consumers and giving them what they want. However, this process becomes more complicated in times of economic crisis and national slowdown. Consumers can become scattered and unpredictable in their behaviour, making it hard to understand what they want or need. At times like these, it is more important than ever to rely on qualitative market research to understand the views of consumers and managers. Thus, this study aims to look at the significant consumer challenges that arise during times of crisis and the marketing strategies that managers prefer to counter the crisis.

The data collected for this study involves an extensive literature review followed by personal interviews with industry experts. This study presents two separate models, indicating hierarchical relationships among consumer challenges during crisis and marketing strategies using the total interpretive structural modelling approach. Further MICMAC analysis (popularly known as cross-impact matrix multiplication) was also performed to assess each variable's driving and dependence power.

“Price sensitiveness” and “adaptive buying” result as driving factors with the highest driving and lowest dependence power, which further gives rise to other consumer behaviour challenges. Likewise, the most critical strategies are “information systems” and the formation of “crisis management teams” during a crisis. At the same time, other strategies have resulted as linkage and dependent factors and none as the autonomous factor.

This paper provides a systematic understanding of how a manager can understand the challenges consumers face during a crisis and suggests a powerful summary of strategies companies can implement to sail through a crisis.

The paper aims to explore how market pressures, upper echelons theory and slack resources interact to affect pro-environmental strategies in an emerging market. Specifically, the authors assess external market factors (consumer concerns, regulatory forces and competitors' concerns) in terms of how they are negotiated through internal resources and company capabilities (top management commitment and discretionary slack) to produce or not produce pro-environmental strategies (environmental corporate strategy and environmental marketing strategy).

A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed in the Pakistani manufacturing sector – where energy use and natural resources consumption is intensive. The final 181 useable responses were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling and the PROCESS macro.

The results reveal that regulatory forces and competitors' concerns have both direct and conditional indirect effects on environmental corporate strategy but only conditional indirect effects on environmental marketing strategies through the mediation of top management commitment and at different levels of discretionary slack. However, consumer concerns remain inconsequential antecedents with insignificant direct effects and conditional indirect effects on environmental corporate and marketing strategies through the mediation of top management commitment at different levels of discretionary slack.

The authors propose an integrative model as a functioning mechanism for the environmental strategic decisions of companies in emerging markets. This model relies on both slack resource and upper echelons theories. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the impacts of internal and external determinants and functions on environmental strategies at corporate and functional levels in emerging markets. The various paths to diverse levels of environmental strategy and the insignificant role of consumer concerns suggest a need for further investigation of corporate environmentalism in emerging markets that consider their distinctive legal, societal, market and institutional contexts.

The versatility of customer relationship management (CRM) systems has kept these technologies popular over the years. These solutions have been integrated into organizations of all sizes, from large corporations to small- and medium-sized enterprises. Similarly, CRM systems have also found applications in all types of industries and business sectors. All this has been the driving force behind the proliferation of CRM solutions around the world. In this chapter, the author not only reflects on the impact and democratization of CRM systems on business management and marketing strategies but also explores how these technologies can determine the company's income. In particular, the author presents an experiment that analyzes the extent to which the volume of annual investment in CRM solutions can be used to predict annual net income in a sample of companies. Using time series analysis and applying the autoregressive integrated moving average modeling technique, the researcher examines a sample of 10 companies from different industries, and countries, over a 20-year period. The results show the efficiency of the predictive models developed in nine of the 10 companies analyzed. The findings of this study allow us to conclude that there seems to be an association between the investments made in CRM solutions and the income of the companies that invest in these technologies.

This case study is designed to enable students to formulate the strategic planning process in relation to an organization’s resources; assess the critical tasks required for the company’s business planning for growth and market expansion; and examine the importance of the value delivery process for the company, its customer and its employees. At the end of the case discussion, students will learn how to plan their business in an emerging market by using their existing resources, where the business stands at present and where it may go in the coming future.

