국제전자상무중적영소표준화화공사표현(国际电子商务中的营销标准化和公司表现)

Marketing Standardization and Firm Performance in International E.Commerce

市场营销的标准化已经成为有关国际市场营销的研究中最为关注的焦点之一. 全球营销这个术语常被定义为以国外市场的共同性为前提的国际标准化的营销战略. 营销标准化仅在传统的实体市场交易场所的背景中被讨论. 自从上个世纪90年代起, 联网上的电子市场交易场所开始兴起, 并成为全球化过程中为全球营销活动标准化开拓新机会的最重要的动力之一. 另一方面, 消费者由于更大程度的接受互联网而可能产生与标准化相比更高水平的定制化和产品的差异化, 这样的观点也很流行. 考虑这个分歧, 在全球电子商务的背景下关注营销标准化的综合的研究不能达到一定高度的这种情况值得注意. 在这个背景下, 本研究提出了两个基本研究问题: (1) 在国际电子商务中公司多大程度标准化了他们的营销? (2) 营销的标准化对公司的表现（或成功）有没有影响? 根据文献回顾提出了下列研究假设: H1: 从事国际电子商务的公司为营销标准化做了更多的准备. H2: 营销标准化在帮助公司在国际电子商务中获得成功的方面发挥积极的作用. H3: 在国际电子商务中, 营销组合标准化在公司获得经济的和非经济的成功方面比营销过程标准化发挥更积极的作用. H4: 国际电子商务公司获得非经济的成功越大, 获得经济的成功也越大. 本研究的数据是通过在2005年2月到4月间进行问卷调查获得的. 本调查包括了德国各种产业中的国际电子商务公司和国外电子商务公司驻德国的所有总部和分公司. 801家公司中的118家回复了问卷. 本研究为结构方程模型, 使用PLS‐Graph3.0版本中的偏最小二乘法. 数据分析结果支持所有的4个研究假设. 结果表明, 从事国际电子商务的公司在商标, 网页设计, 产品定位和产品项目上的标准化很高. 这些公司打算未来在营销组合标准化方面加大努力. 另外, 他们想提高营销过程标准化的水平, 尤其是和信息系统, 企业语言和在线营销控制程序一起. 在本研究中, 营销标准化对企业在国际电子商务中的表现起到了积极全面的影响. 营销组合的标准化在非经济的成功方面比营销过程的标准化发挥更积极的影响. 相反, 营销过程的标准化在经济的成功方面发挥了较积极的作用. 另外, 我们的结果明确的支持了在国际电子商务中非经济的成功和经济的成功是高度相关的这一假设. 实证结果表明, 国际电子商务公司的成功与营销标准化高度相关. 但营销组合和销售过程标准化以不同的方式帮助企业的经济和非经济的成功. 结果表明, 公司在互联网上使营销组合的众多因素标准化. 这种做法在一定程度上违背了 "划分标准化" 的经营理念, 认为营销组合的一些因素应该适应本土化, 其他的应该国际标准化. 而且, 发现表明, 相比一个特定的营销组合元素的标准化, 整体标准化营销为成功带来更积极的总体影响.

The standardization of marketing has been one of the most focused research topics in international marketing. The term "global marketing" was often used to mean an internationally standardized marketing strategy based on similarities between foreign markets. Marketing standardization was discussed only within the context of traditional physical marketplaces. Since then, the digital "marketspace" of the Internet had emerged in the 90's, and it became one of the most important drivers of the globalization process opening new opportunities for the standardization of global marketing activities. On the other hand, the opinion that a greater adoption of the Internet by customers may lead to a higher degree of customization and differentiation of products rather than standardization is also quite popular. Considering this disagreement, it is notable that comprehensive studies which focus upon the marketing standardization especially in the context of global e-commerce are missing to a high degree. On this background, the two basic research questions being addressed in this study are: (1) To what extent do companies standardize their marketing in international e-commerce? (2) Is there an impact of marketing standardization on the performance (or success) of these companies? Following research hypotheses were generated based upon literature review: H 1: Internationally engaged e-commerce firms show a growing readiness for marketing standardization. H 2: Marketing standardization exerts positive effects on the success of companies in international e-commerce. H 3: In international e-commerce, marketing mix standardization exerts a stronger positive effect on the economic as well as the non-economic success of companies than marketing process standardization. H 4: The higher the non-economic success in international e-commerce firms, the higher the economic success. The data for this research were obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted from February to April 2005. The international e-commerce companies of various industries in Germany and all subsidiaries or headquarters of foreign e-commerce companies based in Germany were included in the survey. 118 out of 801 companies responded to the questionnaire. For structural equation modelling (SEM), the Partial-Least. Squares (PLS) approach in the version PLS-Graph 3.0 was applied (Chin 1998a; 2001). All of four research hypotheses were supported by result of data analysis. The results show that companies engaged in international e-commerce standardize in particular brand name, web page design, product positioning, and the product program to a high degree. The companies intend to intensify their efforts for marketing mix standardization in the future. In addition they want to standardize their marketing processes also to a higher degree, especially within the range of information systems, corporate language and online marketing control procedures. In this study, marketing standardization exerts a positive overall impact on company performance in international e-commerce. Standardization of marketing mix exerts a stronger positive impact on the non-economic success than standardization of marketing processes, which in turn contributes slightly stronger to the economic success. Furthermore, our findings give clear support to the assumption that the non-economic success is highly relevant to the economic success of the firm in international e-commerce. The empirical findings indicate that marketing standardization is relevant to the companies' success in international e-commerce. But marketing mix and marketing process standardization contribute to the firms' economic and non-economic success in different ways. The findings indicate that companies do standardize numerous elements of their marketing mix on the Internet. This practice is in part contrary to the popular concept of a "differentiated standardization" which argues that some elements of the marketing mix should be adapted locally and others should be standardized internationally. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the overall standardization of marketing -rather than the standardization of one particular marketing mix element - is what brings about a positive overall impact on success.