A Comprehensive Literature Review of International Marketing Theories

This literature review provides an overview of international marketing theories, including brand awareness, brand equity, brand positioning, and brand strategy. It begins by highlighting the increasing interconnectedness of global markets and the challenges and opportunities this presents for brands. The review maps out the relationships between various theories and aspects of international marketing, emphasizing the use of different research methodologies such as the stock return response model, the Fama-French three-factor model, and the market value model. It critically examines the application of these methodologies in selected articles, focusing on how consumer-based brand equity is measured and its impact on firm value. The review concludes by analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, with a specific focus on their limitations and contributions to understanding international marketing dynamics.

Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The world has begun to fee smaller with the leaps created by technology in the
transportation, financial flows and communication. Now it has become possible for the
companies to develop business in any country of the world being facilitated by the advancement
in the international trade. As per the reports of the World Trade Organization, between the year
1951 and 2010, the volume of international trade has enhanced up to 33 times. The brands which
develop in a country is happily accepted in other countries. Taken for example, BMWs,
Columbian Coffee, Louis Vuitton bags and other foreign product symbolize the standards and
quality of the United States.
On the other hand, there are many American brand too which have equal foothold in the
global markets such as the Warner Brother Motion Pictures. However, globalization has initiated
challenges too fir the brands as it has initiated opportunities. Since the customers nowadays have
so many options for a single product, the pressure on the brands has increased to maintain their
attractiveness and innovativeness. Notably, the international marketing not only includes just the
language, but it also consists of market saturation, culture and customer behaviors. The
American and the European companies have converted their international marketing operations
into a state more valuable than just exporting.
They have adapted their marketing strategies according to the demographics, consumer
behaviors and the world markets. The consumer behavior and the demographics is brilliant
followed by the Coca –Cola company. The company was well aware that in Latin America, the
word ‘diet’ is negatively treated. Hence, the company changed the name of ‘diet coke’ and
converted to ‘Coke Lite’. In a nutshell, the international marketing is nothing but the

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implementation of the marketing principles in various countries of the world. It is rather an
extension of the local marketing strategy applied by the companies. It is a multinational process
of distributing new ideas, services, goods and executing the conception in order to establish
exchanges which meet the organizational and individual goals. This paper will be dedicated to
the understanding of the concept of international marketing including the theories like brand
awareness, brand equity, brand positioning and brand strategy.
Literature Map
A literature review map is helpful in presenting a graphical picture to visualize the
relative relationships and connections between various theories and aspects. The mapping shows
that the association between the various literatures can be helpful in identifying and
demonstrating issues such as brand equity, brand awareness, brand positioning, strategy and the
international marketing. The mapping helps make the connections based on the findings. Having
analyzed a particular paper using the critical techniques, the mapping of the literature shows how
it is in contrast with other already analyzed paper. In short, it is the identification of the key
concept of the particular literature. There are various types of research methodologies in the field
of academic research. The first research method used is of the stock return response model in
order to investigate the development in the international market which comprises of the
companies based on their quality measures accepted. The paper of Bartsch, Riefler and
Diamantopoulos (2016) has resulted to be one of their significant equipment for the business
managers since it was the first paper to investigate the optimistic relation between the quality
standards of companies which is viewed by the customers and also the firms value evaluated by
the price of the stock. The rest three of the approaches are the Fama French three –factor model
especially in the article of Çifci et al. (2016). This model is also widely used for the purpose of

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studying the finance and marketing interfaces and the report has also picked two of the research
papers that are the most connected with the brand awareness and the brand equity. Along with
this, in the paper of Davvetas and Diamantopoulos (2016), another model has been used in order
to understand the effects of brand equity on the stakeholders and the market. The value market
model has been used by the other researchers evidently in the article of Godey et al. (2016). This
research is one of the most focused papers on the market values of the business organizations and
also clearly depicts the price to earning proportions and ratios. It has been found that this model
is less popular because no significant research had been carried out using this particular model in
the field of research. In the year 2013, a new model has been introduced and also has become a
special point of interest in many research fields. The scholars and the researchers like Hsu and
Lawrence (2016), use this method the most in the finance studies and the accounting studies. It is
more focused on the analysis of the impact of the marketing related events on the financial
markets. This literature map would be useful for the division of the research articles into three
different methodologies. However, the research papers can also be divided on the basis of
different approaches and models. The next section of the paper will discuss this in detail.
The research questions, theories and methods
It is true that for the conduction of the academic research in any sphere, it is highly useful
to have alternative research processes. This is because it can conclude various quality results
which might have been absent if the entire research has only concentrated on a single model or
theory. Likewise, the understanding of different factors associated to the brand equity of the firm
and its impacts on the stock process of the company and the researchers have equally utilized
different models. The article listed in the first table have used different models and known as the

