The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive

of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0265-1335.htm

International eopportunities and marketing: issues Jagdish N. Sheth

Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and Arun Sharma School of Business, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
Abstract
Purpose E-marketing is growing at a dramatic pace and is significantly impacting customer and business market behaviors. As a result, most firms have started developing e-marketing strategies for the web. However, the evolution and strategic direction of e-marketing strategies in international has not been discussed and is the focus of this paper. environments Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors examine two issues based on extant literature and our previous research in this area. The authors discuss e-marketing in an context and internationaldevelop a framework that willallow researchers and managers to understand the impact of country level effects on e-marketing strategies. The paper proposes that the evolution of e-marketing strategies is based on the countries infrastructure and marketing institutional development. is found that international e-marketing strategies are fundamentally changing, and Findings It continue to change, marketing thought and practice in international markets. The paper suggests will thate-markets of tomorrow may have little resemblance to the markets of today. the Research limitations/implications The paper suggests that additional conceptual and methodological research is required in this area. Propositions are derived that will provide for future directions research. Practical implications Firms need to better monitor their international environments to determine the type of strategy that they need to follow. The proposed strategies are brick and strategies, digitization, disintermediation, buying groups and alternative infrastructure, firm click driven e-marketing strategies, and corporate exchanges. Originality/value This paper is the first attempt to examine the relationship between a countrys infrastructure, marketing institutions and the appropriate e-marketing strategies. Keywords International marketing, Electronic commerce, Globalization Paper type Research paper

E-marketing: opportunities and issues 611

Received October 2004 Revised June 2005 Accepted July 2005

Introductio n -marketing strategies entail utilizing existing and emerging communication and E data networks to impart personalized and uninterrupted communication between the firm its customers and to provide value above traditional networks (Watson et and al., 2002). The opportunities of e-marketing are large as papers in this special issue will attest. However, in order to understand the opportunities and issues faced by e-marketing we examine the evolution of marketing practice. In the agricultural era recently, even in developing countries, consumers and businesses and, bought close to their physical location and had them adapted toward their products needs. structure, most marketing transactions were initiated by the customer In this and adapted to her/his specific needs (e.g. tailors and clothing). Production was typically after receiving the customer order, and specialization was at a local initiated level.

I nt erna t io na l M ar ket i ng Re vie w Vol . 2 2 No . 6 , 2 0 05 pp. 6 1 1- 6 22 q E me ra ld Gro up P ubli shi ng Li mi t ed 0 2 6 5- 1 3 35 DOI 1 0 .1 10 8 / 0 26 5 1 33 0 5 1 06 3 0 2 49

IMR 22,6

612

This mode shifted with the advent of mass manufacturing and mass transportation World War II). The costs of mass-manufactured goods were (especially after dramatically lower than small-lot adaptable local products, leading to market dominance by mass-produced goods. Marketing also became more organization products were first manufactured and then marketed (Sheth et al., initiated as 2000). E-marketing creates a fundamental shift in business and consumer behaviors similar to that associated with the introduction of automobiles and telephones that reduced the for channel immediacy. E-marketing uses the internet as a platform that need allows adapt to the needs of customers, reduces transaction costs, and allows firms to customers to move from time- and location-based behaviors toward non-temporal and non-locational behaviors (Watson et al., 2002). E-marketing is similar to agriculturalage marketing, with direct recurring relationships between consumer and producer but lower costs (Sheth et al., 2000; Sheth and Sharma, 2004). with The implementation of e-marketing strategies in international markets adds an increased level of complexity. There are justifications in examining common e-marketing strategies due to the communalities across international markets (Levitt, 1983; Ghosal, 1987; Walters, 1986; Wind, 1986; Yip, 1989; Samiee and Roth, 1992). However, countrys infrastructure for e-marketing strategies and different stages marketing institutional development leads us to suggest targeted strategic development of e-marketing strategies in different countries (Quelch and Hoff, 1986; Douglas and Wind, 1987). Our emphasis in this paper is to identify e-marketing opportunities and issues in international markets based on country development. Building on the work done by us with our colleagues (Sheth et al., 2000; Sheth and Sharma, 2004), we begin the and paper by discussing e-marketing advantages of costs and reach in international then develop a framework for classifying countries based on markets. We the countries infrastructure development and countries marketing institutional development. Based on this classification, we develop a framework that examines of e-marketing strategies that will be successful in different the type international implications of the international e-marketing strategies on the contexts. The theory and practice of marketing first from the marketers perspective and then from the customers perspectives are then discussed. The final section highlights the implications of these findings on marketing thought and practice. Research propositions are presented throughout the manuscript. Advantages of e-marketing in international operations The primary advantages of e-marketing is reducing costs and enhancing reach. The of an e-marketing platform is typically lower than other marketing platforms cost such as face-to-face salespeople or middlemen/distributors (Watson et al., 2002). In addition, e-marketing allows firms to reach customers that may not be accessible due to temporal and locational limitations of existing distribution channels. Emarketing increase reach and reduce costs by providing three areas of advantage for platforms customers. First, the marketing firm can provide unlimited information to customers without human intervention. This is an advantage over other forms of contact because the amount of information that can be provided is much greater than in any other form of communication. Additionally, and more importantly, the information can be provided in a form that customers can easily process and understand. For example,

