Marketing issues for business-to-business firms entering emerging markets

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore marketing issues for foreign industrial companies of large, small and medium size entering emerging markets (EMs), particularly transition economies in Eastern Europe. The vast majority of current studies about EMs focus only on defining suitable strategies related to large consumer goods corporations. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopted a multiple case study approach. Five Italian companies belonging to different business-to-business industries that have entered emerging countries in Eastern Europe were selected for investigation. Findings – Empirical analysis uncovered recurring issues related to: institutional factors causing market uncertainty and instability; difficulties in building a sales network; a need for product adaptation to guarantee satisfactory performance; choices related to communication, branding and trade fairs; and considerations about competition and first mover advantage. Results can be interpreted as an extension of the analysis of institutional voids by Khanna and Palepu (1997). Research limitations/implications – The study is based on the analysis of five case studies of companies operating in specific EMs, namely in Eastern Europe Countries (EEc) Further research based on different samples and different emerging countries is needed before generalizing results. Practical implications – The study shows that the main institutional void affecting business-to-business companies entering EMs is the lack of locally developed sales and after-sales networks. This institutional void slows the entry process of business-to-business companies in EMs. Given these constraints, from the perspective of business-to-business SMEs, it may be fruitful to pursue niche positioning in EMs. Originality/value – The study analyzes EMs opportunities and entry strategies from the business-to-business marketing perspective, uncovering the most critical issues.

Value Added Elements According to Buyer Companies in a B2B Context

“…Those specificities were not confirmed in previous studies suggested by Lindgreen et al (2012) and Ulaga and Eggert (2006). This could indicate that supplier companies need to refine their management to cover those elements more effectively, and corroborates with Cassia and Magno (2015) with regard to the companies directing their efforts to achieving a higher addition of value in a B2B context.…”

“…In terms of opportunity, Cassia and Magno (2015) highlight that emerging countries are generating a wide range of opportunities for B2B relationships. The authors mention that scientific studies on this context (B2B) should be reinforced since most of the research focuses mainly on business-to-consumer industries.…”

Reviewing emerging markets: context, concepts and future research

“…Others posit weak intellectual property rights protection systems (Sartor andBeamish, 2014, Li and as a definitional element of EMs. Many authors conclude that a crucial feature of EMs is inefficient and/or corrupt legal as well administrative systems that all together contributes to a higher cost of doing business (Estrin et al, 2008, Diaz Hermelo and Vassolo, 2012, Chen and Yu, 2012, Li et al, 2014a, Wu and Chen, 2014, Gaur et al, 2014, Cassia and Magno, 2015.…”

“…Institutional Voids and Differences (Marano et al, 2017, Meyer and Peng, 2016, Ma et al, 2016, Li and Oh, 2016, Kirca et al, 2016, Shirodkar and Mohr, 2015, Liao, 2015, Deng and Yang, 2015, Cassia and Magno, 2015, Anderson and Sutherland, 2015, Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2015, Gaur et al, 2014, Wu and Chen, 2014, Tuschke et al, 2014, Sartor and Beamish, 2014, Sandberg, 2014, Li et al, 2014b…”

Medical tourism in emerging markets: The role of trust, networks, and word-of-mouth

“…But MT practices in emerging markets (EMs) could be a difficult task, because these contexts are subject to institutional turbulence, complexity and within-country diversity (Burgess & Steenkamp, 2006). Cassia and Magno (2015) recognize institutional uncertainty, difficulties in building a sales network and inability to adapt as three major problems in marketing in EMs. Combined with credence attributes, MT marketing in EMs thus becomes a difficult task for service providers.…”