Marketing renaissance: How research in emerging markets advances marketing science and practice

Abstract

In the last decades, our discipline has made tremendous progress in addressing scientific and managerial marketing problems. However, our knowledge of marketing phenomena derives almost exclusively from research conducted in high income, industrialized countries. We believe it is paramount for the future of marketing science and practice that we conduct more research in so-called emerging markets (EMs). EMs present significant departures from the assumptions of theories developed in the Western world that challenge our conventional wisdom. In this article, we take the view that marketing science is built on the generalizability of our findings across studies, across cultures, across national boundaries. EMs are natural laboratories in which theories and assumptions about their underlying mechanisms can be tested, generalizations derived and boundary conditions identified. We propose a framework delineating four stages through which EM research contributes to the growth of marketing science. The four stages are 1) theory development, 2) acquisition of meaningful data, 3) analysis of the data to test one's theories, and 4) learning. Through the process of deductive logic, general theories are operationalized in specific settings while, through the process of inductive logic, specific findings are used to arrive at more general conclusions. We discuss the unique issues and contributions of EM research for each of the four stages of this framework. Subsequently, we elaborate on the implications of EM research for development and implementation of marketing strategies. Our discussion reveals that some research has started to address these issues, but we have only begun to scratch the surface. In this spirit, we present an agenda for future research in EMs.

Introduction

The globalization of the marketplace is one of the most important challenges facing companies today. Globalization is due to many factors including worldwide investment, production and marketing, falling national boundaries, regional unification (e.g., ASEAN, EU, NAFTA), advances in telecommunication technologies and the internet, increases in world travel, and the growth of global media (Yip, 2003). Firms cannot ignore this trend toward globalization. Even when they decide to opt out of the global marketplace, they will still face increased competition in their home markets from (local and foreign) companies reaping benefits of global strategies. Given the importance of globalization for marketing, it is not surprising that various marketing scholars and editors have urged us to study marketing issues on an international basis, rather than staying “in relative security of our own backyards” (Bolton, 2003, Dekimpe and Lehmann, 2004, Farley, 1997, Gatignon, 2000, Monroe, 1993, Steenkamp, 1998, Steenkamp, 2005, Winer, 1998).

In response to these exhortations, marketing academics have begun to devote more attention to international marketing. This research has yielded a valuable stock of theoretical and empirical findings, of which an important portion has been published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing (see Alden et al., 2006, Bijmolt et al., 2004, Cano et al., 2004, Deshpandé and Farley, 2004, Desiraju et al., 2004, Farley et al., 2004, Nunn and Sarvary, 2004, Ozsomer and Simonin, 2004, Steenkamp and ter Hofstede, 2002, Stremersch and Tellis, 2004, Van Everdingen et al., 2005, Verlegh et al., 2005 for some recent examples). It is fair to say that international marketing has become an important domain within marketing science.

However, the existing body of research suffers from an important limitation, viz., most of it has been conducted in high income, industrialized countries (HICs). Although it is understandable that researchers in our maturing discipline would initially focus on the world's most advanced economies, we believe it is paramount for the future of marketing science and practice that we conduct more research in so-called emerging markets (EMs).

Although EMs vary in human development and national income, we will focus on common characteristics that shape their institutional context and the ultimate success of marketing programs there. Institutions are “the most enduring features of social life…giving ‘solidity’ [to social systems] across time and space” (Giddens, 1984, p. 24). EM institutional contexts present significant socioeconomic, demographic, cultural, and regulative departures from the assumptions of theories developed in the Western world and challenge our conventional understanding of constructs and their relations (Wright, Filatotchev, Hoskisson, & Peng, 2005). Conceptually, this renders it less than obvious that our established theories and empirical generalizations are applicable to these markets (Steenkamp, 2005). Practically, it implies an urgent need for more research because success in EMs is crucial to the future of many of our companies. As we will argue in this article, we need to conduct more research in EMs, both to further advance marketing as an academic discipline and maintain its managerial relevance.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows. First, we briefly discuss what constitutes emerging markets. Then, we will propose a framework of marketing science as a process. Next, we will discuss the unique issues and contribution of EM research for each of the four stages of this framework. Subsequently, we elaborate on the implications of EM research for marketing practice. We will consider the content and implementation of marketing strategies. Finally, we will draw conclusions and propose an agenda for future research in EMs. To keep the discussion manageable, we focus on systematic differences between EMs and HICs and how this contributes to marketing science and practice. It is outside the scope of this article to discuss differences between EMs.