Editorial

Citation

(2006), "Editorial", International Marketing Review, Vol. 23 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/imr.2006.03623baa.001

Editorial

Our opening Viewpoint paper by Chris Styles and Richard Seymour heralds a forthcoming Special Issue on International Entrepreneurship Despite the growing interest in entrepreneurship over the past twenty years, Styles and Seymour argue that marketing has made little contribution to this debate. Their paper examines the field of entrepreneurship and its central notions of opportunity, human action, learning, creativity and innovation and adds the marketing notion of value exchange to develop a definition of international entrepreneurship. The paper considers that there is considerable scope for international marketing academics to contribute to this emerging field. Examples of this contribution will be contained in the Special Issue planned for publication as issue 5 of this volume.

Our remaining papers focus on consumer issues and on the service sector. Shankamahesh considers consumer ethnocentrism and provides a review of its antecedents and consequences. A powerful non-tariff barrier to companies operating in the international environment, the antecedents of consumer ethnocentrism are socio-psychological, political, economic and demographic in nature. The consequences, both direct and indirect, are also discussed through an identification of relevant mediators and moderators.

Sangeeta Singh’s paper focuses on consumers’ propensity to innovate and considers cultural differences in and influence on this propensity. The paper examines the relationship between national culture and adoption of new products, ideas or behaviour and suggests a framework for distinguishing between innovative and imitative behaviour. Results of the study undertaking in the European arena (France and Germany) suggest that certain dimensions of culture are a key factor in determining whether or not consumers will display a propensity to innovate. Findings also suggest that consumers from different national cultures will vary in their susceptibility to normative influences and interpersonal communications.

Our fourth paper by Cunningham et al. also presents a comparative study of customer activity, in this case by examining customer perceptions of service quality in three countries (USA, France and Korea). Using a multi-dimensional scaling framework to map service classifications in the three countries, differences and similarities between services in the three countries were identified. Findings of the research suggest that two underlying dimensions explain around 80 per cent of the total variance in service perceptions and classifications. In other words, consumers from different countries perceive services in a somewhat simplistic, two-dimensional fashion.

The final paper by Blomstero et al. allows considers service firms, but from the point of view of choice of market entry mode. The paper investigates which market entry modes service firms select and whether this is influenced by differences between types of service industry. The findings show that soft service firms are more likely to choose a high control mode and that this likelihood increases with cultural distance. Hard service firms appear to be able to learn from the experience of manufacturing firms going abroad, while soft services are unique in nature. A high degree of control allows for the required high degree of interaction between soft service firms and their foreign customers.

We are sure you will find that each of these papers makes our customary demand for contribution to our understanding of international marketing issues and concerns.