Attila Yaprak

Alliance orientation: Conceptualization, measurement, and impact on market performance

Interfirm collaborations have inspired a rich literature in marketing and strategy during the past two decades. Building on this extant work, the authors developed a new construct, alliance orientation, and explored its influence on firms’ alliance network performance and market performance. The authors drew on data collected from 182 U.S. firms with extensive experience informing, developing, and managing strategic alliances in marketing, new product development, distribution, technology, and manufacturing projects. Using structural equations modeling, the authors demonstrate that alliance orientation significantly affects alliance network performance, which in turn enhances market performance. The findings also suggest that market turbulence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between alliance orientation and alliance network performance, whereas the moderating role of technological turbulence on that relationship does not appear to be significant. The study provides evidence that firms’ alliance orientations positively affect their performance in strengthening their alliance network relationships and in managing conflicts with their alliance partners.

Will the real-world citizen please stand up! The many faces of cosmopolitan consumer behavior

The continuing globalization of marketing activities has given considerable impetus to the study of cosmopolitanism as a consumer construct. Most recent research has focused on the normative activities of cosmopolites, as consumers who seek to broaden their cultural horizons by immersing themselves in a breadth of local cultural experiences. Although this is true of some cosmopolites in some circumstances, it is not a general characteristic. The authors return to the original meaning of cosmopolitanism as presented (independently) by Merton and Gouldner in the late 1950s, examining the concept in light of subsequent research and the social forces that have tended to promote an increasingly cosmopolitan perspective. They then propose several patterns of cosmopolitan behavior, only one of which is a normative search for culturally broadening experiences. Finally, they suggest some managerial implications for marketing practitioners.

Learning through International Strategic Alliances: Processes and Factors that Enhance Marketing Strategy Effectiveness

Intensified competitive, technological, and market pressures have made organizational learning a critical imperative in global strategy effectiveness. Firms can learn through experience and from three processes that involve other firms: imitation, grafting, and synergism. Interpartner learning has become critical, since experiential learning is insufficient for most firms. Responds to calls for a broadened role of marketing and synthesizes and extends research from organization behaviour and strategic management to the field of marketing to fuel further academic inquiry. Based on an extension of Chandler′s strategy‐structure‐performance paradigm, develops propositions on how the environment, organizational culture, strategy, and structure can affect a company′s use of interpartner learning and its effectiveness in learning through strategic alliances. Provides several managerial implications to help improve marketers′ abilities to compete effectively in today′s dynamic, global business environment.Intensified competitive, technological, and market pressures have made organizational learning a critical imperative in global strategy effectiveness. Firms can learn through experience and from three processes that involve other firms: imitation, grafting, and synergism. Interpartner learning has become critical, since experiential learning is insufficient for most firms. Responds to calls for a broadened role of marketing and synthesizes and extends research from organization behaviour and strategic management to the field of marketing to fuel further academic inquiry. Based on an extension of Chandler′s strategy‐structure‐performance paradigm, develops propositions on how the environment, organizational culture, strategy, and structure can affect a company′s use of interpartner learning and its effectiveness in learning through strategic alliances. Provides several managerial implications to help improve marketers′ abilities to compete effectively in today′s dynamic, global business environment.

Culture study in international marketing: a critical review and suggestions for future research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a critical review of culture study streams in international marketing and offer suggestions for future development.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive review of earlier and current approaches to culture study in international marketing is offered. Shortcomings of earlier studies are highlighted and suggestions for remedies are presented. Future research suggestions are also offered.Findings – Five streams of earlier studies and their shortcomings are presented, along with four avenues for future research.Practical implications – More sharply framed culture study will lead to a deeper understanding of cultures role in targeting, segmentation, and positioning and strategy formulation by scholars and managers of international marketing.Originality/value – The paper integrates a large body of research in an important research area in international marketing and offers future research directions.

Economic Nationalism: Conceptual and Empirical Development

To the extent that economic security is seen as a more salient concern than military security in the post-Cold War era, economic nationalism becomes an increasingly critical component of nationalistic sentiment. The potential for zero-sum orientations regarding international economic relations to constrain and disrupt the flow of goods, services, capital, and information across national borders is quite evident. Through measurement of economic nationalism at the individual level, this study links support for nationalistic economic policies with other measures of national and international orientation. The readiness to support nationalist economic policy is a function of the perceived economic threat posed by foreign competition. Economic nationalism is linked with personal job insecurity, authoritarianism, and intolerance ofambiguity. Economic nationalism is alsofound to be negatively related to individual cosmopolitanism.

