International Marketing: Volume 21

The global financial and economic crises have accelerated the rise of emerging markets in the global economy. In fact, the BRICs (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have become the engine of global economic growth in the past two years when the developed economies were struggling to regain their growth. China became the largest exporter in the world in 2009 and has just overtaken Japan in mid-2010 to become the second largest economy in the world. India has made huge stride in attracting MNCs' investment and is poised to become the main destination of business process outsourcing. Brazil has regained its confidence as the largest economy in South America and as a major economy in the world. After struggling in the face of oil price collapse in 2008, Russia is back on track with robust growth, thanks to the rebound of oil price. Even outside the BRICs, many developing economies are doing very well. For example, Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina, and several African countries have seen their growth rates surpassing 5% per year for several years. There seems to be a fast shift of global economic power to the developing world, especially to the BRICs.

As part of their growth strategy, many firms choose to expand internationally. Such expansion is an especially important decision for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs are vital to China's economy and have grown in importance since the reform and opening-up, measured in terms of size, number, financial status, or profitability. In addition, the Chinese electronics sector plays an important role in the economy. This inquiry explores the internationalisation behaviour of 50 Chinese electronics SMEs. The findings are presented and implications drawn for future research, along with those for policy makers and practitioners.

This exploratory study identifies key pillars on which innovative business models rely in the Latin American retail landscape. First, using qualitative research methods, we delve into the minds of Latin America's emerging consumers to uncover their needs and paradigms. In a region where retail innovation has traditionally been targeted at high-income consumers, we find a new breed of retailers that cater to the large mass of emerging consumers. Second, we explore the avenues of innovation retailers have followed to serve this impoverished segment and find that retailers' efforts to innovate have resulted in at least three original retail formats: one centered on providing access to durable goods, another centered on offering a wide assortment of goods and a convenient location, and the last one centered on incorporating design and quality. Based on the wheel of retailing theory, we show how these new formats are changing the structure of the retail industry in the region.

The retail sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India. Increase in per capita income, growing urbanization, and economic reforms are some key factors that have propelled its growth. The growing Indian market has attracted many foreign retailers and Indian corporates to invest in this sector. However, this is one of the few sectors in which there is a restriction on foreign direct investment. The sector is politically sensitive, and the Indian government is trying to formulate an appropriate policy regime.

In this context, based on a primary survey, this chapter tries to analyze what should be the right policy regime that will help to sustain the growth of retail in India. The chapter shows that due to the quasi-federal nature of governance, the retail sector is regulated by a large number of ministries/departments at the centre state and local level, which leads to multiple regulations and the requirement of multiple clearances. The laws relating to this sector are outdated and their definitions and enforcement varies across different states of India. Lack of supporting infrastructure, high real estate costs and low purchasing power of consumers are some other barriers. To sustain the growth of this sector, there is an urgent need for regulatory, fiscal, and other reforms. Precisely, the clearances process needs to be streamlined and outdated regulations should be amended. To encourage investment in the supply chain and inflow of technical know-how and skills the government should allow FDI in multibrand retail. However, since retail is a sensitive sector, India cannot take an international commitment on liberalization of retail before streamlining the domestic policy regime.

China represents around 20% of the world's population, and her economy is still performing well under economic crisis. Historical events have shaped different parts of China with different economic developments and cultural encounters. The most prominent difference is between Hong Kong and the Mainland. This chapter would like to examine the development and issues of fashion retailing in China. For better understanding, this chapter starts with a brief discussion on apparel industry development and fashion culture in Hong Kong and the Mainland, follows by historical development and then presents systems of fashion retailing in both Hong Kong and the Mainland. Desktop research and exploratory research techniques were employed. Stores of international fashion luxury brands in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing were visited. Comparison of branding issues, particularly for luxury market in Hong Kong and the Mainland are discussed, so are future directions of fashion retailing in these places.

This study focuses on the relationship between innovation and customer equity drivers and the moderating effect of advertising appeals on this relationship. First, the authors divided innovation into incremental innovation and radical innovation, and explained the influences of each type of innovation on drivers of customer equity based on literature review. Second, the authors tested the conceptual model using structural equation modeling find out the effects of innovation. Third, the authors also tested the effect of advertising appeal using moderating regression. The results indicate that both incremental innovation and radical innovation can positively influence value equity, relationship equity, and brand equity. Functional advertising appeal is more useful than emotional advertising appeal for radical innovation. On the contrary, emotional advertising appeal is more useful than functional advertising appeal for incremental innovation.

