Características de las competencias

To properly address the subject of measuring the degree of standardisation it was necessary to define the measurement which consists of "rules for assigning numbers to objects in such a way as to represent quantities of attributes" (Nunnally, 1978, page 3). The process of measuring attitudes objectively is often called scaling (Boyd et al, 1989) and a number of useful scales have been generated. There are nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales (Churchill, 1983).

While the numbers of a nominal scale simply identify the assigned attribute (e.g. l=male, 2=female) a ordinal scale serves "to rank a respondents according to an order" (Boyd et al, 1989). More powerful measures than those two mentioned are presented in ratio and interval scales. Ratio scales are very similar to interval scales but possess an absolute zero and thus allow comparisons of absolute magnitude while in the case of an interval scale (e.g. temperature scales) the zero point is set arbitrarily (Churchill, 1983). Interval scales separate items by rank order and measure the distance between the rank positions in equal units (Boyd et al, 1989).

Douglas and Craig (1983, page 196) state in the context o f scales that "a five- or seven-point scale is ordinarily used". Although a seven- point scale might increase the possible variety in answers, a five-point

Chapter Four: Methodolouv

scale which brought a relatively convergent result would be more suitable for this study. Therefore the numeric five-point scale with descriptive anchors was used to evaluate the responses in which aspects considered as highly similar were rated "1" while factors which the respondents consider as highly different were rated "5".

In order to assess the degree o f marketing strategy standardisation the respondents were asked to evaluate the degree of similarity in marketing mix and marketing process activities between their headquarters and their operation abroad. The evaluations were made with regard to the host market that the respondent was most familiar with (with respect to the respondent’s overseas operation). Allowing the respondents to choose their "most familiar" host market and thus using self-selection (a type of free-response questions) offers some advantages to the researcher, such as

• Permit the researcher to obtain responses that were unanticipated, • May elicit more closely the real views of the respondent (Luck and

Rubin, 1987).

In the case of this study, the answers obtained from the self-selection would elicit information more closely to the real situation of their chosen host market. However, this self-selection may be very expensive and time consuming to code, to tabulate and to analyse since the answers may be more divergent than close-ended questions.

Chapter Four: Methodology

The list of the marketing mix activities as well as the ones concerned with the internal marketing process was based on relevant previous literature (e.g. Akaah, 1991, Pride and Ferrell, 1989, Sorenson and Wiechmann, 1975).

Based on the literature review and the interviews with the executives the four major marketing mix elements of the marketing mix variables used 38 items in total, the marketing process was examined through 19 items. Based on the extensive review of the relevant literature on marketing standardisation the marketing mix activities were classified as product design, product positioning, brand name, packaging, retail price, basic advertising message, creative expression, sales promotion, media allocation, role of sales force, management of sales force, role of middlemen, type o f retail outlets and customer service (e.g. Quelch and Hoff, 1986, Sorenson and Wiechmann, 1975, Wind and Douglas,

1986).

Jain (1989) stresses that advertising has been examined more detailed and more often than most other elements of the marketing mix and suggests that future research should explore the standardisation o f the other aspects of the marketing mix activities with a comparable intensity. In this study, therefore, the dimension product/services is split into nine sub-components leading to the construct of nine variables which were used to measure the product/services activities.

Chapter Four: Methodology

Eight variables are used to measure pricing activities, six variables are used to measure distribution activities. The importance of the advertising elements was considered by measuring it with fifteen sub­ components. Figure 4.4 illustrates the variables used.

Chapter Four: Methodology

w a r r a n t i e s

Figure 4.4: Variables used for the Measurement of the Marketing Mix p r o d u c t / s e r v i c e f e a t u r e s , b r a n d n a m e , p r o d u c t / s e r v i c c d e s i g n , p r o d u c t / s e r v i c e q u a l i t y , p r o d u c t / s e r v i c e i m a g e , p r o d u c t / s e r v i c e p a c k a g i n g , p r o d u c t / s e r v i c e l a b e l l i n g , a f t e r - s a l e s s e r v i c e p r i c e c h a r g e d t o e n d - u s e r , p r i c e c h a r g e d t o d e a l e r f s ) , p r i c i n g m e t h o d t o e n d - u s e r , p r i c i n g m e t h o d t o d e a l e t f s ) p r i c e d i s c o u n t s t o d e a l e r f s ) c r e d i t t e r m s t o e n d - u s e r s c r e d i t t e r m s t o d c a l e r f s ) g e o g r a p h i c c o n c e n t r a t i o n o f d i s t r i b u t i o n o u t l e t s c h a n n e l ( s ) o f d i s t r i b u t i o n t a s k s o f t h e s a l c s - f o r c c o r g a n i s a t i o n o f s a l e s r e g i o n s m a n a g e m e n t o f t h e s a l e s - f o r c c b a r g a i n i n g p o w e r o f d e a l e r s / r e t a i l e r s r o l e o f a d v e r t i s i n g i n g e n e r a l a d . m e s s a g e a d . a g e n c y u s e d m e d i a b u d g e t a l l o c a t i o n u s e o f T V a d v e r t i s e m e n t u s e o f p r i n t e d a d v e r t i s i n g u s e o f r a d i o a d v e r t i s i n g u s e o f t h e i n t e r h e t a p p r o a c h t o p u b l i c r e l a t i o n s t y p e s o f s a l e s p r o m o t i o n u s e o f d i s p l a y m a t e r i a l s u s e o f f r e e s a m p l e s u s e o f s p e c i a l ' c v e n t s u s e o f c u s t o m e r t r a i n i n g

'

Chapter Four: Methodology

Furthermore, the respondents evaluated the similarity between their home market and their chosen host country. The country dimension was assessed through 16 characteristics relating to the target market (10 regarding the customers, six regarding the economic aspects) and 12 characteristics which considered the market position aspect (eight relating to socio-cultural aspects, three for competition, one for the market life cycle). In addition to that, six characteristics were concerned with the nature of the product (of which five were related to positioning, one to the differentiation between consumer/industrial goods) while 35 characteristics comprised the various aspects of the environment (political, legal and physical environment, marketing infrastructure).

Environmental factors refers to physical, legal and political factors as well as the marketing infrastructure. Related aspects such as the media availability, the retail structure o f a market (Akaah, 1991) have an impact in this context as well as the role of the government. With regard to these aspects Jain (1989) states that a standardisation of the marketing programme is more likely in the case that the environmental aspects in the host country are rather similar to the ones in the home market.

Seven variables were used to measure the factor "political environment", eleven for the factor "legal environment", five for the factor "physical environment" and twelve for the factor "marketing

Chapter Four: Methodology

infrastructure". All characteristics were chosen on the basis of comparable key studies as summarised in chapter 3 (table 3.10). The variables for each environmental factor are illustrated in Figure 4.5.

Figure 4.5: Variables o f the Environmental Factors

ENVIRONMENT