Abstract
۱٫ Introduction
۲٫ Theoretical background
۳٫ Model development
۴٫ Hypotheses development
۵٫ Methodology
۶٫ Analyses and findings
۷٫ Discussion
۸٫ Managerial implications
۹٫ Limitations and further research
Appendix A. Construct measurement
References
Abstract
Despite their increasing practical and theoretical significance in a globalizing world, marketing capabilities in an international context and their inter-organizational dispersion remain in the shadow of research. Specifically, the usefulness of direct effects of capabilities and their dispersed organization on certain strategies and firm performance is unclear. Drawing on the Dynamic Capability framework, this study investigates boundary conditions that guide the management of capabilities dispersion and its effects on strategic actions and performance. Employing survey data from a sample of firms, findings show that dispersed capabilities are advantageous due to their ability to help firms accomplish key performance objectives indirectly through developing ability to manage overseas elements (adaptation strategy). Furthermore, firms’ decisions regarding dispersing capabilities are contingent where market dynamism and coordination moderate the dispersion-adaptation link. The study deepens knowledge on additional ramifications of marketing capabilities, provides new lenses to view marketing dispersion, and offers guidance to managers.
Introduction
Dynamics such as heightened globalization, technological advances, and increasingly networked value chains (Teece, 2014) require firms to access resources not only throughout the organization but also across their boundaries in order to evolve (Hillebrand, Driessen, & Koll, 2015; Krush, Sohi, & Saini, 2015). In the marketing domain, activities rooted initially within the firm relentlessly move across its functions and eventually connect with external companies to ensure market-based value creation (Hult & Ketchen, 2017). Indeed, marketing in many companies is moving toward an “extended fabric of partners, marketers and providers” (Day, 2011, p.194) and appears as diasporas of dispersed capabilities that span across external independent organizations (Webster Jr., Malter, & Shankar, 2005). The increasing in firms’ international involvement, emergence of new foreign operation forms, and changes in marketing’s roles, put international marketing (IM) in the limelight as a boundary-spanning and fundamental interface with external environments and organizations (Gnizy & Shoham, 2014; Morgan, Feng, & Whitler, 2018). Besides, international operation in a globalizing world is the most common strategy that ensures survival and allows firms to achieve higher levels of growth and performance (Spyropoulou, Katsikeas, & Skarmeas, 2018). A ten-years-ago McKinsey survey found that dispersion of firms’ activities is associated with growth opportunities abroad and in most firms IM activities show more dispersion than other activities.