| A clear understanding of international marketing strategy has become very important in the globalization era. Once a firm decides how it will enter the foreign market, the two strategic options available to marketers are standardization and adaptation of the international marketing strategy.; A review of the literature reveals that the decision to adapt or standardize the marketing strategy depends on firm, product, industry, and export market characteristics. This dissertation examines the effect of international experience, type of product, technology intensity, level of competition, government regulation, cultural difference, economic differences, exporting country image, physical conditions, and marketing infrastructure on the degree of adaptation of the marketing mix and strategy of Korean exporting firms.; The empirical setting for this study was based on a list obtained through the directory compiled by the Korean Chamber of Commerce (KORCHAM). Mail surveys were administered to the export marketing managers during the summer of 2005 in Seoul, Korea. Of the 1000 questionnaires sent, a total of 116 were returned by the cut-off date. Of this total, 11 incomplete questionnaires were removed. The effective sample consisted of 105 questionnaires for statistical analysis (a response rate of 10.5%). The two key statistical tools employed in this study were factor analysis and multiple regression.; The effect of firm, product, industry, and export market characteristics on the degree of adaptation of the marketing mix and overall marketing strategy showed mixed results. International experience, product type, competitive intensity, government regulation, economic differences, exporting country image, physical conditions, and marketing infrastructure had a significant effect on the degree of marketing mix and/or overall marketing strategy adaptation of Korean exporting firms. These findings support the conventional view that marketing mix and strategy adaptation is a function of external and internal factors and provide guidelines to managers from export driven economies in the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) regarding the decision to standardize or adapt their international marketing strategy as they emulate the successful export economy of Korea. |
