International marketing research: a review

The paper provides an overview of the difficulties and problems faced by the international marketing researchers over the last four decades, and focuses on the four current key issues. These have been identified as the (a) domestic-international dichotomy, (b) developed-developing dichotomy, (c) multicountry research, and (d) marketing research in socialist countries. The general consensus appears to be that marketing research, which had evolved in the developed Western economies, is equally applicable to a country at any level of economic development. Whether the country is market-driven or centrally-planned also appears to be irrelevant- The major-problem is one of adaptation, taking into consideration the various factors (cultural, structural, legal and attitudinal) which affect the implementation of marketing research methods in any country. The issue of domestic-international dichotomy has been examined within the context of a firm's international involvement- The EPRG schema (ethnocentrism, polycentrism, regiocentrism and geocentrism) provides an analytical framework for understanding the similarities and differences of marketing research requirements along the low-high international involvement continuum. Multicountry research has attracted increasing attention during the 1980s, especially the key issue of international comparability. The paper examines the existing gaps between the theory and practices of crossnational marketing research.