airline scheduling and reservation systems are very difficult to create and maintain to serve individual needs. Additionally, in this context, the choices are large and difficult in any format that is better that the e-marketing or web-based format. to provide Second, the e-marketing firm can create interactions by customizing information for individual customers that allow customers to design products and services that meet specific requirements (Watson et al., 2002). For example, online checking and their seat assignment can be done on the internet. Finally, e-marketing platforms can allow transactions between customers and firms that would typically require human contact the case of successful firms such as Dell and as in amazon.com. Country effects on e-marketing The framework To examine the effect of country on e-marketing, we classify countries based on two dimensions countrys infrastructure development, and countrys marketing development. Previous research has highlighted the effect of institutional these dimensions on marketing practices (Sharma and Dominguez, 1992; Malhotra and Ulgado, 1994; Johnson and Arunthanes, 1995; Iyer, 1997). In subsequent paragraphs, we discuss these dimensions and the reasons for inclusion. Countrys infrastructure development refers to roads, telecommunication, legislative bodies, and open and free justice systems etc. Infrastructure development is usually associated with economic development (Sharma and Dominguez, 1992; 1997). There are two reasons for inclusion of this dimension in our Iyer, analysis. First, telecommunication density, broadband access, data processing devices including and mobile phones address the issues of availability and access to the tools PCs, PDAs of e-marketing (Watson et al., 2002). Second, the legislative and legal infrastructure in countries addresses the issues of transactional costs. Weak legal and legislative infrastructure increase transaction governance costs and adaptation requirements Dominguez, 1992; Johnson and Arunthanes, 1995; Iyer, 1997). These are (Sharma and costs associated with transaction monitoring and quality debasement externalities. the costs incurred in limiting partner opportunism in transactions and Specifically, in overcoming the limitations of bounded rationality increases with less developed legal structures (Sharma and Dominguez, 1992). These costs are associated with processes that exchange partners do not seek to take advantage of other that ensure partners. Marketing institutional development is associated with availability of competitive efficient and effective marketing institutions that includes of efficient and effective distribution and communication (media) channels (Iyer, 1997). Largely, marketing development is associated with a large number of efficient and institutional effective members as well as logistical support for marketing oriented channel distribution (Sharma and Dominguez, 1992). Effectiveness of distribution channels is not correlated with economic development as domestic rules and regulations can decrease channel effectiveness. For example, advanced countries such as Japan have low levels of channel effectiveness as distribution channels in Japan are long and high cost (Goldman, 2002; Sharma and Dominguez, 1992). In addition, availability of media is an indicator for marketing institutional development. Marketing institutional is associated with competitive marketing offerings, i.e. development competitive, effective marketing institutions are available to marketers in country efficient and with highly developed marketing institutions (Iyer, 1997).

