Investigating the impact of brand management on international brand orientation and performance of international SMEs businesses

Abstract :

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of classical and entrepreneurial brand management on international brand orientation and international performance of small and medium-sized businesses. The statistical population and respondents included 235 CEOs, founders, owners and proprietors, export sales/international marketing managers, and board members of businesses, which the researcher considered to be valuable sources for collecting primary data. The selected companies in the study were also internationalizing SMEs with less than 250 employees. Primary data was used to evaluate the independent variables (international experiences, decision-making logic, international brand orientation) and secondary data was used to evaluate the dependent variable (financial performance); in other words, a combination of primary and secondary data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling method. The findings suggest that the type of international experience a company has accumulated in terms of marketing planning or entrepreneurial initiatives is a determining factor in whether SME managers use a goal-oriented or a feasibility-oriented decision logic to develop a brand orientation in a foreign market. It is recommended to follow a goal-oriented decision logic if they have strong international marketing planning experience, and to use a feasibility-oriented decision logic if they have strong international entrepreneurial experience. Efforts to strengthen brand orientation should also be encouraged, as the results show that doing so leads to improved financial performance.

References:

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