Cross-National Differences in Market Response: Line-Length, Price, and Distribution Elasticities in 14 Indo-Pacific Rim Economies

Abstract

The field’s knowledge of marketing-mix elasticities is largely restricted to developed countries in the North-Atlantic region, even though other parts of the world—especially the Indo-Pacific Rim region—have become economic powerhouses. To better allocate marketing budgets, firms need to have information about marketing-mix elasticities for countries outside the North-Atlantic region. The authors use data covering over 1,600 brands from 14 product categories collected in 7 developed and 7 emerging Indo-Pacific Rim countries across more than 10 years to estimate marketing elasticities for line length, price, and distribution and examine which brand, category, and country factors influence these elasticities. Averaged across brands, categories, and countries, line-length elasticity is .459, price elasticity is −.422, and distribution elasticity is .368, but with substantial variation across brands, categories, and countries. Contrary to what has been suggested in previous research, the authors find no systematic differences in marketing responsiveness between emerging and developed economies. Instead, the key country-level factor driving elasticities is societal stratification, with Hofstede’s measure of power inequality (power distance) as its cultural manifestation and income inequality as its economic manifestation. As the effects of virtually all brand, category, and country factors differ across the three marketing-mix instruments, the field needs new theorizing that is contingent on the marketing-mix instrument studied.

Publication
Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 59 (2), pp. 251-270
Brand equity Consumer-based brand equity Marketing metrics Market share models Marketing mix elasticities
Hannes Datta
Associate Professor of Marketing

I develop advanced econometric models that guide managerial decision-making and inform public policy in the area of digital media consumption (e.g., on streaming services), branding, and retailing. Watch an overview video here.