E-marketing: opportunities and issues 613

IMR 22,6

614

Classification of countries Based on the two dimensions discussed in the previous section, we divide countries this two by two matrix (Figure 1). based on Developed infrastructure and developed marketing institutions are available in advanced countries such as US and Hong Kong (Sharma and Dominguez, 1992). These countries have invested resources in developing infrastructure and have rules and regulations that allow the development of competitive marketing institutions. For example, in the US, laws such as anti-trust and resale price maintenance laws have an environment of enhanced competition. This allows firms to have access created to efficient and effective distribution and communication channels to market their products to customers. countries demonstrate developed infrastructure but restricted Some marketing development. Exemplars of this pattern are countries such as Japan and Germany. These countries protect legacy institutions such as small retailers to the detriment of increased marketing institutional development. An example of marketing development countries that have time restrictions on when the store can be open restrictions are (e.g. Germany). Another example of restriction is restricting the size of stores (e.g. Japan; Goldman, 2002). Similarly, regulations such as advertising restrictions, minimum resale price maintenance also reduce the efficiency and effectiveness margins and of distribution channels. The problem with less developed marketing institutional is that marketers and therefore consumers pay a higher price to distribute their goods and Dominguez, 1992). (Sharma Some developing countries have low levels of infrastructure development but have developed marketing institutions such as retailers and media. We provide examples of Mexico and Brazil that have distribution institutions such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour. and Brazil have highly developed print and television media. Even Both Mexico in areas of poor infrastructure development within a country, alternative distribution be available. For example, Avon uses 400,000 direct salespeople some of methods may which sell in the interiors of the Amazon. The issue with these countries is the lack of customers ability to access e-marketing platforms. category has countries with both low infrastructure development and The last low marketing institutional development. These are typically, developing countries that

Figure 1. Countrys infrastructure and marketing institution development

have not developed efficient and effective distribution systems due to geography (e.g. Indonesia) or legal restrictions (e.g. Vietnam). This phenomenon is also seen in ex-communist countries (Ennew et al., 1993). These countries have limited access to e-marketing systems and the cost of marketing institutions is high for both companies and customers. also predict market penetration of e-marketing in these countries based We can thison framework. Countries with high infrastructure development and high marketing institutional development are expected to have high levels of e-marketing penetration. is that with easy access to e-marketing institutional, both firms The reason and customers will gravitate toward e-marketing for its efficiency and effectiveness. This is of the US market that has one of the highest penetration of e-marketing true strategies. Countries with high infrastructure development and low marketing institutional development are expected to have medium levels of e-marketing penetration. The is that although the infrastructure support for e-marketing is present, reason the distribution and media channels do not efficiently provide the products needed by and consumers to adopt e-marketing innovations. This seems to be the case firms for countries such as Japan and Germany. Countries with low infrastructure development and high marketing institutional development are expected to have low levels of e-marketing penetration due to the lack of infrastructure support. As mentioned earlier, this seems to be exemplified in countries such as Mexico and Brazil. Finally, countries infrastructure development and low marketing institutional development with low are expected to have negligible levels of e-marketing penetration due to non-support from key institutions. We observe this phenomenon in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia CIS and nations. Country classification, opportunities and threats on country classification, we now examine how the emergence of eBased marketing country-level marketing practices. The key reasons for e-marketing will will effect be reduce costs and increase to reach. Evolution of successful e-marketing strategies with developed infrastructure and competitive marketing institutions In countries the focus will be on reducing marketing costs. These countries have readily accessible technology infrastructure andcustomers have already invested resources information to enable them to access these infrastructures. Disintermediation is not expected as firms access to efficient andeffective distribution and communication channelsand have these channels will also attempt to reduce costs by enhancing e-marketing strategies. In countries that demonstrate developed infrastructure but restricted marketing development, the focus will be on costs but the implementation will be different from the previously discussed context. The only method of reducing costs would be the disintermediation of existing channels. It is no surprise that underdeveloped institutions countries such as Japan and South Korea are one of the marketing largest of e-marketing tools such as mobile phones that enable marketing adopters transactions. It has been suggested that the mobile phone technology in such countries is bypassing existing marketing institutions. that have low levels infrastructure development but have Countries developed marketing institutions will need to provide e-marketing institutional to their customers.

