استراتژی های بازاریابی بین المللی شرکت های نوظهور: طبیعت، شرایط مرزی، پیشینه ها و نتایج International marketing strategies of emerging market firms: Nature, boundary conditions, antecedents, and outcomes

Introduction The world is experiencing a dramatic shift in economic activity from businesses located in industrialized economies of North American and Western Europe to emerging economies (Bruton et al., 2013; Bortoluzzi et al., 2014); to the extent that the last three decades have witnessed significant influence of emerging market firms on scholarly discourse on international marketing (Bortoluzzi et al., 2014). Emerging markets constitute countries that have low-income but that have undergone rapid economic growth in recent years (Bruton et al., 2013; Wright et al., 2005). These economies are largely concentrated in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, China and transition economies of former Soviet Union and South-Eastern Europe (Hoskisson et al., 2000). In view of the rapid economic outputs from firms in these markets, scholarly discourse on international marketing has accordingly shifted to incorporate the behavior of emerging market firms. In this direction, researchers are now beginning to challenge long-held international marketing concepts and theories developed to explain phenomena in developed markets of Western Europe and North America. A contention is that business environment conditions in emerging markets are unique and are in constant flux, with firms competing in and out of those markets deploying unique set of marketing strategies never seen before in the developed world (Wei et al., 2014; Govindarajan and Ramamurti, 2011). Against this background, emerging market studies (e.g. Webb et al. 2009; Prahalad and Hammond, 2002; North, 1990; Hart, 2005; Karnani, 2007; George et al., 2012) have proposed that institutions and consumption pattern in emerging economies are key considerations as these contextual factors may influence development and outcomes of firms’ marketing strategies. For example, Webb et al. (2009) argue that institutions, defined as “relatively stable structures that guide expectations and determine socially acceptable actions and outcomes in society” (p. 547) may shape emerging market firms’ marketing strategies. It is contended that formal (e.g. codified laws and regulations) and informal (e.g. tribal rules, norms, values and beliefs) institutions and their enforcements can shape the marketing strategies formulated by a firm operating in emerging markets (Hart 2005). Along this line, there is an argument that important differences in levels of institutional development across developed and emerging market economies implies that current understanding of marketing activities as they apply to developed market firms might not sufficient to fully capture the marketing strategy processes deployed by emerging market firms (see also Ofori-Dankwa and Julian, 2013 on the institutional difference hypothesis). This stream of research argues that significant institutional differences exist in terms of variations in formalised laws, regulations and enforcement approaches.