Marketing Strategies for Foreign Expansion of Companies Originating in Small and Open Economies: The Consequences of Strategic Fit and Performance

TLDR

This study examines the marketing strategies of firms from small and open economies as they expand into foreign markets. The authors differentiate born‑global and globalizing‑international firms from traditional internationalizers, develop a framework and hypotheses, and empirically test how product breadth and marketing standardization shape foreign expansion strategies in the ICT sector. Results reveal that a firm’s expansion path, prior foreign experience, and external globalization pressure influence marketing strategy choices, and that aligning these contextual factors with strategy standardization boosts performance, underscoring the strategic importance of expansion paths for international marketing.

Abstract

This study examines the marketing strategies of companies originating in small and open economies as they expand into foreign markets. It distinguishes two major globalization paths (that of born globals and that of globalizing internationals), contrasts them with traditional internationalizers, and describes their characteristics. It then outlines a framework and hypotheses regarding the marketing strategies used in foreign expansion and examines them empirically in the information and communication technology field. The authors examine two important strategic marketing issues: the breadth of product offering and the standardization of marketing strategies across countries. The empirical results show that foreign expansion path, foreign business experience, and external globalization pressure have an impact on the selection of marketing strategies. The study also finds that the fit between these contextual factors and the standardization of marketing strategy has a positive effect on performance. The novel results regarding the importance of foreign expansion paths in the selection of marketing strategies have important implications for both academicians and practitioners in the field of international marketing.