E-marketing: opportunities and issues 615

IMR 22,6

616

We see this pattern in Lojas Americanas a Brazilian department store chain that provides access to its web site and virtual store at www.americanas.com.br inside the throughkiosks. The web sitecontains products thatthestore may not stockor store may to be customized. The product can be delivered to the store or at the persons need home. In addition, if the customer has problems in interacting with the web site there is austomer service person available to c help. the last category of countries, where there is both low infrastructure In anddevelopment low marketing institutional development, e-marketing processes will be concerned reach. In this context, we expect new marketing institutions to emerge more with that bypass existing distribution structures. Firms in these countries may will utilize emerging technologies such as mobile phones to develop e-marketing strategies. For example, in India, the mobile phone is seen as the e-marketing platform for information oriented services. The marketing firms communication, customer choice process and payments are all conducted over mobile phones. on the previous discussion it is proposed: Based P1. In countries that have developed infrastructure and marketing institutions,focus of marketing organizations successful e-marketing strategies the will on reducing be costs. P2. In countries that have developed infrastructure but underdevelopedmarketingfocus of marketing organizations successful einstitutions, the marketing will be on disintermediation of legacy distribution strategies channels. P3. In countries that underdeveloped infrastructure but developed marketing institutions, the focus of marketing organizations successful emarketing will be on reducing strategies costs. P4. In countries that have underdeveloped infrastructure and marketing institutions, the focus of marketing organizations successful emarketing will be on marketing institutional strategies development. Penetration and profitability The penetration of e-marketing strategies has been discussed earlier. In this section, we enhance the discussion by examining profitability. Within each type of country, the short-term profitability will be different based on the existing infrastructure development and cost structures of existing distribution channels. As discussed earlier, in countries with developed infrastructure and competitive marketing institutions the focus will be on reducing marketing costs. Since firms have access to efficient and effective distribution and communication already channels channels will also attempt to reduce costs by enhancing eand these marketing the cost savings will not be large. Therefore, we expect medium levels of strategies, profitability in these situations. In countries that demonstrate developed infrastructure but restricted marketing development, we expect disintermediation of existing channels. Therefore, we expect levels of profitability associated with lower levels of e-marketing competition higher and high cost of existing marketing institutions and competition. This is the reason amazon.com, the profits in Europe are growing at a faster pace than in the why for US existing book sellers in Europe are inefficient and have high as costs.

Countries that have low levels of infrastructure development but have developed marketing institutions will need to provide e-marketing institutional to their customers. The cost of providing e-marketing infrastructure will be high and therefore the expectations of profitability in the short-term are low. inally, in countries that have both low infrastructure development and F low marketing institutional development, the cost of e-marketing infrastructure and institutional development will be high and demand will be low leading to negligiblethe short-term. profits in Based on the previous discussions it is proposed: P5. In countries that have developed infrastructure and marketing institutions, the penetration of e-marketing strategies will be high but the profitability will be moderate. P6. In countries that have developed infrastructure but underdeveloped institutions, the penetration of e-marketing strategies will marketing be moderate but the profitability will be high. P7. In countries that underdeveloped infrastructure but developed marketing institutions, both the penetration of e-marketing strategies and the profitability will be low. P8. In countries that have underdeveloped infrastructure and marketing institutions, both the penetration of e-marketing strategies and the profitability will be very low. What type of e-marketing will succeed in different countries section, we suggest that successful e-marketing strategies in In this international depend on existing infrastructure and marketing institutions. markets will These expectations are shown in Figure 2. As discussed earlier, in countries with developed infrastructure and competitive marketing institutions the focus will be on reducing marketing costs and increasingthese countries, an e-marketing strategy that will be successful will be reach. In brickclick strategies. Through e-marketing strategies firms that have physical and presence increase reach and reduce costs by developing e-marketing strategies. We can easily see

