International marketing perspectives on digital platforms and ecosystems
| Authors | Title | Main focus | Method | Key finding(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internationalization of digital platforms | ||||
| Platform success in the international marketplace: Reconfiguring digital resources for marketing agility | Role of versatile digital resource-enabled reconfiguration activities in marketing agility building | Qualitative research (case study) | Digital platforms build marketing agility and success through three versatile digital resource-based reconfiguration mechanisms: Recombination of digital artifacts, repurposing human capital and cross-pollination of markets |
| Digital marketing ecosystems and global market expansion: Current state and future research agenda | Clarification of the conceptualization and role of digital marketing ecosystems for the global expansion of multinational enterprises | Conceptual work | Digital marketing ecosystems enable firms from developed markets (DM) and emerging markets (EM) to expand globally with greater flexibility. They can help firms overcome infrastructural disparity, reputation gaps (EM firms expanding to DM) and institutional voids (DM firms expanding to EM) |
| Understanding the internationalization of digital platform firms: Developing the platform-OLI (P-OLI) framework | Investigation of the advantages that help digital platform firms to succeed during their internationalization | Qualitative research (case study) | Digital platform firms access various types of open resources (O), rely on linkages (L) and extract varied information and knowledge (I) to gain advantages that ease the internationalization process. |
| A meaning-making perspective on digital ridesharing platforms in underdeveloped markets | Collective contest of interpretations of digital platform business models in the context of underdeveloped markets | Conceptual work | A framework is proposed that is anchored in six propositions. It offers insights into how digital platform businesses can adapt to address and align with the idiosyncrasies of underdeveloped markets with weak institutions |
| Firms using digital platforms to internationalize | ||||
| Internationalization through digital platforms: A systematic review and future research agenda | Review and synthesis of extant research on how traditional firms enter foreign markets using digital platforms | Literature review | The developed framework of antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes of digital platform use in firm internationalization provides a comprehensive overview of the status quo and highlights avenues for future research |
| Small firm internationalization using digital platform ecosystems: An assessment and future research directions | Review and synthesis of existing studies on the internationalization of small firms via digital platforms | Literature review | The proposed framework links small firms’ resources, capabilities and environmental factors to their adoption of digital platforms for internationalization and related outcomes. The authors present research questions related to different framework elements |
| Antecedents and performance outcomes of exporters’ use of Internet B2B platforms | Antecedents and outcomes of exporters’ use of different services offered by Internet-based business-to-business (I-B2B) platforms | Quantitative research (survey) | Exporters’ use of I-B2B platform services is positively associated with cost advantages, export diversity strategies, psychic distance and domestic regulatory uncertainty. The performance consequences depend on the service type and the exporter’s transparency strategy |
| Understanding SMEs’ internationalization through digital platforms: The role of knowledge sharing and consumer education | Consumer education and knowledge sharing during the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via digital platforms | Qualitative research (case study) | During SMEs’ platform-based internationalization, learning processes take place in a bidirectional way due to interactions among multiple stakeholders, activating consumer education and knowledge sharing |
| Social media platforms use in startups’ international marketing strategies: A multiple case study | Role of social media in supporting startups’ entrance to foreign markets | Qualitative research (case study) | Social media helps startups develop relationships with stakeholders abroad, penetrate local business networks, build general brand awareness and convey their offering’s positioning |
| Digital platform-enabled e-commerce | ||||
| Examining the relationship of country-level digital ad spend and cross-border e-commerce buyers under cultural and political globalization | Moderating role of formal and informal institutional globalization regarding the effect of digital ad spend on cross-border commerce | Quantitative research (secondary data) | Digital ad spend (at the country level) is positively related to the share of cross-border e-commerce buyers in a country. Political globalization strengthens the impact of digital ad spend on consumers’ participation in cross-border e-commerce, whereas cultural globalization weakens it |
| Opportunities for self-preferencing in international online marketplaces | International prevalence of vertically integrated offers in online marketplaces | Quantitative research (secondary data) | Most online marketplaces tend to be vertically integrated, offering them opportunities for self-preferencing (i.e. platform providers favor their own offers over those of competitors). The analysis reveals significant cross-national differences in self-preferencing, potentially due to regulatory differences |
| Consumer resistance to price transparency in high-end digital retail from high-equity countries: A should-want conflict perspective | Price transparency in high-end digital retail and the moderating role of country equity | Quantitative research (experiments) | Price transparency might benefit regular-priced products but backfires for premium-priced products. Country equity is an important boundary condition for this backfiring effect in that it is more pronounced for products from high-equity countries than low-equity ones |
