A comparison between advertising agencies’ and PR agencies’ internationalization motives and entry modes - Eight cases from Sweden
1. Abstract
The firm internationalization literature is extensive, but dominated by studies of technical, often large, firms. The service firm internationalization literature is slowly growing. Few international contributions are found investigating the advertising industry and no such studies focus on the Swedish market. The PR industry has been internationally neglected. This study investigates four advertising agencies and four PR agencies in the Swedish market. The eight case agencies confirm traditional internationalization motives, but also new motives are found, such as the foreign
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Lastly, these authors used quantitative research method, which generally limits the freedom of the respondents in answering questions. The Public Relations, PR, industry has been internationally neglected. A possible explanation to this neglect is that this industry has been assumed to be the same as the advertising industry. The gap in research should by now be evident! Despite a growing body of service literature, the internationalization of the advertising industry and the Public Relations industry in Sweden has remained unchartered territories for research. The internationalization motives and the entry modes for the advertising industry in USA are somewhat known, but the PR industry is neglected internationally. The link between motives and entry modes in the advertising industry is blurry even from an international perspective and the latest contribution was released in year 1990. Furthermore, it is unclear what importance the concept of psychic distance (Johanson and Vahlne 1977; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul 1975) has for the international expansion in these industries and if and how business contacts
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enables these industries to internationalize (Johanson and Mattsson 1988). Additionally, there is no recent research focusing on these industries after the globalization of services and the enhanced importance of services in the World and in Sweden. Finally, a case study approach has not been conducted yet in this matter. The Dissertation
International marketing or business is uniquely different from the local market because the product price, place and promotion is vastly different from what is been offered to local customers (Johansson, 2000) With the emergence of the information technology, cross border marketing has never been a distant dream. However, it has never been easier even for giant multinational companies to face challenges that come in international business. The biggest challenge comes from the culture which varies from country to country.
The internationalisation process of the firm has been a subject, which has been motive of study for a number of
The business internationalise means a company’s production and business activity are not only confined to one country, but also integrate the different countries’ raw material and labour and technologies to
Stages of company Internationalization (Uppsala Model) 1. International Marketing – Ethnocentric Orientation 2. Multinational Marketing – Poly centric Orientation 3. Global marketing – Geocentric Orientation 4. Transnational Marketing – Glocal
d. Rise of Internet-based global telecommunications networks has allowed some service enterprises to relocate some of their value-creation activities to different nations.
Furthermore, the United States now leads the world in service exports. A service export encompasses anything from banking, financial services, tourism, entertainment and education etc. The world’s economy is evolving and shifting, economies not only can manufacture goods from raw material but utilize information and new technology. The United States is now a nation that creates jobs that are no longer in the traditional manufacture sector. In the past few years, a rise and expansion in entrepreneurial companies are very visible Estimates show that small service companies provide over 40 million jobs in the United States alone. Trade policy barriers across the world have been demolished to such a degree that the United States has become more
“Public relations work is all about developing effective relationships between organizations and groups that are important to them, including the media, customers, employees, investors, community leaders, activist groups and government agencies” (Lattimore, 2008). In 1997, one woman, April Williams, felt she was working so hard and not getting anywhere in America’s workforce. She decided to open up her own marketing agency that has now been serving companies to help better promote their business and work. Marketing is such an immense factor of Public Relations. It is the way business’ and people view your company and its reputation. North Star is Williams’ flexible and fun marketing agency which has received many awards and recognitions.
Review and identify the role of traditional siloed sectors of marketing, advertising and public relations.
Public relations has changed drastically since the early 20th century. In its earliest forms it was more focussed on the idea of publicity and advertisement. However, more recently it has been seen as a way to engage and build relationships between an organization and it’s publics. Public relations deals with promotional activities that foster a positive public image of a company or organization.
The process of globalization has numerous significant effects on countries, organizations, and individuals. These effects can be observed in the quality of products, in their prices, but also in their availability. Because of globalization, numerous companies prefer to expand their business on international level. Some of them outsource some of their processes and activities to cheaper destinations that allow them to reduce their investments.
The literature on international marketing presents a confrontation between two mainstream schools of thought regarding international marketing. The one supports the standardization approach and argues that multinational companies’ behavior should be uniform to minimize total costs and promote a global corporate image. The other argues for the need for adaptation to fit the unique dimensions of each local market. This research investigates companies’ practical level of adaptation and standardization in international markets. It identifies
In 1977 Swedish researchers at Uppsala University came up with a model/theory how businesses should grow their activities in foreign market, this model explains that companies should select an entry mode by taking into consideration their own resources and exploring costs, and risks based on market nature. (Johanson and Vahnle, 2009) Researchers at Uppsala University in their empirical study found that Swedish firms mostly started their process of internationalization by exporting, initially companies had agents that represented them in foreign market, but these firms exported in countries that had little differentiation in culture, language and political systems from their home country, this was labeled in their model as physically close countries. Uppsala Model considers two types of knowledge objective and experience based knowledge, the model describes that after first entrance in foreign market businesses understands how to work in external country, and later they step by step increase level of internationalization to physically distant countries. (Johanson and Vahnle, 2009) But, can Uppsala model be applied to services? This model was mainly reliable for manufacturing industries; a paper with contrary arguments was published in 2008, providing two variables; environment-related and service specific, to question whether Uppsala model can be used for service
The practical studies focus on identifying that internationalization was regular or incremental process .The internationalization process is study focusing on attitudes and behaviors of firms in market that are in the process of internationalization. The practical studies focus on identifying that internationalization was regular or incremental process. Some observations are also made on de-internationalization that point towards the flexibility seen in the duration of the internationalization process.
Because they have a large degree of understanding of the public relations is an image of the establishment of business or put more persuasion efforts for business. The reporter general agree PR is in a public image, propaganda, persuasion activities, as well as marketing efforts, and promote the organization 's position. As the role of public relations become more diverse and important, public relations progress toward becoming the subject of strategy management, it is essential for public relations to the strategy. And to a wide range of business functions integration marketing communication (IMC) concept of the functions of public relations as a commitment to development a of an organization and its product, the image and the impact of the public or the consumer in the campaign of behavior(Ha, JH, & Ferguson, MA 2015).
Only recently being recognized as a discipline in itself, modern day professional public relations practices can trace its roots to the early 1900s where the first public relations firm, the Publicity Bureau, was founded in Boston. In 1923, Austrian-American public relations pioneer, Edward Bernays, identified three fundamental concepts of public relations. In 1984, American theorists, Grunig and Hunt, conceptualized the now-famous four models of public relations and the excellence theory that were generally adopted by public relation agencies across the globe. With so many significant milestones and theories of public relations established in the United States, it stands to reason that public relation practices would naturally adopt a western perspective.