E-marketing: opportunities and issues 617

Figure 2. Successful e-marketing strategies

IMR 22,6

618

retailers such as Wal-Mart, manufacturers such as Dell and Cisco, and service firms as Pizza Hut effectively use e-marketing strategies to reduce costs and such increase addition, catalog firms will utilize successful e-marketing strategies that reach. In are similar to bricks and clicks (multiple channels) to reduce costs and increase reach. expect a dramatic rise in e-marketing strategies that can provide products We also and services in a digitized format to be successful. Digitized information reduces the need to deliver products and services for the marketing firm and reduces the need to physically obtain products and services for the customer. As an example, emarketingthat allow airlines to provide e-tickets and boarding passes are successful. strategies Similarly, other digitized product and service sites for music (e.g. iTunes), software (e.g. Norton) and information (e.g. Wall Street Journal) are increasingly successful. publishers such as Thompson, Reuters and Bloomberg have In addition, very successful e-marketing strategies in delivery digital content to their customers. In countries that demonstrate developed infrastructure but restricted marketing institutional development, the focus will be on disintermediation. We think that this process can take two paths. First, third party e-marketers will emerge. These e-marketing firms will be equivalent to physical retail institutions but with dramatically lower cost structures. These third party retailers will be more successful in these countries because of the high cost of existing marketing institutional. Examples of such third party retailers are amazon.com and buy.com. Second, firms will develop e-marketing strategies that will allow them to bypass existing channels of distribution. This type of successful marketing strategies has been followed by firms such as Dell, IBM, and Movado. Countries that have low levels of infrastructure development but have developed marketing institutional will develop two types of e-marketing strategies buying and alternative infrastructure. In the former case, buyers will get together groups to develop infrastructure that will allow members to take advantage of emarketing An example of this type of strategy are the credit card processing strategies. systems have established in countries such as Mexico and Brazil to enable that banks both and customers to take advantage of e-marketing strategies. This type of banks infrastructure is in contrast to the competitive infrastructures that banks developed in developed countries such as the US. The second type of e-marketing strategy firms use extend e-marketing institutional to customers. We discussed the example of is to Lojas Americanas a Brazilian department store chain that provides access to its web site and virtual store at www.americanas.com.br inside the store through kiosks. countries where there is both low infrastructure development and low In marketing institutional development, successful e-marketing strategies will include an extension of both infrastructure and marketing institutions. Typically, these strategies will be driven e-marketing strategies and/or corporate exchanges. Firm firm driven e-marketing strategies will typically involve firms providing e-marketing services that bypass the lack of traditional infrastructure. Examples of firms using mobile have been discussed earlier. In addition, some firms such as airlines (e.g. phones Jet Airlines in India) will provide e-marketing access, as their primary customer (business has access to e-marketing institutional. Another successful etraveler) marketing is a corporate exchange where the firm provides access to its approach infrastructure and also provide customers an easy access to firm. These types of infrastructure have developed by firms such as Tata Steel in been India.

