دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی قابلیت های بازاریابی B2B ضروری: آمریکا و آمریکای لاتین - نشریه الزویر

ABSTRACT

Firms from all parts of the world are expanding operations globally in a turbulent economic context, requiring the understanding of nontraditional markets. Much attention has been focused on China and India, but researchers have neglected Latin America, a region economically as important as Germany, India, Japan, and South Korea. Latin America, as is true of many developed and emerging markets, has a strong presence of industrial − or business to business (B2B) − transactions. The configuration and convergence-divergence of marketing capabilities are relevant for the understanding of the globalization phenomenon. This study aims to examine B2B marketing capabilities of firms in Chile, Mexico and Peru (as Latin American countries), seeking conceptual issues in order to comprehend their business perspectives and contribute to the almost nonexistent body of research in this region. How do the results from Latin America compare with the USA? While the study shows directional convergence between Chile and Peru, there also is interesting divergence between all Latin American countries and the USA. The findings offer a portfolio of marketing topics that we believe are worthy of practitioner and academic consideration. We propose a model of convergence-divergence of B2B marketing capabilities across nations and state propositions for hypothesis testing.

5. Conclusions and implications

This study offers detailed information about B2B MCs anticipated over the next three to five years to achieve business success. In this ambit, we discussed the configuration of practices and C-D paradigm in the USA and CMP, being the first attempt to interpret and compare capabilities in B2B markets. Through an open-ended interview-guide applied across the four different countries, we collected and analyzed data from experienced B2B practitioners, coding all insights to generate a final list of the 12 most critical issues for firms in each country. We subsequently identified the core zone of convergence, which contains the future MCs where there is agreement among the executives from the four countries under analysis. Then we identified the convergence zone in CMP and the secondary zones of convergence, which establish the relationships between Mexico and Chile, Mexico and Peru, and Chile and Peru. In addition, we identified the divergence of each country or the topics that are country-specific, supporting a geocentric view of marketing. The mapping of these zones provides a novel conceptualization of the antecedents leading to country development. We also contributed with empirical evidence regarding crossvergence theory and strategic directions for B2B firms in the process of internationalization to EMs in Latin America.

MCs have been recognized as one of the key capabilities firms rely on to defend competitive positions and provide superior value to customers (Day, 1994). Reviewing the essence of MCs predicted by B2B companies, we are eliciting the main source of competitive advantage of nations. MCs are difficult to imitate in comparison with technological and operational capabilities due to their imperfect mobility and the tacit knowledge involved (Wu, 2013). Market opportunities harvested by companies and nations depends on the adaptation and integration of MCs, and this implicitly requires that at least some marketing capabilities are distinctive. The C-D paradigm reflects this duality; companies belonging to a specific context develop unique capabilities, but, at the same time, need to associate more traditional practices to their core competences. Indeed, configuration theory supports that our results are robust because they represent interdependent and mutually reinforcing practices for specific nations (Vorhies & Morgan, 2003). In our analysis, we identified four capabilities (A, B, C, and O) that companies from all countries perceive as crucial, representing the continuous relevance of the traditional marketing mix (i.e., 4 Ps) with the substitution of Pricing [L] by [A] Customer Relationships. Why will relationships be more decisive than pricing in the near future, especially in the USA? Because value is shared by customers and suppliers. It needs communication and collaboration through time. Price will no longer be a semi-fixed parameter; it will become an essential part of the customer-supplier relationship derived from the value-in-use of products and services, and interaction in the experience cycle.