Marketing In ‘Emerging' Economics

A Western approach to consumer research and marketing will fail you in emerging markets.

- Piyush Sharma

Emerging markets are those lower income countries that are using economic liberalisation to trigger rapid growth in their economic output; these include developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East and transition economies in the former Soviet Union and China (Hoskisson et al. 2000). Past management research has used diverse theoretical perspectives (for example, institutional theory, transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, and agency theory) to highlight significant differences between developed and emerging markets in the way businesses are created and managed (Wright et al. 2005). In contrast, marketing researchers have lamented the obstacles and technical difficulties in applying research techniques in less-developed countries, for a long time (Boyd Jr et al. 1964).

With the recent advances in information and communication technologies, including the popularity of the internet, email, and social media, marketing researchers and managers are showing a renewed interest in exploring the differences between consumers in developed and emerging markets along with the challenges and opportunities posed by these differences for both local and foreign marketers. (Sharma 2011; Sheth 2011). A comprehensive review of literature on a wide range of topics relating to consumers, brands, and marketers in emerging markets reveals the following major streams of research: