Standardisation Versus Adaptation
MSc. International Business Master Thesis No 2004:11
Standardisation versus Adaptation:
A Study of the Factors Initiating and Influencing the Process of Strategic Migration
A Case Study of MalacoLeaf
Anne Marte Bergersen René Zierfuss
Graduate Business School School of Economics and Commercial Law Göteborg University ISSN 1403-851X Printed by: Elanders Novum AB 2
Marte Bergersen René Zierfuss
Abstract Despite nearly eight decades of debate on the topic of international marketing strategy standardisation/adaptation, the subject of strategic migration has yet to be explored. It is this deficit that has spurred the authors to study this phenomenon. As such, this study explores the process of strategic migration within a firm’s international marketing strategy, with the purpose of investigating, describing and assessing the factors that initiate and influence it. In order to achieve this, three research questions were asked: To what degree do firms migrate between international marketing strategies within the framework of standardisation and adaptation? How does the process of strategic migration transpire? Why do firms undertake the process to migrate from a standardised to an adapted international marketing strategy, or vice versa? This study takes an abductive research approach using a number of transdisciplinary theoretical concepts, including Strategic Change, Standardisation/Adaptation, and Factors Affecting Standardisation/Adaptation, to create a theoretical framework. The empirical part of this study undertakes an in-depth investigation of a single-case company, MalacoLeaf, where the strategic migration of one of its key strategic brands is described in terms of the content, process and context of strategic migration. In confronting theoretical propositions against the empirical research findings, this study discovered that in terms of the content, solely the product components of the firm’s international marketing strategy underwent migration
Standardisation versus Adaptation:
A Study of the Factors Initiating and Influencing the Process of Strategic Migration
A Case Study of MalacoLeaf
Anne Marte Bergersen René Zierfuss
Graduate Business School School of Economics and Commercial Law Göteborg University ISSN 1403-851X Printed by: Elanders Novum AB 2
Marte Bergersen René Zierfuss
Abstract Despite nearly eight decades of debate on the topic of international marketing strategy standardisation/adaptation, the subject of strategic migration has yet to be explored. It is this deficit that has spurred the authors to study this phenomenon. As such, this study explores the process of strategic migration within a firm’s international marketing strategy, with the purpose of investigating, describing and assessing the factors that initiate and influence it. In order to achieve this, three research questions were asked: To what degree do firms migrate between international marketing strategies within the framework of standardisation and adaptation? How does the process of strategic migration transpire? Why do firms undertake the process to migrate from a standardised to an adapted international marketing strategy, or vice versa? This study takes an abductive research approach using a number of transdisciplinary theoretical concepts, including Strategic Change, Standardisation/Adaptation, and Factors Affecting Standardisation/Adaptation, to create a theoretical framework. The empirical part of this study undertakes an in-depth investigation of a single-case company, MalacoLeaf, where the strategic migration of one of its key strategic brands is described in terms of the content, process and context of strategic migration. In confronting theoretical propositions against the empirical research findings, this study discovered that in terms of the content, solely the product components of the firm’s international marketing strategy underwent migration
References: Marte Bergersen René Zierfuss Perlmutter, H.V., (1969) ‘The Tortuous Evolution of the Multinational Corporation’, Columbia Journal of World Business, 4:1, 9-18 Porter, M MalacoLeaf (online) (cited September-December 2004). Available from 106 Marte Bergersen René Zierfuss market (Albaum and Tse, 2001)