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independent variables in order to study their influence on a specific dependant variable which is
the value of the firm measured by unnecessary stock returns.
Author Research Questions Methodology used
Bartsch, Riefler and
Diamantopoulos (2016)
The financial value impact of
the perpetual brand attributes
Case study approach
Çifci et al. (2016) The performance of the
firm’s stock market which
possess high value
companies.
Frame French three factor
model
Davvetas and
Diamantopoulos (2016)
Do the stakeholders actually
profit from the brands
Event study process
Godey et al. (2016) The market reaction to the
corporate change of names
Case study approach
Hsu and Lawrence (2016) The relevance of the brand
attitude in the markets of high
technology
Market value model
Kumar (2016) The financial information of
the perceived quality
The time series model
Liu and Chou (2016) The effects of brand value
announcements on the stock
Case study approach

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return.
Liu et al. (2016) The capital market evaluation
and the brand value
Market value model
Mohd Suki (2016) A test of two of the brand
value models
Y & R BAV Model
Oguztimur and Akturan
(2016)
The brand positioning
associations with the brand
value
Case study approach
Christodoulides, Cadogan and
Veloutsou (2015)
The performance of the
global brands in after the
globalization.
Market value model
Sasmita and Mohd Suk
(2015)
Case study approach
Some authors have put their effort on the investigation of whether a brand’s perceived quality
through the customers have a prolonged gain in the profitability of the firm’s measures having
used the stock return response model. This model mainly puts efforts to investigate and infuse all
the methods of accounting related to a company and also the performance of the capital market
or the stock returns. This research paper has also used the time series analytical methodology in
order to depict the fact that when few data points are gathered and used, they can be easily
accounted for the for the pre-structure inter relation. These are automatically correlated,
distributed uniformly in the various trends or the variations. The variables employed in the

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research paper were the quality perception of the customers, expenditures on the customers and
the brand awareness of the companies selected. These were the independent variables. Among
the dependable variables, for this research was the ROI or the return on investment that is
actually the bulk of returns an investor receives after investing in the stock of a specific
company. The findings state that there is a positive correlation between the ROI and the
perceived quality by the customers. It further demonstrates that when a company succeeds in
retaining the quality standards through a long period of time for the products and service which
they offer, they can easily generate the returns in future. However, there is no such remarkable
relation found between the ROI and the salience. The results for the advertisement were with
insufficient data collected for the expenditure on the advertisement since the author was not able
to find data from all the firms.
Another important research has been conducted in exploring the brand positioning and
the brand value share by using the market value model approach. After viewing the brand value
in this manner, the researchers have put effort on the incorporation of both tangible and
intangible related factors with the brand. The research paper is also descriptive of the cross
correlation done by the Financial World Magazine regarding the brand value estimation.
Founded on the similar model, anther research has been conducted. This research also depicted
an optimistic connection between the estimations of the brand value with the stock value of the
company but the variables which are taken for this particular paper were the operating limits of
the company and its remarkable share in the market. In order to generate robust findings, the
researchers have rebalanced the portfolio.
A critique of two selected methodologies in the literature Review:

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Prior to examining the articles, it would be essential to mention that most of the studies
related to the financial evaluations observe both the qualitative and quantitative data collection
method. The main aim of this method is to anticipate, investigate and explain the association
between the various sets of variables and to analyze probable influences on the results. As a
difference to the qualitative methods, the quantitative method employs a larger sample size in
order to check the numerical data by the help of comparing or searching the correlation among
the attributes of the sample in order to generalize the results with a target group or a population.
Hence, the current paper has tried to analyze the various methodologies applied in the
quantitative approach with their limitations too.
Article 1
Christodoulides, G., Cadogan, J.W. and Veloutsou, C., 2015. Consumer-based brand equity
measurement: lessons learned from an international study. International Marketing
Review, 32(3/4), pp.307-328.
How was the research method applied
This particular paper analyzes the role of Aaker’s strong conceptualization of the
consumer-based brand equity that includes brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality and
brand association in a multi – European context and also highlights the serious lessons along
with the evaluation of the brand assets across any countries. The methodology or approach used
by this paper this that the cross -category data was gathered through a different survey which
took two months from a representative sample of the customers on three of the European
countries like UK, Greece and Germany. The brand equity was found to be the specification of
the constituents of the customer based dimensions and the brand awareness, perceived quality