International Marketing as a Field of Study: A Critical Assessment of Earlier Development and a Look Forward

Fundamental changes taking place in the global business environment and in the business enterprise itself compel international marketing scholars to reexamine the progress being made by the fields scholars in developing knowledge. In this article, the authors critically evaluate progress in international marketing as a field of study through ontological, thematic, and methodological lenses. They also offer a portfolio of research topics that they believe are worthy of scholarly attention.

Learning through strategic alliances

Intensified competitive, technological, and market pressures have made organizational learning a critical imperative in global strategy effectiveness. Firms can learn through experience and from three processes that involve other firms: imitation, grafting, and synergism. Interpartner learning has become critical, since experiential learning is insufficient for most firms. Responds to calls for a broadened role of marketing and synthesizes and extends research from organization behaviour and strategic management to the field of marketing to fuel further academic inquiry. Based on an extension of Chandler′s strategy‐structure‐performance paradigm, develops propositions on how the environment, organizational culture, strategy, and structure can affect a company′s use of interpartner learning and its effectiveness in learning through strategic alliances. Provides several managerial implications to help improve marketers′ abilities to compete effectively in today′s dynamic, global business environment.Intensified competitive, technological, and market pressures have made organizational learning a critical imperative in global strategy effectiveness. Firms can learn through experience and from three processes that involve other firms: imitation, grafting, and synergism. Interpartner learning has become critical, since experiential learning is insufficient for most firms. Responds to calls for a broadened role of marketing and synthesizes and extends research from organization behaviour and strategic management to the field of marketing to fuel further academic inquiry. Based on an extension of Chandler′s strategy‐structure‐performance paradigm, develops propositions on how the environment, organizational culture, strategy, and structure can affect a company′s use of interpartner learning and its effectiveness in learning through strategic alliances. Provides several managerial implications to help improve marketers′ abilities to compete effectively in today′s dynamic, global business environment.

The American Challenge in International Advertising

Abstract This study reports on developments in the international advertising agency business during the 1970s. Findings suggest that U.S. agencies remain the dominant force in international advertising in contrast to the declining performance of U.S. industry in other sectors. Specifically, American agencies have found faster growth in their overseas markets leading to continually larger shares of their total billings; there has been a growing concentration in the international business of U.S. agencies and in the industry internationally; and, the international experience of U.S. agencies has led to a growing penetration of foreign markets, to growth in productivity, and to increasing domestic market power. Results of the study indicate however, that U.S. agencies may be facing increasing challenges from non-U.S. agencies in the future; notably from the West European, Japanese, and some developing countries.

Market-Seeking Motives and Market-Related Promises and Actions in Foreign Direct Investment Privatization in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT The process of privatization through foreign direct investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been organized around interactions of three legally entitled parties, i.e., foreign investor, host government, and host company. The triadic nature of those interactions is addressed in studying the relationship initiation and development. The FDI privatization relationships and the attempts of the three parties to satisfy their objectives have become critical for the survival and successful development of the privatized entity post-privatization. This paper adopts the analytical concept of the interface between motives, promises and actions in the process of relationship development focusing on the role of market seeking motives and market-related promises and actions in the FDI privatization process. Seven cases from Bulgaria are used to unveil the relative significance of the analyzed interface. When assessing FDI investments in CEE foreign investors should assess not only the macro- and microenvironmental conditions, but also pay particular attention to what parties want to gain and what they say they would bring to the venture. The complementarity, compatibility and congruity of motives, promises and actions are suggested to be essential in the successful development of FDI privatization relationships.

Conflict and collaboration in headquarters-subsidiary relationships: an agency theory perspective on product rollouts in an emerging market

Purpose – The paper seeks to explain the collaborative intent, trust development, and conflict resolution in a headquarters‐subsidiary relationship in a new product launch context in an emerging market.Design/methodology/approach – Grounded theory development is employed through personal interviews with senior executives of selected multinational firms operating in Turkey.Findings – A major challenge in collaboration is convincing both parties to the dyad that the expertise of the other party is essential for effective collaboration.Research limitations/implications – The findings are based solely on looking at the subsidiary side of the subsidiary‐HQ dyad in a single country, which limits their generalizability. Since we did not interview the HQ side of this dyad, speculations made about the possible reactions of HQ personnel to subsidiary actions must be interpreted with caution.Practical implications – The perceptions of both parties play a far more important role than the facts or perceptions of just ...