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Special section on marketing strategies and the development process
INTRODUCTION
Special Section on Marketing Strategies and the Development Process
ELSEVIER
Ruby Roy Dholakia THE UNIVERSITYOF RHODEISLAND
Luis V. Dominguez INCAE, COSTARICA
This special section presents six articles selected from the Third and Fourth International Conferenceson Marketing and Development held in New Delhi, India in 1991 and San Jose, Costa Rica in 1993. The authors arefrom several different countries and provide differing perspectives on the complex relationships between marketing and development. The first two articles examine culturally rooted assumptions about markets and consumers. The third and fourth articles look at trends and practices in developed countries and generate prescriptions regarding imports from less developed countries. The final two articles focus on the export performance of firms from the developing world. We hope that the insights presented by the various authors will inspire more marketing scholars to become involved in developmentrelated research, j BUSHaES 1995 32.113--114
e are most grateful to Arch Woodside and the ournal of Business Research for the opportunity to ring to its readers a selection of articles that are fairly representative of the types of marketing issues facing less developed countries (LDCs) and newly industrialized countries (NICs). This Special Issue not only raises many important research topics but it brings together perspectives of authors from many countries. We hope that the manuscripts presented here will inspire more marketing scholars to become involved in development-related research. For in fact, this is a momentous occasion to join researchers around the world in examining the complex relationships between marketing and development. Since its first meeting in lstanbul in 1986, the International Conferences on Marketing and Development have been a gathering point for marketing scholars and policy-makers from different parts of the world. By means of this special section, the Jourhal of Business Research has made it possible to bring to marketing specialists revised versions of the best papers presented at the 1991 and 1993 conferences in India and Costa Rica, respectively. As co-organizers of these two events, we wish to also acknowledge the support extended to us by the host institutions for the events, the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta and INCAE, Costa Pica. We particularly thank our coAddress correspondence to Ruby Roy Dholakia, College of BusinessAdministration, The University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881-0802. Journal of Business Research 32, 113-114 (1995) © 1995 Elsevier Science inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
chairs Kiran C. Bothra and Carlos G. Sequeira for their splendid hospitality and hard work as hosts. The past decade has wimessed extraordinary changes in the world's economic and political make up. Events in Central and Eastern Europe have taken most of the headlines and indeed have been the subject of a recent issue of the Journal of Business Research. Equally profound changes are taking place in many LDCs and NICs. In varying degrees many of those countries have begun to open their economies to foreign competition, to foster internationally competitive export sectors, and generally to increase the scope of private sector initiative. In some countries, notably the so-called Asian Tigers, and also in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Costa Pica, and Mexico, these measures have had remarkable results as far as economic growth, inflation, and unemployment are concerned. Yet as the World Bank and a number of other international institutions have pointed out, economic liberalization needs to be coupled with significant investments in health care, education, and social infrastructure. This insight is one of the key lessons learned from the Pacific Rim. The role of entrepreneurial initiative in fostering development is receiving increased recognition. Entrepreneurship accelerates the rate at which gains from economic reform yield results. It plays another crucial role. In traditional economic thought, trade springs from comparative factor cost advantages. In today's technologically advanced and fast-paced world markets, factor costs are insufficient to yield sustained development. Productive sectors must evolve from comparative advantage to competitive advantage. This evolution occurs as groups of firms in related industries develop a broad-based set of technological and managerial competencies. These may include flexible production methods, new-product development, brand equity building, advertising, and quality improvement. As world markets broaden, global marketers must come to a better understanding of the cultural make-up and the dynamics of cultural change in the developing world. The first two articles of this issue set the agenda and force us to challenge our assumptions about markets and consumers, assumptions that are rooted in the North American experience, e.g., of one predominant culture and of assimilation of all ethnic and cultural groups into a single cultural mainstream. The two outstanding ISSN 0148-2963/95/$9.50 SSDI 0148-2963(94)00033:B
