To standardize or not standardize international marketing : is it still a question?

Abstract

The standardization versus adaptation argument has been raging for years and international marketing research about it has spanned some four decades, attesting to its far reaching theoretical and practical relevance. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on this debate. Major theoretical and empirical contributions from companies’ and consumers’ points of view are presented. The importance of resolving this issue cannot be underestimated as it as an impact on segmentation in international markets, through identifying, targeting, and positioning vis-à-vis the changing nature of homogeneous versos heterogeneous groups of consumers across markets. The shift of emphasis can be translated bay the change from an international to a global strategy. The implications and repercussion of the standardization discussion in terms of segmentation are, consequently, also reviewed. Europe has provided an especially meaningful scenario for this international marketing controversy. Indeed, the reinforcement of the political and economic integration, resulting in the institution of the European Union in 1992, fostered a renewal of the discussion that had been debated mainly in the context of the internationalization of American companies. Thus a special attention is given to the question of globalization in the context of Europe.