How international e-marketing will change marketing theory and practice previous sections, we discussed e-marketing strategies and outcomes in In the different In this and the subsequent section, we discuss the impact of countries. international strategies on the processes of firms and customer behaviors. This e-marketing section based on research by Sheth et al. (2002) and Sharma (2004). is been Marketing practices and processes of international e-marketing is examined through a comparison The impact of traditional marketing and emerging marketing practices. We discuss traditional versus reverse marketing; mass marketing versus customer-centric marketing; standardizing versus adaptation versus personalization; and variable versus fixed costs. Traditional marketing versus reverse marketing. Traditional marketing has focused on the products and services that firms provide. The goal of marketing is to create a emand for the product that matches organizational requirements and, d therefore, management has traditionally been viewed as demand management marketing (Kotler, 1973). E-marketing changes the focus of marketing from a supplier perspective to a customer perspective, that is, reverse marketing. Instead of marketers manufacturing and then seeking orders, manufacturing will only start when the customer orders. E-marketing increasingly makes the marketing function responsible for supply management. versus customer-centric marketing. As stated earlier, marketing Mass market has developed from a mass-market perspective. E-marketing allows firms and marketers to cater to the needs of individual customers. E-marketing is also expected to lead to better customer selection. E-marketers allow firms to collect better data on costs of of their customer different activities and processes. With data from e-markets, each marketers will divide their customers into segments based on whether they are financially viable (Is this customer profitable?) and strategically viable (Is this customer of strategic importance?) which will allow better targeting. Standardizing versus adaptation versus personalization. Markets are experiencing greater commoditization of products and services due to standardization. In the e-marketing era, the trend is expected to change in terms of more personalization. With increased exible design and manufacturing technology, and given the personalization web, increased personalization will emerge. The web makes potential of the personalization of products easier and more transparent to the user. Variable versus fixed costs. Traditional economics and, therefore, traditional marketing practices, were based on the existence of variable costs in all marketing transactions. The e-marketing era will be the age of extensive investment in technology in the reduction of transactional costs. This will give rise to the that will aid economics scope, and firms will seek to spread their fixed costs over a larger volume. of scale and As examples, databases and voice response technologies have high fixed costs, but reduce transactional costs. The costs of these infrastructures are largely invariant with respect to volume. Changes in customer behaviorthe e-marketing will change marketing practices, e-marketing will also Just as change customer behavior. Some of the more interesting areas of change are highlighted.

E-marketing: opportunities and issues 619

IMR 22,6

620

Co-creation. With an increase in usage of e-marketing, the customer will take an increasingly active role in the fulfillment process, leading to co-creation. Cocreation both customers and marketers interacting in aspects of design, involves production, and consumption of the product or service. We see this process in services (e.g. hair styling) but will increasingly see it for physical products. Firms that do not allow co-creation will be at a disadvantage when compared to firms that do. Geographic versus universal availability. Since customers live in a physical the world, geographical location of resources is critical for consumers. When markets evolved to regional or national markets, buyers and sellers were typically not in from local the geographic location. This geographical separation led to customers same seeking intermediaries in their geographic locations that advanced the interests of consumersof information, communication, transactions, physical movement of in terms goods, and customer service. The difficulty and cost of obtaining locational assets close to the customer has led to a small set of large retailers and intermediaries developing and maintaining competitive advantage. E-marketing will reduce customers locational (e.g. Amazon). For business customers, instead of relying on dependence a eographical or locational sales force, the e-marketing allows customers to more g readily engage in direct, order taking, and technical support. versus exible times. Time has been central to customers, as Fixed marketers, retailers, or buyers have traditionally set the times of transaction or exchange. Typical areas where customers have changed marketing practices are banks through ATMs, sales (through 24-hour telephone access) and airline ticketing (through 24catalog hour reservation lines). Customers will increasingly use e-marketing to airline conduct non-time-based interactions. the discussions in this section, it is proposed: Based on P9. Increasing adoption of e-marketing strategies will lead to firms practicing reverse marketingrather thantraditional marketing; practicing customercentric marketing rather than mass or segment marketing; providing personalization rather than standardization or adaptation; and, reducing transactional costs. P10. Increasing adoption of e-marketing strategies will lead to customers increasing seeking firms that provide co-creation opportunities, universal availability, and exible time schedules. Managerial implic ations and directions for future research This paper examined a critical and interesting area of research emarketingin different country contexts. We developed a framework to first classify strategies countries based on their infrastructure development and marketing institutional We examined the evolution of e-marketing strategies in these development. countries with exemplars of the more successful strategies that will emerge. This paper has implications for both managers and future research. Managerial implications primary managerial implication is that countries are not at the The first and same of infrastructure development and marketing institutional development stage and therefore a standardized global strategy will not be valid in multiple country settings. firms need to develop unique e-marketing strategies based on the countries Therefore