114
J Busn Res 1995:32:113-114
artides-by Manrai and Manrai and by Gentry, Jun, and Tansuhaj-probe, respectively, differences in how consumers across different cultures manage time and how subcultures are evolving in cultures outside North America. These articles offer important insights to global marketers. Part of the broadening of world markets will come from the opening of developed-country markets to the products of developing countries. This is the subject of the Benito and Gripsrud article. The authors provide an unusual perspective in that most of the international marketing literature has focused on export marketing strategies. The lengthy GATT negotiations have shown that there continue to be major areas of protectionism in the developed world. This manuscript explains how public policy programs in Norway are fostering imports from LDCs. Beyond overcoming tariff and non-tariff barriers, potential LDC exporters and potential importers in the developed countries need to be better informed about each other and to join forces in better serving target markets. In the next article, Brookes carries the discussion to the specifics of food retailing and the impact of changes in the retail trade in Europe for exporters of fresh produce from New Zealand. It is uniquely significant because New Zealand, along with Chile, stands as a pioneer in efforts to increase the value added by agriculture, both by means of greater processing and by strict quality control and aggressive marketing of specialty, high-value food products. The implications are rdevant to all fresh produce suppliers who want to make their products available to the larger, but more dynamic global markets. Frequently, the devdoping markets themselves are very large, as in the case of Brazil and India, and the emerging demand for a large variety of goods and services attract a host of local and international suppliers. Government assistance programs are frequently necessary to stimulate and reinforce exports from developing countries. The article by Kumcu, Harcar, and Kumcu examines export assistance programs. It examines Turkey's efforts to promote its exports and some lessons, positive and negative, that can be learned from those efforts. Turkey's case is especially noteworthy because of its strategic location and the sheer size of its economy-the ninth largest developing economy based on purchasing-power parity, according to the latest figures from the World Bank. The article makes a noteworthy contribution by separately analyzing determinants of the effectiveness of technical and financial assistance programs. The special section concludes with an article by Haar and Ortiz-Buonafina that adds to the growing export marketing literature. The authors' focus is on Brazil-the fourth largest developing economy-and they examine the different levels of internationalization of two major groups of exporting firms. They find
R.R. Dholakia and L. V. Dominguez
marketing orientation to be an important determinant of export performance of the selected Brazilian firms. This special section has been made possible by the efforts and dedication of a group of academic colleagues who evaluated the manuscripts and provided challenging, valuable feedback to the authors. From over 120 manuscripts, two dozen were invited for competitive review, ultimately resulting in the six articles featured in this special section. In several cases, the manuscripts were reviewed and revised several times until they met editorial standards. We are very grateful to the following individuals for their valuable involvement in initially screening the conference manuscripts or actually reviewing the submissions: Stanton G. Cort (Case Western Reserve University, USA) Nikhilesh Dholakia (Arizona State University West, USA) Roger Dickinson (University of Texas, Arlington, USA) Linda Van Esch (St. Mary's University, Canada) A. Fuat Firat (Arizona State University West, USA) Gopal Iyer (Baruch College, USA) Annamma Joy (Concordia University, Canada) Carol J. Kaufman (Rutgers, University, USA) Erdogan Kumcu (Ball State University, USA) Paul M. Lane (Western Michigan University, USA) James E. Littlefidd (Virginia Polytechnic Institute, USA) Ajay Manrai (University of Delaware, USA) Lalita Manrai (University of Delaware, USA) Michael R. Mullen (Florida Atlantic University, USA) Robert W. Nason (Michigan State University) Marta Ortiz-Bounafina (Florida International University, USA) Julia Sagebien (St. Mary's University, Canada) Ronald Savitt (University of Vermont, USA) Bodo Schlegdmich (Thunderbird-American Graduate School of International Business, USA) Jonathan Schroeder (The University of Rhode Island, USA) Mark Speece (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Olav Sorensen (University of Aalborg, Denmark) Lauren Swanson (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Van R. Wood (Texas Tech University, USA) We hope that the readers of this special section will find motivation as well as insight in these manuscripts. In addition to becoming better informed about important marketing issues in the developing world, we hope that more marketing specialism will join these and other authors in expanding our knowledge of an area of the world in which more than a third of the world's economy resides.