The case study discusses how Byju’s, an Indian multinational educational technology company, revolutionized student learning programs through its innovative strategic implementation. It explores the company’s growth and expansion strategy by considering a strength, weakness, opportunity and threats analysis. It elaborates on how Byju’s acquired various companies in India and other countries to become an international technology-based educational brand with 150 million users in 2022. The case study also highlights the marketing and promotional strategy used by the company on online and offline platforms. The case study elaborates on the value delivery process and its importance for customer and employee satisfaction. Despite its success in the Indian market, Byju’s faced tough challenges in the US and European markets, such as lower-than-expected growth rates and lower subscription numbers, even though it followed the same strategy as in the Indian market. The acquisition and celebrity strategy works in emerging economies such as India but not in developed countries. The company’s return on investment was down owing to the high costs it had incurred over the years on market acquisitions and marketing promotions. The growing competition was also expected to bring more challenges for Byju’s. New players such as Tata Studi and YouTube planned to enter the market. Byju Raveendran and his management group had to decide whether to maintain or change the current market offering to reflect market developments to satisfy their customers and employees. They also had to determine whether the main components of the marketing strategy, such as the company’s ongoing value delivery process and ongoing strategy toward the target audience, partners and rivals, are advantageous to the firm or not. The team was in dilemma whether the marketing planning process was going in the right direction and how to make all elements of its businesses more efficient in dealing with the issues. Raveendran kept asking questions about to what extent it is still possible to alter the marketing plan.

The case study is appropriate for discussion in courses such as marketing management, service marketing and strategic marketing management, whether they are part of an undergraduate program (Bachelor of Business Administration [BBA]), a postgraduate program in business management (Master of Business Administration [MBA]) or an executive-level program (executive MBA). The breadth of business topics addressed and the intricacy of the scenario make this case study best suited to be used after the semester as either a culminating project or as a seminar discussion for undergraduates (BBA). The case study can also be discussed in the marketing management course (graduation level) under the marketing and service strategy chapters.

CSS8: Marketing

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

The globalisation of markets, emerging concepts of sustainable development, and circular economy have defined the boundaries within which organisations must compete and address the needs of key stakeholders. As circumstances change, boundaries are often replaced by the relationships between companies and the communities they serve. Consequently, strategy has become a central aspect of sustainable leadership and the foundation for implementing strategic management in a dynamic system of relationships. Every company is born and grows within social and economic ecosystems. Drawing on the metaphor of biology, ecosystems are described as dynamic interconnections among various elements that influence and foster entrepreneurship. Interconnections between players (such as marketplaces, organisations, governments, and universities) create a flow of expertise, abilities, knowledge, experience, and tangible resources. Economic and social ecosystems involve various actors and components that continuously coexist and interact, leading to the creation of numerous mutual relationships. Consequently, it is crucial for managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the internal and external environments. Various decision-making tools and strategies can be used to achieve this goal. These tools were developed to assist managers, researchers, and consultants in making informed decisions under complex scenarios. This chapter presents several decision-making strategies and tools, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, General Electric (GE) matrix, Balanced Scorecard (BSC), PEST, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: Students will be able to comprehend and visualize the initial hiccups and operational hurdles faced by digital start-ups in an emerging market. Students will be able to evaluate the importance of digital marketing for promoting start-ups dealing with sustainable products in the service industry, thereby helping them to develop digital marketing strategies to organically promote a service. Students will be able to perform strategic positioning of a start-up based on perceptual mapping methodology. Students will be able to identify the various aspects for identifying and creating a viable business model. Students will be able to use Osterwalder’s business model canvas for identifying the important operational aspects of the start-up. Students will be able to visualize the entrepreneurial challenges in an emerging market.

This case study highlights the dilemma the protagonist, Prerna Prasad, faced in her travel start-up venture, Ecoplore. Ecoplore is an aggregator platform that onboards only eco-hotels. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, Ecoplore is India’s only platform that promotes and onboards only those hotels made up of mud, wood, bamboo, stone or any local architecture and that maintain at least 30% green space on their premises. Ecoplore has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Program for fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 12 and has also been bestowed with the Gold Award by Indian Responsible Tourism Awards 2019. Prasad had already identified her target market. Prasad took conscious steps towards reaching her target audience, and her first step towards that was designing Ecoplore’s website. Being aware of the importance of content marketing, Ecoplore’s content was curated with fresh and quality write-ups, pictures, blog posts, etc. Ecoplore’s website was also optimized for mobile and desktop versions to deliver a great user experience. Features like easy navigation and the website's speed were also taken care of. Being active on social media platforms, Prasad made sure that the pages of Ecoplore across various social media platforms were well connected with her website. Despite doing so much, it was found that the number of visitors was few after a span of two years. Conversion on the website was low, which ultimately affected the return on investment. Prasad was befuddled as to why the conversions were low despite having a great website that was considered a window to the organization. She faced the challenge of reaching her target audience despite being present online. Upon detailed analysis, Prasad found that Ecoplore was showing up in the search engine research pages (SERP) in only a few keywords, meaning the keyword density was low. Also, the website lacked backlinks, which would eventually help them to rank high on search engine optimization (SEO). This means that Ecoplore will need to revisit its SEO strategy if Prasad wants to promote her organization organically. Now, to increase visibility and ranking on SERP, Prasad had two options before her; first, she could do it organically via SEO or through search engine marketing. She was keen to build the traffic organically, knowing its long-term benefits. As a marketer, what should be Prasad’s strategy? This case study can be used for class discussion purposes for the students pursuing the courses on digital marketing, SEO and digital marketing optimization.

