Sborník příspěvků XVII. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách Hustopeče 18.–20. 6. 2014
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DOI: 10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P210-6840-2014-99
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING IN BUSINESS PRACTICE
OF SMALLAND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES
MEZINÁRODNÍ MARKETING V OBCHODNÍ PRAXI MALÝCH
A STŘEDNÍCH FIREM
ING. ZDENĚK BEDNARČÍK, PH.D., MBA.
Katedra marketingu
Obchodně podnikatelská fakulta v Karviné
Slezská univerzita v Opavě
Department of Marketing
School of Business Administration in Karvina
Silesian University in Opava
* Univerzitni nám. 1934/3, 733 40 Karviná, Czech Republic
E-mail: bednarcik@opf.slu.cz
Annotation
The theme of paper apply to problems of regional perspectives, it deal with regional small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These firms appearance to its number have strong impact to
development of whole region. The results of research can contribute improvement of marketing
management these firms with subsequent positive influence to development of region.This paper
examines international marketing in business practice of Czech exporting small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) with regard to the strategic perspectives. Research was focused on Czech
exporting SMEs from Moravian-Silesia region and their behavior on international markets. For
purpose of collecting data, a questionnaire was given to 262 SMEs involved in international business.
Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, mean, percentage, and chi-square test. Data
were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software. The research analysis
disclosed that there is certain space for improvement in strategic marketing especially in a marketing
research, perception of cultural and social differences, product adaptation and usage of marketing
communication tools.
Key words
international marketing, marketing mix, marketing research, small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), strategic marketing
Anotace
Téma příspěvku se týká prokazatelně problematiky regionálního rozvoje, jedná se o regionální malé a
střední firmy, které vzhledem k početnímu zastoupení v celé podnikatelské sféře mají výrazný dopad na
rozvoj celého regionu. Výsledky výzkumu mohou přispět ke zlepšení marketingového řízení těchto
firem s následným pozitivním vlivem na rozvoj regionu. Příspěvek zkoumá mezinárodní marketing
v obchodní praxi malých a středních firem ve vztahu ke strategickému vývoji. Výzkum byl zaměřen na
exportující malé a střední firmy Moravskoslezského regionu z hlediska jejich působení na
mezinárodních trzích. Pro získání potřebných informací a odpovědí bylo osloveno 262 malých a
středních firem, podnikajících v mezinárodním obchodě. Získaná data byla analyzována příslušnými
statistickými metodami a programy. Výzkumné analýzy odhalily, že je zde určitý prostor pro
zlepšování v oblasti strategického marketingu, především v marketingovém výzkumu, ve vnímání
kulturních a sociálních odlišností, v adaptaci produktů na podmínky jednotlivých zemí, v účinnosti
používání nástrojů marketingového mixu.
Klíčová slova
mezinárodní marketing, marketingový mix, marketingový výzkum, malé a střední firmy, strategický
marketing
Sborník příspěvků XVII. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách Hustopeče 18.–20. 6. 2014
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JEL classification: E52
Introduction
SMEs are a driving force of a national and also European economy, employment, social climate and
technological advancement. In the Czech Republic, the participation of SMEs in employment in
private sector is 70 %. SMEs represent 99.9 % of the total number of business entities and generate
approximately one third of nominal HDP (Czech statistical office, 2013).
Micro companies (up to 10 employees) make the biggest group of entrepreneurs. They differ mainly
because of strong connection with the entrepreneur or a family. These may also be self-employed
businessmen. They do not have sufficient workforce to cover specialized activities connected with
expansion of their business, gathering information or a market analysis. They are oriented and
dependent on their local market. They have problems penetrating foreign markets as they do not have
professional and financial capacity.
Small companies are considered to have 10 to 50 employees, which is the basic capital enabling to
access opportunities of the European market. Small companies fill peripheral spheres of the market,
help faster development of weaker regions through a good knowledge of locality, flexibility and
diversity. They act against monopolization, they fortify the competition. Small companies’ interests
are oriented locally but they may go beyond borders to the foreign markets.
Lastly, medium-sized enterprises have greater financial research, focusing on new technologies and
have a better bargaining position with the banks. With 50 to 250 employees they are capable of
creating specialized teams for particular foreign markets. They have the instruments and motivation
(in the context of their potential outlets) to expand into other markets.