where they operate. In countries that have both high levels of infrastructure and marketing institution development, the market penetration development with e-marketing strategies will be high but the profitability will not be high. In this situation, the successful e-marketing strategies will be oriented toward reducing costs or increasing reach and will typically involve a bricks and click strategy and/or of digitized product or service. Most firms will have to follow edelivery marketingor face failure. For example, Black (2004) reports on two electronic retail strategies stores in New York. J&Rs Computers followed e-marketing strategies and ourished 47th Street Photo did not follow e-marketing strategies and had to close their whereas retail operations. In countries with developed infrastructure and less developed marketing institutions, firms will need to develop alliances with third party e-marketers or develop their own e-marketing strategies. These e-marketing strategies will be acknowledged slowly by customers, but will be highly profitable. Firms that do not follow e-marketing strategies will face a cost disadvantage. Retailers will be in danger of disintermediation if they do not develop e-marketing strategies. In countries with less developed infrastructure and highly developed marketing institutions, firms will need to develop infrastructure to implement emarketing These e-marketing strategies will be expensive and returns will be low strategies. in short-term but may improve in the long-term. Infrastructure access may also the create competitive barriers that may not be easily overcome. In countries where both infrastructure and marketing institutions are not developed, firms will require large investments for implementing emarketing The returns will be negligible in the short-term and returns are strategies. not guaranteed in the longterm. Finally, the paper presents reasons why existing firms need to be cognizant of the emerging competition from firms practicing e-marketing strategies. Firms need to be adopters of e-marketing strategies or they will face competition from entrenched early e-marketers. Directions for future research The research has implications for future research. The framework and proposition that been presented here are based on the literature and case studies. There is a need have to empirically examine the framework and determine if the dimensions adequately complexity of international markets. The framework has also capture the suggested broad categories of countries. There is a need to develop metrics for better classification . The framework also develops assumptions for penetration and profitability of markets. There is a need for empirical demonstration of these expectations. The papersuggests certain directions of movements in markets and success factors that also need be to better understood empirically.
References Black, A. (2004), A strong net game, Wall Street Journal, 25 October, pp. R6-8. Douglas, S.P. and Wind, Y. (1987), The myth of globalization, Columbia Journal of World Business, Winter, pp. 19-29.

E-marketing: opportunities and issues 621

IMR 22,6

Ennew, C.T., Filatotchev, I., Wright, M. and Buck, T.W. (1993), Constraints on the adoption of the marketing concept: the case of the former soviet union, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 27 Nos 11/12, pp. 21-34. Ghoshal, S. (1987), Global strategy: an organizing framework, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 8, pp. 425-40.

622

Goldman, A. (2002), Evaluating the performance of the Japanese distribution system, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 68 No. 1, pp. 1139. Iyer, G. (1997), Comparative marketing: an interdisciplinary framework for institutional analysis, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 531-61. Johnson, J.L. and Arunthanes, W. (1995), Ideal and actual product adaptation in US exporting firms: market-related determinants of performance, International Marketing Review, No. 3, pp. 31Vol. 12 46. Levitt, T. (1983), The globalization of markets, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 61, pp. 92102. Malhotra, N.K. and Ulgado, F.M. (1994), International services marketing: a comparative evaluation of the dimensions of service quality between developed and developing International Marketing Review, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 5countries, 15. Quelch, J.A. and Hoff, E.J. (1986), Customizing global marketing, Harvard Business Review, ol. 64, pp. 59-68. V Samiee, S. and Roth, K. (1992), The in uence of global marketing standardization on performance, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56, pp. 1-17. Sharma, A. and Dominguez, L.V. (1992), Channel evolution: a framework for analysis, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 115. Sharma, A. and Sheth, J.N. (2004), Web-based marketing: the coming revolution in marketing thought and strategy, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 57 No. 7, pp. 696-702. Sheth, J.N., Sisodia, R. and Sharma, A. (2000), The antecedents and consequences of customer-centric marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28 No. 1, 55-66. pp. Walters, P.G. (1986), International marketing policy: a discussion of the standardization and its relevance for corporate policy, Journal of International Business Studies, construct Vol. 17, pp. 55-69. Watson, R.P., Leyland, F.P., Berthon, P. and Zinkham, G. (2002), U-commerce: expanding the universe of marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 33347. Wind, Y. (1986), The myth of globalization, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 3, pp. 236. Yip, G.S. (1989), Global strategy in a world of nations?, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 31, pp. 2941.