This splendid book by Professor S. Hollensen represents an ambitious effort to identify and explain the fundamental issues of global marketing programs. It offers a masterly integration of strategies and tactics for the marketer.
The book is addressed to practitioners and academics of marketing in an attempt to influence the direction that challenges in global marketing strategy will take.
Professor Hollensen further endeavors to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and responding to international markets’ forces in order to enable companies to overcome this growing challenge and help to establish themselves as a potent force in the global marketing field.
The book is divided into five parts, making up a total of 17 chapters. Part 1, “The decision whether to internationalize”, covers all of the basics well. It provides us with an excellent account of the development and implementation of global marketing programs. In particular, the author discusses the relative merits of global marketing in the firm for business strategy. He also presents an enlightening debate on the advantages and disadvantages of global marketing orientation. In addition, the author discusses in detail the initiation of internationalization and export behavior theories, and development of firms’ international competitiveness, and offers the reader an integrated view of all the recent literature variables.
Part 2 of the text addresses the effects after considering whether to internationalize. The second concern of the company is the choice of one or more countries as target markets. Chapter 5 focuses on some important aspects of a market‐screening process. Some of the important firm‐external determinants of market screening are discussed in chapter 6, which explores many important environmental factors. Overall, this part provides a very valuable contribution to the emerging literature on global marketing. This is particularly helpful in providing a basis that can be adopted and extended by other researchers.
Part 3 of the text deals with “Market entry strategies”. It focuses heavily on trying to convey a clear understanding of what are the major market entry modes, and criteria for selecting them. The author points out that an international market entry mode is an institutional arrangement necessary for the entry of a company’s products, technology and human capital into a foreign country/market. In chapter 7 the author examines the different decision criteria and how they influence the choice among the groupings of market entry modes. In chapter 8 Professor Hollensen addresses “export entry modes”. He argues that export is the most common mode for initial entry into international markets. He also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of main export modes and how manufacturers can influence intermediaries to being effective marketing partners. Chapter 9 covers “Intermediate modes”. The author suggests that intermediate entry modes include a variety of arrangements, such as licensing, franchising, management contracts, turnkey contracts, joint ventures and technical know‐how or co‐production arrangements.
The arrangements often entail long‐term relationships between partner firms and are typically designed to transfer intermediate goods such as knowledge and/or skills between firms in different countries. Chapter 10, “Hierarchical modes”, discusses the merits of the main types of entry mode. This chapter also discusses under what circumstances foreign divestment is likely to take place.
Part 3 ends with chapter 11 which focuses on “International sourcing decisions and the role of the subsupplier”, which deals with the buyer‐seller relationship from different angles in the internationalized environment. He clearly summarizes the advantages and disadvantages for the contractor and subcontractor of going into a relationship. Finally this part presents a great international variety of examples and illustrations integrated in a consistent whole, with multiple links between methods, concept and practice which is essential for teaching.
Part 4 is concerned with “designing the global marketing program”. The fundamental decision that managers have to make regarding their global marketing strategy is the degree to which they should standardize or adapt their global market mix. Chapter 12 is concerned with the product decisions that a marketing manager makes in order to develop a global marketing mix including international labeling strategies and service policies. Chapter 13 deals with the major issues of determinants of price, pricing strategy, how foreign prices are related to domestic prices, price escalation, the elements of price quotation, and transfer pricing. Chapter 14 is about distribution decisions. The first part of this chapter concerns the structure and management of foreign distribution. The second part of the chapter is concerned with the management of international logistics. Chapter 15 deals with communication decisions (promotion strategies). It is centered around the question of whether to standardize world‐wide or to adapt the promotion mix to the environment of each country. In the author’s view the primary consideration is the availability of media, which varies around the world. I feel this part will be highly valued by students and managers who are seeking to unravel the complexity of global marketing. It presents a framework and demonstrates how the various, often single‐dimensional, theoretical concepts can be integrated.
The final part, Part 5, is about “implementing and co‐ordinating the global marketing program”. It picks up some of the recent literature on global marketing activities. Chapter 16 discusses how the international negotiator should cope with the different cultural backgrounds of his or her counterparts. The author makes a special reference to how western negotiators can adapt to the Chinese culture. He also stresses that as firms evolve from purely domestic companies to multinationals, their organizational structure, coordination and control systems must change to reflect new global marketing strategies.
The book shows how the different parts fit together and suggests global marketing research should be regarded as a support system for all five phases of the decision process. Examples of the practice of global marketing by actual companies are used throughout the book, in the form of exhibits. Furthermore, the review and discussion questions at the end of each chapter are good and address the major topics. At the end of each part there are three to six case studies that give excellent focus, dealing with real global marketing situations and provide students with an opportunity to apply what they have learned to actual global issues.
This book has an excellent structure. The author throughout makes good use of tables, charts, diagrams, and other exhibits to summarize information and to reinforce important concepts. The author begins each chapter with a clear statement of learning objectives. Unfortunately the author does not conclude every chapter with a concise and a comprehensive part by part summary of the key topics covered.
On a positive note, I feel this book is a well‐structured text, full of useful exercises, excellent examples, excellent illustrations and, more importantly, it is easy to read.
In many respects, Professor Hollensen has been able to provide a broad vision of key issues and implications associated with the fundamental changes that are occurring in managerial and global marketing during the 1990s. A reader seeking an explanation for the source and nature of current global marketing issues should appreciate this book. This text may be particularly attractive for a reader who is seeking a stimulating source of ideas or several alternative means by which organizations might reorganize themselves in order to respond to the fundamental global marketing changes occurring worldwide. This is a book I thoroughly recommend to students and practising managers alike, who are seeking to gain a broad understanding of the key issues in global marketing.