Unfortunately, many of these enterprises have to deal with apparent difficulties resulting from
consequences of still lasting effects of the economic crisis. Moreover, there is decreasing customer’s
purchasing power all over the regions of the Czech Republic and high competition across all the
industries. Therefore, growth of international diversification is an important strategic option for small
and medium businesses (Lu and Beamish, 2011, Knight, 2001) . Which is possible due to the
internationalization of companies. Internationalization is broadly accepted term which refers to the
process of increasing involvement in international operations (Welch and Luostarinen,1988).
International marketing focuses on satisfying the needs and wishes of customers in foreign markets
(Machková, Král, Lhotáková, 2010, Stoklasa, Starzyczna, Matušínská, 2013). As a business
philosophy it offers a great opportunity for SMEs to succeed in high competitive markets. On the
other hand, it is much more complex because company faces two or more sets of uncontrollable
variables originating from various countries (Onkvisit and Shaw, 2004).
When any company enters a foreign market there is an important strategic decision. There are two
main possibilities which are standardization and adaptation that could be executed within product or
promotion element of marketing mix (Szymanski, Bharadwaj, Varadarajan, 2003). Another key
success factors are price and distribution. Distribution channels within countries vary considerably by
size and character (Kotler and Keller, 2012).
Summarizing previous researches in the field, there are few academic papers (Kazem and
Heijden,2006, Hynes, 2010, Mason and Pauluzzo, 2009), focusing on both the SMEs and international
business since it had been very complicated for a long time for SMEs to enter foreign market. Those
days are gone and thanks to development in information and communication technologies,
internationalization and globalization of the markets, more SMEs are active on international markets.
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Methods
The methodical approach was chosen in steps from general to special (induction reasoning). For the
research purposes two objectives were defined.
The main aim of this research was to assess the specific behavior of Czech small and medium-sized
enterprises operating in the foreign markets. The secondary objective was to determine what strategic
actions in the field of international marketing (in terms of selected elements of the marketing mix product,
distribution and marketing communication) can strengthen small and medium businesses
competitiveness.
The research was carried out during the period from March to May 2013. As a technique of selecting a
sample of respondents was used semi-representative technique of choice (non-exhaustive survey),
which consists of selecting respondents based on the assumption(judgment) that these respondents
meet certain requirements. The selection of respondents was defined according to the criteria of a firm
headcount. In order to identify small and medium companies the sample was limited according to the
EU methodology as follows: maximum headcount 250, maximum turnover €50 million or balanced
sheet total €43 million. Further, only exporting SMEs were included from Moravian-Silesian region.
The reason for choosing the region of Moravia-Silesia was its geographic location as it borders two
countries (Slovakia republic and Poland). Another reason was that the university where the research
was conducted is located there.
Due to the type of required information and nature of the issue, questioning method was chosen as a
research method (personal interviewing technique). For purposes of personal interview we developed
questionnaire consisted of 12 questions plus 6 additional identification questions such as number of
employees, type of business, exporting products, ratio of exports to total sales, company name,
address and contact. Ground rules of intelligibility to respondent (intelligible content, consistency,
reasonable length) were followed. Subsequently, students of International marketing course were
asked to collect the data. After a profound training, students conducted personal in-office interviews
with companies’ representatives. Once students filled up questionnaire, representatives were asked to
sign the document to prove authenticity.
Results
When defining a general sample of respondents the criterion of the size structure of the participating
small and medium-sized companies, i.e. the number of employees was used.
Therefore there are three categories:
§ Micro-entities, number of employees up to 10.
§ Small companies, number of employees up to 50.
§ Medium companies, number of employees up to 250.
Sample selection was random. Therefore medium-sized companies are heavily prevailing in the
sample. On the other hand, these are typical exporters in the SMEs category [14]. Ratio export to total
sales for whole sample is 55 % in average.
Machinery industry (24,81 %) is the most frequent industry represented in the sample followed by
consumer goods sector (15,65 %) and steel industry (12,6 %). There are foodstuffs, chemical,
electrical, woodworking, construction, textile and clothing and other industries.
For most frequently represented machinery industry are typical these exported products: anchors for
ships and drilling platforms, cogwheel, material handling equipment, automation lines, machine parts,
sanitary equipment, foundry equipment, plastic production industry, mining equipment, castings,
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cranes, computer assisted machining centers, gear manufacturing tools, alternators, starters,
conveyors, elevators and more.
During the actual existence of observed SMEs in 57 % cases the number of export destinations was
increasing. Conversely, 38 % of companies experienced constant development and 5 % decreasing
tendency.
The most frequent reason for the entering foreign markets are proximity of the foreign markets (54,58
%), size of the foreign market (53,82 %) and increasing use of own capacities (43,13 %).