Special Section on Marketing Strategies and the Development Process
ELSEVIER
Ruby Roy Dholakia THE UNIVERSITYOF RHODEISLAND
Luis V. Dominguez INCAE, COSTARICA
This special section presents six articles selected from the Third and Fourth International Conferenceson Marketing and Development held in New Delhi, India in 1991 and San Jose, Costa Rica in 1993. The authors arefrom several different countries and provide differing perspectives on the complex relationships between marketing and development. The first two articles examine culturally rooted assumptions about markets and consumers. The third and fourth articles look at trends and practices in developed countries and generate prescriptions regarding imports from less developed countries. The final two articles focus on the export performance of firms from the developing world. We hope that the insights presented by the various authors will inspire more marketing scholars to become involved in developmentrelated research, j BUSHaES 1995 32.113--114
e are most grateful to Arch Woodside and the ournal of Business Research for the opportunity to ring to its readers a selection of articles that are fairly representative of the types of marketing issues facing less developed countries (LDCs) and newly industrialized countries (NICs). This Special Issue not only raises many important research topics but it brings together perspectives of authors from many countries. We hope that the manuscripts presented here will inspire more marketing scholars to become involved in development-related research. For in fact, this is a momentous occasion to join researchers around the world in examining the complex relationships between marketing and development. Since its first meeting in lstanbul in 1986, the International Conferences on Marketing and Development have been a gathering point for marketing scholars and policy-makers from different parts of the world. By means of this special section, the Jourhal of Business Research has made it possible to bring to marketing specialists revised versions of the best papers presented at the 1991 and 1993 conferences in India and Costa Rica, respectively. As co-organizers of these two events, we wish to also acknowledge the support extended to us by the host institutions for the events, the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta and INCAE, Costa Pica. We particularly thank our coAddress correspondence to Ruby Roy Dholakia, College of BusinessAdministration, The University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881-0802. Journal of Business Research 32, 113-114 (1995) © 1995 Elsevier Science inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
chairs Kiran C. Bothra and Carlos G. Sequeira for their splendid hospitality and hard work as hosts. The past decade has wimessed extraordinary changes in the world's economic and political make up. Events in Central and Eastern Europe have taken most of the headlines and indeed have been the subject of a recent issue of the Journal of Business Research. Equally profound changes are taking place in many LDCs and NICs. In varying degrees many of those countries have begun to open their economies to foreign competition, to foster internationally competitive export sectors, and generally to increase the scope of private sector initiative. In some countries, notably the so-called Asian Tigers, and also in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Costa Pica, and Mexico, these measures have had remarkable results as far as economic growth, inflation, and unemployment are concerned. Yet as the World Bank and a number of other international institutions have pointed out, economic liberalization needs to be coupled with significant investments in health care, education, and social infrastructure. This insight is one of the key lessons learned from the Pacific Rim. The role of entrepreneurial initiative in fostering development is receiving increased recognition. Entrepreneurship accelerates the rate at which gains from economic reform yield results. It plays another crucial role. In traditional economic thought, trade springs from comparative factor cost advantages. In today's technologically advanced and fast-paced world markets, factor costs are insufficient to yield sustained development. Productive sectors must evolve from comparative advantage to competitive advantage. This evolution occurs as groups of firms in related industries develop a broad-based set of technological and managerial competencies. These may include flexible production methods, new-product development, brand equity building, advertising, and quality improvement. As world markets broaden, global marketers must come to a better understanding of the cultural make-up and the dynamics of cultural change in the developing world. The first two articles of this issue set the agenda and force us to challenge our assumptions about markets and consumers, assumptions that are rooted in the North American experience, e.g., of one predominant culture and of assimilation of all ethnic and cultural groups into a single cultural mainstream. The two outstanding ISSN 0148-2963/95/$9.50 SSDI 0148-2963(94)00033:B
114
J Busn Res 1995:32:113-114
