ABSTRACT
The marketing standardization/adaptation debate is a long-lasting topic in the research field of international marketing (Hu, 2002a). Scholars supporting the international marketing standardization view suggest that exporters should adopt a standardized marketing strategy globally to meet the demand of global consumers (Levitt, 1983), but supporters of the adaptation view suggest that exporters should adapt their marketing activities to meet the heterogeneous demand of local market segments in different countries (Fisher, 1984). In the following studies, some scholars propose to investigate the international marketing standardization/adaptation debate from the contingent perspective (Jain, 1989). Scholars who recognize the contingent view suggest that total standardization and total adaptation are two extremes of the international marketing strategy choice continuum. Firms’ actual international marketing strategies are more often located in somewhere in between, and it is a matter of a higher degree of standardization or adaptation. The authors also suggest that the degree of marketing-mix adaptation/standardization should be determined by firms’ internal and external environmental factors.
