Explaining international performance: marketing mix, planning, and their interaction

The extent of globalization of many world markets has made international marketing a crucial determinant of firms’ performance. Most prior research used few measures of performance and explanatory strategy variables and, in some cases, did not discuss their reliability and validity. The research reported here includes a more comprehensive set of performance variables and investigates the reliability and validity of these measures of performance, as well as explanatory variables’ measures. Research hypotheses about export performance as an outcome of international firm strategies covering channels of distribution, product, promotion, pricing, and planning are tested by data from a mail survey and from in‐depth interviews. The findings are used to suggest managerial implications in the context of international marketing strategy.