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and associations and brand loyalty. According to Aaker, there were no need to develop a
measure for this. Although there were other researchers, who have validated the sales around the
dimensions of Aaker, it is ntable that none were beyond facing problems (Christodoulides,
Cadogan and Veloutsou 2015). Hence, instead of depending in single available measure of brand
equity, the different measures from various studies are brought about in this paper in order to
expand the item pool and evaluate the measures of Aaker’s notions.
The brand awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty and association were transformed
into short questions and were sent to a group of experts to be examined to the face validity. The
respondents to the invitation were eight experts specifically the senior academics and with
remarkable publishers in the field of brand equity. The questionnaire was at first pre-tested on
the sample of students in the UK. After that, the instrument was “back translated” into Greek and
German by the academics of the marketing and the native speakers of Greece and Germany with
English fluency (Christodoulides, Cadogan and Veloutsou 2015). There were quotas set for the
gender and age based on the country census data in order to ensure the samples which were
collected from various areas each country populations. The recruitment of the respondents was
done by the fieldworkers who were residents of the selected countries. Data was collected from
various locations of the countries. Each respondent was asked to choose their favorite brand from
the categories. The request to the respondents to respond to the question asked to them were
evaluated properly.
Contribution of the method to Theory and Research
This type of research methodology is useful in the field of academic research and in this
paper it has facilitated the consumer –based brand equity dimensionality. The questionnaire
method has been useful in the research field to gather the quantitative data. This is advantageous

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because it is the most-low cost way to reach people and a generous approach too. There is less
printing cost and there is no need to hire the surveyors to ask questions to people. Next, the
questionnaires are practical and flexible along with being inexpensive. The groups are targeted
and managed in various ways. The short questionnaires are useful in picking the question and
answering swiftly.
Limitations of the Study
The research paper has its limitations which in turn might pave way for further research.
The paper has depicted the concern over the importance of Aaker’s conceptualization of the
brand equity that is consumer based across the countries of Europe along with the product
categories. The findings of the research must be verified on the basis of other diverse contexts.
They could have also identified the fluctuation in their brand equity levels and at the same time
take necessary actions (Christodoulides, Cadogan and Veloutsou 2015). The limitations of the
research method are- dishonesty can be perpetuated by the questionnaire type of methodology.
The respondents who answered the questions might not be truthful completely. It can be initiated
by several reasons such as the social desirability, attempt to protect privacy and biasness. There
might be lack of conscientious responses from the respondents or the respondents might not have
thought about the answers before answering them (Christodoulides, Cadogan and Veloutsou
2015). There might be differences in the understanding an interpretation of the answers. Each
answer might have different interpretations in terms of the questions. The respondents also might
have faced trouble in grasping the meaning of the question which might seem clear to the
question setter.
Article 2

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Sasmita, J. and Mohd Suki, N., 2015. Young consumers’ insights on brand equity: Effects of
brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Management, 43(3), pp.276-292.
The modern business organizations are facing the impact of the brand awareness and the
brand loyalty in a significant manner. The intention of the customers’ purchases along with the
repetitive purchases of the customers are notably influenced by the brand awareness or the brand
loyalty of any particular organization. This is the main reason behind strong emphasis of the
modern day organizations in the improvement of the brand image and the brand equity. It is
observed that the preferences of the customers in purchasing, are significantly influenced by the
above mentioned aspects of the business. In order to assess the young consumer’s insights
regarding the brand image, brand equity, brand loyalty, brand awareness and the impact of the
brand association, Sasmita and Mohd Suki (2015) researched and was able to form few
hypothesis like the brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness and the brand image have
positive impact on the brand equity.
Methodology:
In the research, the data which was analysed, was gathered by a self-administered
questionnaire. The number of questionnaires sent for the responses to the full time students in
several public universities of Penang were 250 in number. This was conducted within the time
span of two week starting from 16th July to 30th July of 2013. The convenience sampling
technique was utilized to collect 200 responses with an 80 percent response rate. As Roscoe in
the year 1975 was able to confirm that the sampling size of 30 to 500 samples are usually
considered as satisfactory, the sample size for the mentioned research is reasonable. The young
consumers who were generally the full time students with a smartphone which portrays that he or

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she is a member of the digital generation and actively participates in the social networking and
also had significant experience of purchasing products from the world known brands like Adidas,
Levi’s, Puma and Nike in the last 1 year, were the main focus of the sample size. The selection
of the brands needs to be from a specific criteria may that be the casual wear or the sports
clothes. The main focus in the selection of the brands is to make sure that they belong to a
particular sector of analysis. Apart from this, the researchers were observed to confirm that the
participation of the respondents are voluntary.
The researchers constructed the structure of the close ended questionnaire which was
used in the research with three different sections in the form of the section A, section B and
finally the section C. The section A of the questionnaire included the questions regarding the
demographic profile of the respondents including the age, sex, race and the school of the
respondents. The section B comprised with the questions regarding the specific experience of the
respondent with the products of the mentioned brand and the section C was significantly filled
with questions regarding the factors that affect the brand equity. The structure of the section C
was adapted from Ling (2013) and the various aspects of the social media were included as a
modification of the items of the section C in accordance to the domain of the study. The
implementation of the 5 point Likert scale was observed for answering of the questionnaire
items. The five point Likert scale was seen to range from Strongly agree to Strongly Disagree.
The data gathered in the research, were analysed using the various analytical methods like the
descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis and
was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21. The main objective
of implementing the factor analysis was to categorize and summarize the related information into
a considerably smaller set of underlying factors. In case of the Pearson correlations, the main