This case study is suitable for students learning the fundamentals of digital marketing (basic and advanced) course, marketing management students and digital marketing workshops. The level of difficulty is medium. The knowledge pre-requirement is marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

In this paper, the authors aim to introduce international dynamic marketing capabilities (IDMCs) theoretically derived from marketing capabilities (MCs), dynamic marketing capabilities (DMCs) and international marketing capabilities (IMCs) and provide a novel conceptualization of the concept by applying a holistic view of the international enterprise.

This is a literature review that maps the current research on MCs, DMCs and IMCs and serves as a basis for the theoretical conceptualization of a novel IDMCs concept as well as for the identification of research gaps and the development of future research directions on this phenomenon.

Existing typologies of MCs, DMCs and IMCs are classified into four categories: strategic, operational, analytical and value creation capabilities. A new typology of IDMCs is proposed, consisting of digital MC and dynamic internationalization capability as strategic capabilities, agile IMC, IM excellence and absorptive capability in IM as operational capabilities, IM resilience capability, IM knowledge management capability, AI-enabled IDMC and Industry 4.0-enabled IDMC as analytical capabilities, and ambidextrous IM innovation capability as value creation capability. Finally, the authors identify research gaps and develop research questions that open future research avenues for the coming years.

This paper offers a novel view of MCs, DMCs and IMCs and argues that, in contrast to the majority of previous research, a comprehensive understanding of these is only possible if all levels are considered simultaneously: the strategic, the operational, the analytical and the value creation level. A new conceptualization and typology of IDMCs follows this logic.

This paper identifies the development of and gaps in knowledge in various management disciplines, including international marketing in relation to political ties in emerging markets, based on a systematic review of the related literature. The paper develops a synthesized integrative framework and provides a research agenda and pathways for future research.

The study adopts the systematic literature review protocol to investigate the ways in which political ties have been examined in the management literature in various disciplines, such as international business, marketing, entrepreneurship, strategy, innovation, and organization. In total, 114 articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2022 were analyzed.

The authors believe that studying the impact of political ties on firm outcomes is timely and important as interest in this area of research is growing rapidly. The review reveals that the diverse conceptual and methodological approaches adopted in different management disciplines have resulted in inconclusive and mixed findings on the relationship between political ties and performance.

This is one of the few systematic literature reviews of political ties and firm performance in emerging markets. The authors clarify some of the ambiguities around the subject and offer a path forward for developing current understanding and insights. The study also highlights the major perspectives in management and clarify the similarities and differences in the conceptualization of political ties. In addition, the authors develop an integrative framework of the political ties–performance link in emerging markets.

A paradigm shift was observed a couple of decades back when the relationship marketing took over the transactional marketing. Concepts such as customer lifetime value came into existence. Customer lifetime value is nothing but the aggregate income which an organisation can expect from a customer as long as the customer remains a client. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) took the centre stage as the organisations are transformed into customer-centric organisations. The implementation of CRM earmarked the collection of customer data that enabled the personalisation of products. Business use cases emerged with differential pricing models and loyalty programs contributing to the profitability of the organisations. The different types of CRM, i.e. Strategic CRM, Operational CRM, Analytical CRM and Collaborative CRM, contributed further to the organisation to generate value for the customers as well as for the organisation. Innovations in the digital technologies supported the business use cases with the help of real-time data. The usage of real-time analytics delivered unmatched customer experience resulting in a higher degree of customer satisfaction and customer retention. Customer retention as we know is directly related to the longevity of an organisation, while customer acquisition is expensive. Researchers in this chapter have attempted to unleash the importance of CRM simultaneously presenting the impact of digital technologies on CRM. Readers could be greatly benefitted from this research as practical use cases are discussed, while academicians can cascade this information further.