Other question was directed at the perceived difference between cultural and social environment in
domestic and foreign market. As a Fig. 1 shows, most companies (55 %) do not consider that cultural
and social differences are an important factor. It is a very important factor for 10 % and moderately
important for 29 %. The rest (6 %) said they do not know. This perception can cause problems
especially when trying to adopt a product or a communication adaptation strategy.
Fig. 1: Perception of cultural differences between domestic and export market by companies
sampled
Sources: own research
Another point of interest was marketing research since it provides important information for
manager’s strategic decisions. Despite this fact 51 % of SMEs do not conduct international marketing
research at any form. At least, 41 % sampled companies do research on selected foreign markets and 8
% do all market research.
Fig. 2: Marketing research approaches on foreign markets
Sources: own research
It can be assumed that for SMEs, it is difficult from financial, personnel and time perspective to
perform own marketing research or maintain marketing information system. Despites this fact,
companies drawn information from various sources. Unfortunately, informational support from Czech
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bureaus, institutions and agencies is at the bottom of the list. This finding raises doubts about the
effectiveness of these institutions.
Product, distribution and marketing communications
In the area of product strategy, Fig. 3 shows that most respondents use the sale products on foreign
markets in a form in which it is offered in the domestic market - standardization (62.94%).
Standardization may secure a better market results for SMEs through lower costs and therefore gain
global competitiveness. Significantly fewer respondents (24.05%) reported that they adapt domestic
production due to the specific conditions in the foreign market. 13,01 % of companies develop a new
product
In the area of distribution strategy forms, direct distribution (50.76 %) prevails. Thus, company trades
through its own dealers or export department. Indirect distribution is typical for 19,08 % subjects and
combination for 30,15 %.
The largest share of the companies export is in B2B (business-to-business) sector (40%). This finding
is consistent with sample characteristics, where companies from machinery industry dominate. B2C
(business-to-customer) sector where products are sold for final consumption is less represented in the
sample in 30 %. Eventually, the combination of B2B and B2C is represented in 30 % of businesses.
Excluding companies operating in both markets the Pearson chi-square test was used to figure out
whether and which marketing communication tools were used by the theoretical assumptions for
different business environment. Practically, which variables of marketing communication were
significantly associated with the market type.
Clearly, personal selling is recommended to use more on B2B markets while advertising is dominant
as a tool on B2C markets and so on. There is no statistically significant association in the data between
the type of business and marketing communications used. Therefore it can be assumed, that there is a
certain misuse of marketing communication mix among the SMEs sampled.
Fig. 3: Standardization and adaptation of product on international markets
Sources: own research
Conclusion
Some of the findings could be expected – such as that the firms export their production to the nearest
neighbor’s states: Slovakia and Poland. Another fact which could be predicted is that firms use the
electronic media (Internet) to present their products and to communicate with their B2B or B2C
customers. Some of the outcomes point out interesting trends – for example quite low utilization of the
potential of different forms of support and assistance (advice) from the governmental and non-
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governmental institutions. The reasons for this may be the administrative barriers for obtaining
various grants, that small and medium-sized companies are not aware of these possibilities and even
the general focus of these projects, which could be better adapted to specific types of businesses in
certain areas of activity.
The fact that firms mostly do not accept different cultural and social conditions at foreign markets
could be evaluated also negatively. At the same time, most respondents apply strategy of
standardization to foreign markets. Of course this depends on the type of exported product, the
destination and the target group of customers (consumer market versus industrial market). Since the
biggest part of the output of the addressed companies is bound for Slovak market, it is expected that
market conditions are relatively uniform with the domestic market. Striking, however, is that in
general, companies see this issue as just a minor on e, and this is not compatible with developing their
own competitiveness on foreign markets.
From the marketing point of view it is positive that for small and medium businesses it is crucial to
focus on the needs and wishes of customers. The small firms carry out innumerable little innovations
thanks to their fast adaptation towards the needs of the customer. Small and medium companies are
also able to function at the peripheral areas of the market which are not so attractive for larger
companies. On the other hand they do not pay enough attention to acquiring information about foreign
markets which may be existentially decisive for them. More than half of the surveyed firms do not
implement marketing research. It is likely that the main reasons are lack of finances and lack of own
skilled workers who are able to secure marketing survey. It would be profitable to pay more attention
to this field and make sure to investigate the market from time to time. This could be done by
cooperation on the research activities with external agency or by using different forms of research
support from governmental and non-governmental institutions.
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This paper is one of the research outputs of EU project CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0016 ”Through the
targeted research in the area of small and middle-sized companies to reaching competitive
knowledge economy”.