Business - to-business marketing in Latin America

Description

This special issue on “Business-to-business marketing in Latin America” features four articles and two case analyses and focuses on a variety of timely and pertinent issues. Latin American markets, running from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, are now emerging as market economies as they continue to develop and adopt market oriented activities while developing stronger interregional and international trade relations. Latin American markets have begun an impressive transformation from predominantly closed markets with high inflation and uncertain stability to economies that serve as sources and locations for foreign investment and B2B exchange. The articles and cases in this special edition cover a variety of important issues and are abstracted below. We hope you find the contents interesting and motivating. Arturo Z. Vasquez-Parraga, Reto Felix and Aberdeen Leila Borders in the article, “Rationale and strategies of Latin American companies entering, maintaining, or leaving US markets”, evaluate foreign direct investment by Latin American companies in the USA. Their preliminary analysis of secondary data shows that Latin American investment is significant and growing at a fast pace. They find however that there is no complete analysis of the characteristics and trends in these investments, nor a review of the strategies used by these companies for entering or exiting the US market. The study, through the use of secondary data and a sample of Mexican companies to illustrate and analyze the commonly used strategies for the entry, maintenance, and exit strategies. The Mexican companies evaluated were primarily manufacturers of industrial goods. These companies’ preferred entry mode was through partnerships. In addition, the paper describes the patterns of direct investment, asset ownership and intrafirm B-to-B trade of Latin American operating in the USA. Andrew J. Rohm, Vishal Kashyap, Thomas G. Brashear and George R. Milne in their article, “The use of online marketplaces for competitive advantage: a Latin American perspective” identify small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as critical players in the market development throughout Latin America due to their numbers and their supporting roles in industrial commodity chains. They also show that SMEs have not adopted electronic commerce or become involved in B2B emarketplaces. The authors provide an overview of B2B ecommerce in Latin America and outline the evolution and forms of online marketplaces. This is followed by an integration of multiple frameworks of analysis in addition to an analysis of the factors influencing the extent to which Latin American businesses employ B2B online marketplaces. The authors conclude that B2B e-commerce is essential, but that SMEs must analyze their positions and power before adopting a B2B ecommerce strategy and avoid the “launch and learn” approach of common among the larger players in their commodity chains. The next article by Jacqueline Pels, Roderick J. Brodie and Wesley J. Johnston, “Benchmarking business-to-business marketing practices in emerging and developed economies: Argentina compared to the USA and New Zealand” examines the marketing practices of Argentine business-to-business firms and compares them with the marketing practices of US and New Zealand firms. The authors employ the contemporary marketing practice framework to evaluate the marketing practices of firms in each country. The findings show many similarities between the Argentine and US/New Zealand firms particularly for Argentine firms that are foreign owned. The key differences however, are that Argentine firms tend to use less information technology in marketing and a put a much greater emphasis on face-to-face marketing interactions. Overall, the findings suggest that there are groups of Argentine firms that still operate in the traditional business environment and place less emphasis on marketing practices and activities. In the article “Trust and negotiation tactics: perceptions about business-to-business negotiations in Mexico” by Mohammad Elahee and Charles M. Brooks, the authors empirically test the effect of trust in cross- and inter-cultural negotiations. The study investigates a variety of behaviors that Mexican negotiators are likely to exhibit in initial meetings with both Mexican (inter-cultural) and foreign (cross-cultural) opponents and compares the cross-cultural and intra-cultural negotiations from the Mexican negotiators’ perspective. They compared the usage of widely accepted negotiating tactics to the use of questionable or dubious negotiation tactics. Their study used a data from a sample Mexican business people to test the hypotheses which was followed by a series of post survey interviews with negotiation experts. The authors report that Mexican business people indicate that trust plays a significant role in their choices of negotiating tactics. Further, they find that the context of the negotiation (intra-cultural vs cross-cultural) is predictive of a negotiators level of trust in their opponent and predictive of the likelihood of using different negotiation tactics. Danny Pimentel Claro and Priscila Borin de Oliveira Claro propose two models of B2B relationships for the Brazilian supply of organic coffee to international markets in their case study, “Coordinating B2B cross-border supply chains: the case of the organic coffee industry”. The case study compares two possible organizations of the supply chain wherein B2B relationships are based less on formal contracts but on informal safeguards of mutual trust, long-term orientation and joint actions. In each of the two proposed supply chain structures, a cross-border integrator is used to assist the coordination of the business relationships. The principle focus is on developing high levels of coordination to reduce frictions such as internal costs and transactions costs. Celso Claudio de Hilderbrand e Grisi and Aurea Helena Puga Ribeiro, in their article “Supplier-manufacturer relationships in the Brazilian auto industry: an exploration of distinctive elements”, investigate the changing relationships among suppliers and manufacturers in the growing Brazilian auto industry. The authors performed an exploratory study which aimed to identify the presence of commitment, cooperation and interdependence in the buyersupplier relationships. Three dominant Brazilian automobile manufacturers were chosen as case studies to explore their B2B relationships. The authors used structured interviews that explored the emphasis on the standards and routines which control and manage the relationships. The authors conclude that B2B relationships in the Brazilian auto industry have reached the third level of relationships which includes highly developed rountines and procedures, along with elevated levels of commitment, interdependence and cooperative behaviors. We are very grateful for the opportunity to be involved with JBIM and to be able to focus on Latin American markets. This special issue would not have been possible without the support and patience of the JBIM Editor, Professor Wesley J. Johnston. We also thank the many authors for their contributions to this issue and for their patience in getting this completed. Finally, we acknowledge the time and effort of the reviewers whose input and comments were thorough, positive and timely. The reviewers for this special issue were: . Claudia Acevedo – Nove de Julho University, Brasil. . Charles M. Brooks – Quinnipiac University. . Cristian Chelariu – York University, Canada. . Vishal Kashyap – Xavier University. . Chris Manolis – Xavier University. . A˜ urea Helena Puga Ribeiro – Fundacao Dom Cabral, Brasil. . Philip J. Rosenberger III – The University of Newcastle, Australia. Thomas G. Brashear and James S. Boles Previously published in: Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Volume 19, Number 6, 2004