Marketing Intelligence and Planning

(Volume 18, Issue 5, 2000)

Strategic Marketing in Emerging Markets

Table of Contents and Abstracts

Editorial: The laws of the jungles, pp. 225-226

Toward a framework for entering China’s pharmaceutical market, pp. 227-235
Sandra S. Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong and Michael Cheng, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

The pharmaceutical industry in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been highly regulated, particularly ethical products. Promulgation of the socialist market economy and the recent reforms in national healthcare industry have compelled impetuses for change in the distribution systems, forms of investment of multinational pharmaceutical companies, and product/market strategies. The conventional wisdom on pioneer marketing may be challenged by these situations in the PRC. This study examines four markets that encompasses both specialty and general pharmaceuticals so as to explore whether there is a product category effect on the entry strategies. The findings indicate a possible synergistic effect of product category and order of entry. In addition, product life cycle has a direct impact on order of entry and brand position has an impact on product category. Both government policies and corporate strategies have implications on product categories and order of entry. The recent reforms in China have helped to build a foundation for pharmaceutical companies to conduct business in a manner that is similar to that of the developed countries. The entry strategies for pharmaceuticals may therefore involve more complicated considerations in accordance with these new arrangements in the legal and regulatory environments. Further research into relationships among these variables and the mediation effect is therefore needed.

The hair of the dog that bit you: Successful market strategies in post-crisis South-East Asia, pp. 236-246
Usha C. V. Haley, University of Tennessee - Knoxville, USA

In the wake of post-crisis South-East Asia's declining growth and declining per capita income, local companies are restructuring their operations and re-evaluating their strategies along with multinational companies (MNCs). This article explores the winning market-expansion strategies of two companies in South-East Asia’s changed business environments – the MNC, Unilever, in Indonesia; and the local Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) in Vietnam. The first section identifies how Asian post-crisis business environments have changed. The nest section explores the back-to-basics market strategy followed by the foreign MNC, Unilever. The ensuing section sketches the deliberate strategy of normal operations and transparency followed by the local ACB in Vietnam. Based on these case studies, the final section makes some recommendations for MNCs and local companies considering market-expansion in post-crisis Asia.

Strategic marketing by change agents in Poland: The case of domestic marketing consulting firms, pp. 247-255
Bill Merrilees, University of Newcastle, Australia and Marek Seretny, Warsaw, Poland

This paper has identified three clusters of marketing strategies used by a sample of 93 Polish marketing consulting firms. These clusters provide a more holistic way of studying the marketing strategies used. The three clusters were named: Service Driven, Promotion & Distribution Driven and Price Discounters. The nature of these clusters indicates three quite different ways of conducting marketing strategies. Different capabilities are required for each cluster, which is broadly supported by the data. We find that the clusters have different foci, but within each cluster the various components of the marketing strategy seem to be fairly well coordinated and integrated. The top three sources of competitive advantage were a base of satisfied customers, strong customer service and high service quality. The main deficiency in this list was the human resource factor, which had been identified as a critical success factor, but was not a major source of competitive advantage. Five of the six top capabilities are in the marketing domain that points to a very strong marketing culture. The main exceptions were market research skills and niche-marketing skills, with a low capability reported on these aspects. The admission by our sample of Polish firms that their market research skills are inadequate is a real concern because good market research should be underpinning their advice to their clients. Our overall findings are consistent with the thesis that the marketing consulting firms have played a pivotal role in the transformation of the Polish economy.

Marketing as a form of adaptation: Empirical evidence from a developing economy, pp. 256-272
Felix T. Mavondo, Monash University, Australia

The paper reports an investigation into the marketing and performance consequences of organisations operating in regulated, deregulated and open market environments in Zimbabwe's developing economy. The findings suggest that organisations do not respond to environmental changes by adapting their marketing effort, hence the environment is a poor predictor of marketing effort. Organisational strategy has a far greater impact on marketing effort than the environment. However, the environment is an important predictor of organisational performance and has significant interaction with business strategy in influencing organisational performance hence it is a quasi-moderator. Our result suggests that in regulated environments there may be ideal-type strategies for effectiveness and across all environments the concept of equifinality is not supported. There is evidence to suggest that more adaptable strategy types outperform their less adaptive competitors. These results extend a popular typology to developing economies and allows some findings to be generalisable across countries at different stages of economic development.

Intellectual property rights and foreign direct investment in emerging markets, pp. 273-280
George T. Haley, University of New Haven, USA
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With the continued progression towards a more globalized economy, multinational businesses are having increased difficulty in protecting their intellectual properties from theft or infringement. This is most especially true when they have employed their intellectual property in foreign direct investments (FDI) in emerging markets. This paper details many important considerations regarding the security of intellectual properties which have been largely ignored by management in its environmental scanning and decision-making prior to undertaking FDI. The author proposes an auditing procedure, the Cross-Environmental Technology Audit, to ensure that all decisions specifically consider intellectual property issues prior to unnecessarily risking it in a foreign venture.

A model of behavioral intention to buy domestic versus imported products in a Confucian culture, pp. 281-291
Jae-Eun Chung and Dawn Thorndike Pysarchik, Michigan State University, USA

This study examines the predictors of Korean consumers’ behavioral intention to buy imported and domestic products, based on Lee’s (1990) revised Fishbein model. The revised model incorporated two salient Confucian concepts--face saving and group conformity. There were two phases to the study, qualitative (focus group interviews) and empirical (experimental survey design). From the focus group data, parallel self-report mail survey instruments were developed and sent to Korean students studying temporarily at a large Midwestern university in the U.S. Instruments were randomly assigned to subjects using a between-subject experimental design. Findings indicate that there is a positive relationship between Korean consumers’ attitudes toward a product and their product evaluation. Further, there is a positive relationship between their attitudes and their intention to buy either domestic or imported products. The components of cultural pressure, face saving and group conformity, have a weaker influence on attitudes than product evaluation, and they are significant predictors for domestic products but not for imported products. Finally, managerial implications and marketing strategies are discussed for multinational and domestic marketers.

Marketing and company performance of Chinese small firms in Hong Kong, pp. 292-307
Wai-sum Siu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

This paper reports the mail survey results of the marketing practices of 158 Chinese small firms in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that broad small firm marketing principles, though specifically generated from the Western countries, may not be fully suitable for some specific socio-cultural contexts, for example Chinese society in Hong Kong. Thus, care should be taken before making generalizations about marketing in Western situations and in assuming that marketing tools and techniques are equally applicable across all places. Socio-cultural influences should be considered when attempting to understand marketing practices of Chinese small firms.

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