artides-by Manrai and Manrai and by Gentry, Jun, and Tansuhaj-probe, respectively, differences in how consumers across different cultures manage time and how subcultures are evolving in cultures outside North America. These articles offer important insights to global marketers. Part of the broadening of world markets will come from the opening of developed-country markets to the products of developing countries. This is the subject of the Benito and Gripsrud article. The authors provide an unusual perspective in that most of the international marketing literature has focused on export marketing strategies. The lengthy GATT negotiations have shown that there continue to be major areas of protectionism in the developed world. This manuscript explains how public policy programs in Norway are fostering imports from LDCs. Beyond overcoming tariff and non-tariff barriers, potential LDC exporters and potential importers in the developed countries need to be better informed about each other and to join forces in better serving target markets. In the next article, Brookes carries the discussion to the specifics of food retailing and the impact of changes in the retail trade in Europe for exporters of fresh produce from New Zealand. It is uniquely significant because New Zealand, along with Chile, stands as a pioneer in efforts to increase the value added by agriculture, both by means of greater processing and by strict quality control and aggressive marketing of specialty, high-value food products. The implications are rdevant to all fresh produce suppliers who want to make their products available to the larger, but more dynamic global markets. Frequently, the devdoping markets themselves are very large, as in the case of Brazil and India, and the emerging demand for a large variety of goods and services attract a host of local and international suppliers. Government assistance programs are frequently necessary to stimulate and reinforce exports from developing countries. The article by Kumcu, Harcar, and Kumcu examines export assistance programs. It examines Turkey's efforts to promote its exports and some lessons, positive and negative, that can be learned from those efforts. Turkey's case is especially noteworthy because of its strategic location and the sheer size of its economy-the ninth largest developing economy based on purchasing-power parity, according to the latest figures from the World Bank. The article makes a noteworthy contribution by separately analyzing determinants of the effectiveness of technical and financial assistance programs. The special section concludes with an article by Haar and Ortiz-Buonafina that adds to the growing export marketing literature. The authors' focus is on Brazil-the fourth largest developing economy-and they examine the different levels of internationalization of two major groups of exporting firms. They find
R.R. Dholakia and L. V. Dominguez
marketing orientation to be an important determinant of export performance of the selected Brazilian firms. This special section has been made possible by the efforts and dedication of a group of academic colleagues who evaluated the manuscripts and provided challenging, valuable feedback to the authors. From over 120 manuscripts, two dozen were invited for competitive review, ultimately resulting in the six articles featured in this special section. In several cases, the manuscripts were reviewed and revised several times until they met editorial standards. We are very grateful to the following individuals for their valuable involvement in initially screening the conference manuscripts or actually reviewing the submissions: Stanton G. Cort (Case Western Reserve University, USA) Nikhilesh Dholakia (Arizona State University West, USA) Roger Dickinson (University of Texas, Arlington, USA) Linda Van Esch (St. Mary's University, Canada) A. Fuat Firat (Arizona State University West, USA) Gopal Iyer (Baruch College, USA) Annamma Joy (Concordia University, Canada) Carol J. Kaufman (Rutgers, University, USA) Erdogan Kumcu (Ball State University, USA) Paul M. Lane (Western Michigan University, USA) James E. Littlefidd (Virginia Polytechnic Institute, USA) Ajay Manrai (University of Delaware, USA) Lalita Manrai (University of Delaware, USA) Michael R. Mullen (Florida Atlantic University, USA) Robert W. Nason (Michigan State University) Marta Ortiz-Bounafina (Florida International University, USA) Julia Sagebien (St. Mary's University, Canada) Ronald Savitt (University of Vermont, USA) Bodo Schlegdmich (Thunderbird-American Graduate School of International Business, USA) Jonathan Schroeder (The University of Rhode Island, USA) Mark Speece (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Olav Sorensen (University of Aalborg, Denmark) Lauren Swanson (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Van R. Wood (Texas Tech University, USA) We hope that the readers of this special section will find motivation as well as insight in these manuscripts. In addition to becoming better informed about important marketing issues in the developing world, we hope that more marketing specialism will join these and other authors in expanding our knowledge of an area of the world in which more than a third of the world's economy resides.