This study aims to investigate the relationships among corporate-brand credibility, product-brand personality, and purchase intention, specifically in China's auto industry. A large-scale survey was conducted in four major Chinese Mainland cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. A total of 800 questionnaires were distributed for the study. Ultimately, 477 usable cases were collected for a 60 percent response rate. Results reveal that corporate-brand credibility and product-brand personality have direct positive effects on purchase intention. Furthermore, corporate-brand credibility acts as a positive moderator in the relationship between product-brand personality and purchase intention. This chapter offers new theoretical insights into the influential factors affecting consumers' purchase intentions by testing the moderating effect of corporate-brand credibility in the relationship between product-brand personality and purchase intention. It further provides useful suggestions to companies on brand credibility and personality issues.

This chapter presents the results of two empirical studies aimed at assessing the nature of two hallmarks of marketing development: market orientation and the ability to deliver service quality. Both studies used Chinese managers as subjects. The first investigated the nature and scope of marketing orientation the managers perceive in their firms and found that Chinese managers recognize the importance of market orientation and its relation to firm success and performance. The findings demonstrate a well-developed sense of market orientation.

The second study assessed managers' perceptions of their ability to deliver service quality using the SERVQUAL model. Managers in the sample perceive that reliability is the most important dimension for customers, followed by responsiveness and assurance. Formal standards exist for these dimensions and managers are quite optimistic about the ability of their firms to meet these performance standards. The original antecedents presented in the SERVQUAL model do not precisely fit the Chinese market. The factor analysis showed a strong orientation toward operating systems and processes.

Although interfunctional coordination plays a key role in the performance of the firm, the literature has largely ignored it compared to the other two market orientation components: customer orientation and competitor orientation. The question of whether our current knowledge can be generalized to firms from the developing world has also been neglected since most studies have been conducted in developed countries. To address these issues, a model was developed here to empirically examine the relationship between interfunctional coordination and export performance as well as to identify the key determinants of both constructs. A sample of 201 senior managers of export firms in Brazil was used to test the hypotheses. The results suggest that the legal regulations and technical requirements, competitive intensity, and technological orientation of the product are positively related to interfunctional coordination. Contrary to expectations, the results also confirm that the difference in the stage of the product life cycle is negatively related to interfunctional coordination. In turn, interfunctional coordination has a positive effect on firms' export performance.

This study identifies key variables that contribute most to the discrimination between firms with high export performance levels and those with low export performance levels. Data were collected through a structured multi-item questionnaire involving a randomly selected sample of 105 exporting firms. Discriminant analysis was used to identify the key discriminating variables. Exporters with high-performance levels differed significantly from those with low levels. Strategy implementation, experience in international business and training, economic factors, size of the firm, cultural factors, strategic orientation, education, and political/legal factors, listed in order of importance, were identified as key discriminators between the two types of firms.

This report investigates attitude towards complaining, societal benefits and probability of complaint success, with emphasis on complaint intentions and actions, in applying the theory of planned behaviour to complaint behaviour in Malaysia. On the basis of a sample of 834 respondents at the National Consumer Complaint Centre, the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia, and three shopping malls, the research findings suggest that complainers with a more positive attitude towards those three factors have a stronger tendency to make a complaint. However, consumers with positive perceptions of societal benefits and a higher probability of success are less likely to take action for seeking redress. Moreover, the influence of attitude, benefits, and probability of success on complaint actions is mediated by intention.

Through comparative analysis, this study attempts to uncover the differences and similarities among transnational company (TNC) investments in various host countries. After empirically analyzing the panel data collected from the US and Japanese TNCs' foreign R&D investments, it looks into the influences of the host countries' economies, technologies, and institutional factors on absorbing TNCs' foreign R&D investment from different countries. The host countries' market size and potential are still the main influencing factors in making the choice. The US TNCs focus mainly on host countries' scientific and technological capabilities and potentials, whereas those of Japan are concentrated more on the scientific and technological capabilities and personnel, so as to improve R&D. Moreover, the US TNCs show more attention to host countries' intellectual property protection than do those from Japan.

Relying on data collected from in-depth interviews and participant observation, as well as secondary data, this chapter compares the cross-cultural communication processes between easterners and westerners in an Asian cultural context, namely, that of Taiwan, as well as the potential influences of Confucianism and the theory of “manners of different orders.” Our data reveal that westerners tend to communicate with Taiwanese people in an outspoken and brusque way and to make few changes during the communication process. On the contrary, easterners are inclined to communicate with a gentler approach and make adjustments for the local culture. We also find that Confucianism and the theory of manners of different orders have strong influences on cross-cultural communication strategies and performance. This chapter provides evidence to support the arguments that the theory of manners of different orders may play an even more significant role than the individualism–collectivism paradigm in explaining the causes of better communicational performance in Taiwan and possibly mainland China. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided based on these findings.