| Authors | Title | Main focus | Method | Key finding(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Weng, Liu, Ye, Liu and Huang | Platform success in the international marketplace: Reconfiguring digital resources for marketing agility | Role of versatile digital resource-enabled reconfiguration activities in marketing agility building | Qualitative research (case study) | Digital platforms build marketing agility and success through three versatile digital resource-based reconfiguration mechanisms: Recombination of digital artifacts, repurposing human capital and cross-pollination of markets |
Nim, Pedada and Hewett | Digital marketing ecosystems and global market expansion: Current state and future research agenda | Clarification of the conceptualization and role of digital marketing ecosystems for the global expansion of multinational enterprises | Conceptual work | Digital marketing ecosystems enable firms from developed markets (DM) and emerging markets (EM) to expand globally with greater flexibility. They can help firms overcome infrastructural disparity, reputation gaps (EM firms expanding to DM) and institutional voids (DM firms expanding to EM) |
Surana, Chavan, Kumar, and Chirico | Understanding the internationalization of digital platform firms: Developing the platform-OLI (P-OLI) framework | Investigation of the advantages that help digital platform firms to succeed during their internationalization | Qualitative research (case study) | Digital platform firms access various types of open resources (O), rely on linkages (L) and extract varied information and knowledge (I) to gain advantages that ease the internationalization process. |
Amissah, Sarpong, Boakye and Carrington | A meaning-making perspective on digital ridesharing platforms in underdeveloped markets | Collective contest of interpretations of digital platform business models in the context of underdeveloped markets | Conceptual work | A framework is proposed that is anchored in six propositions. It offers insights into how digital platform businesses can adapt to address and align with the idiosyncrasies of underdeveloped markets with weak institutions |
Gong, He and Lengler | Internationalization through digital platforms: A systematic review and future research agenda | Review and synthesis of extant research on how traditional firms enter foreign markets using digital platforms | Literature review | The developed framework of antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes of digital platform use in firm internationalization provides a comprehensive overview of the status quo and highlights avenues for future research |
Da Rocha, Neves da Fonseca and Kogut | Small firm internationalization using digital platform ecosystems: An assessment and future research directions | Review and synthesis of existing studies on the internationalization of small firms via digital platforms | Literature review | The proposed framework links small firms’ resources, capabilities and environmental factors to their adoption of digital platforms for internationalization and related outcomes. The authors present research questions related to different framework elements |
Jean, Kim and Cadogan | Antecedents and performance outcomes of exporters’ use of Internet B2B platforms | Antecedents and outcomes of exporters’ use of different services offered by Internet-based business-to-business (I-B2B) platforms | Quantitative research (survey) | Exporters’ use of I-B2B platform services is positively associated with cost advantages, export diversity strategies, psychic distance and domestic regulatory uncertainty. The performance consequences depend on the service type and the exporter’s transparency strategy |
Hu, Filipescu and Pergelova | Understanding SMEs’ internationalization through digital platforms: The role of knowledge sharing and consumer education | Consumer education and knowledge sharing during the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via digital platforms | Qualitative research (case study) | During SMEs’ platform-based internationalization, learning processes take place in a bidirectional way due to interactions among multiple stakeholders, activating consumer education and knowledge sharing |
Olivieri and Testa | Social media platforms use in startups’ international marketing strategies: A multiple case study | Role of social media in supporting startups’ entrance to foreign markets | Qualitative research (case study) | Social media helps startups develop relationships with stakeholders abroad, penetrate local business networks, build general brand awareness and convey their offering’s positioning |
Lee, Yalcinkaya and Griffith | Examining the relationship of country-level digital ad spend and cross-border e-commerce buyers under cultural and political globalization | Moderating role of formal and informal institutional globalization regarding the effect of digital ad spend on cross-border commerce | Quantitative research (secondary data) | Digital ad spend (at the country level) is positively related to the share of cross-border e-commerce buyers in a country. Political globalization strengthens the impact of digital ad spend on consumers’ participation in cross-border e-commerce, whereas cultural globalization weakens it |
Jürgensmeier, Bischoff and Skiera | Opportunities for self-preferencing in international online marketplaces | International prevalence of vertically integrated offers in online marketplaces | Quantitative research (secondary data) | Most online marketplaces tend to be vertically integrated, offering them opportunities for self-preferencing (i.e. platform providers favor their own offers over those of competitors). The analysis reveals significant cross-national differences in self-preferencing, potentially due to regulatory differences |
Kim, Ryoo, Zdravkovic and Yoon | Consumer resistance to price transparency in high-end digital retail from high-equity countries: A should-want conflict perspective | Price transparency in high-end digital retail and the moderating role of country equity | Quantitative research (experiments) | Price transparency might benefit regular-priced products but backfires for premium-priced products. Country equity is an important boundary condition for this backfiring effect in that it is more pronounced for products from high-equity countries than low-equity ones |
Source(s): Created by authors
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