ABSTRACT
Globalisation has put an imprint on both business and academia over the past three to four decades. Marketing is being treated in academia as a science, and indeed scientific inquiry over more than fifty years has greatly helped us understand critical relationships between different marketing strategies and activities, and their outcomes both for firms and for customers. Performance in international markets has been the object of a great number of studies over the years. Positioning in specific market segments seems to be a key driver for achieving market shares in export markets. Network relations are strongly linked to cost leadership, possibly because outsourcing and subcontracting with specialised firms in world markets are key elements of a winning strategy. Understanding the challenges and fathoming the opportunities in the global market place is therefore critical, both for firms and for governments.
