The influence of adaptation and standardization of the marketing mix on performance: a meta-analysis

• Autor(a) principal: Brei,Vinícius Andrade
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: D'Avila,Lívia, Camargo,Luis Felipe, Engels,Juliana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: BAR - Brazilian Administration Review
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1807-76922011000300004
• topic: standardization; adaptation; marketing; performance; meta-analysis

This article analyzes the relationship between strategies of standardization and adaptation of the marketing mix and performance in an international context. We carried out a meta-analysis on a sample of 23 studies published between 1992 and 2010. The sample was analyzed based on measures of the effect size (ES) - or the strength of the relation (Wolf, 1986) - between standardization/adaptation and performance. The results suggest the existence of a medium strength (ES ranging from .133 to .209) for the relationship considered. The results support the existence of a positive impact of both marketing mix adaptation and standardization on performance. However, our results suggest that companies should slightly emphasize the marketing mix adaptation (ES mean = .168) instead of standardizing it (ES mean = .134) when entering in a new international market. Results also indicate that, among the adaptation choices, price (ES = .209) should be the first element of the marketing mix to be adapted, followed by promotion (ES = .155), product (ES = .154), and distribution (ES = .141). Finally, we suggest some new research paths, such as the use of quantitative methods to compare degrees of adaptation to be applied to different segments, regions, and sectors, among other suggestions.