Adaptation of international marketing strategy components, competitive advantage, and firm performance: A study of Hong Kong exporters

Abstract

The authors examine how firms adapt different components of their marketing strategies in foreign markets compared with their domestic market and how such adaptation decisions influence the firms' competitive positions and performance in foreign markets. The authors conceptualize that adaptation of a marketing-mix component is a purposeful process that is influenced by a firm's past adaptation strategy, and they investigate the importance of that marketing-mix component to the firm's success. The authors propose that the adaptation process helps define a firm's competitive advantage, which in turn affects its performance in the foreign market. The authors develop hypotheses and propositions and test them with a sample of 183 export firms in Hong Kong.