The standardization/adaptation dilemma in agri-food exporters marketing strategies

Abstract

© 2015, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insight into types of marketing strategies and the implementation difficulties of agri-food exporters, with the purpose to get information about them related to firm size, export experience and capital ownership. Design/methodology/approach: – Focussing on Serbian agri-food exporters, this study employed quantitative design and descriptives-causal approach. An e-mail questionnaire is used to collect data, with aim to determine the influence of firm characteristics on marketing strategy selection and implementation. Descriptive statistics, difference between group tests, and correlation are used in data analysis. Findings: – Results indicate that large and foreign-owned firms opt for standardization of the product, distribution and promotion, while they prefer an adaptation strategy for price. These firms have fewer difficulties implementing selected strategies compared to small businesses and domestically owned firms. The impact of export experience is mixed and less influential. Research limitations/implications: – The main research limitations relate to the one country case, but results offer several implications for researchers, management of agri-food exporters, policy makers and society. Originality/value: – This paper presents the original insight from agri-food exporters originated from one small, emerging economy for all marketing mix elements. Due Serbian case uniqueness it challenges previous findings and provide a “laboratory” for testing export marketing strategies. Research is easy for replication in the other countries and its results might be used for comparisons in further studies of agri-food exporters’ marketing strategies in other small, developing countries.