Business-to-business marketing practices in

West Africa, Argentina and the United States

Kofi Q. Dadzie and Wesley J. Johnston
J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and

Jaqueline Pels
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Minones, Argentina
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to examine the nature of business-to-business marketing practices in two West African nations, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and
compare them with marketing practices in another emerging market economy (Argentina) and a developed economy (the USA).
Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected in both West African nations, Argentina and the USA, using a standard survey
instrument used in previous contemporary marketing practice (CMP) studies. Descriptive statistics were used to determine cross-national differences in
intensity of use of various CMP activities in Ghana and the Ivory Coast in comparison with Argentina and the USA. Then, cross-national differences in
various combinations of marketing practices were identified using cluster analysis.
Findings Business-to-business marketing practices in West African nations conform with the CMP framework in that firms practise both transactional
marketing and relationship marketing simultaneously. However, there are differences in the intensity and scope of business-to-business marketing practices
in Ghana and the Ivory Coast in comparison with Argentina and the USA. While West African business-to-business firms emphasize traditional
transactional marketing with some network marketing components, Argentine firms have a greater emphasis on pluralistic marketing and interaction
marketing. By contrast, US firms practise pluralistic marketing (transactional, database, interaction, and networking) with some transactional marketing
activities. In addition, West African business-to-business firms are similar to Argentine firms in that a proportion of firms practise marketing at a low level of
intensity and rarely use database marketing. These differences are attributable to the nature of market conditions in West Africa.
Research limitations/implications The CMP results generalize to West African nations. However, a direct correspondence is unlikely because of the
dominance of transactional marketing practice among West African firms. Further research needs to investigate a broader set of institutional
environments in order to provide a clear link between CMP and environmental conditions in emerging African markets.
Practical implications Managers can determine the appropriateness of international benchmarks for West African market conditions.
Originality/value Linking CMP to market conditions in the paper provides an extension to the validity of the CMP framework.
Keywords Marketing strategy, West Africa, Argentina, United States of America, Emerging markets, Business-to-business marketing
Paper type Research paper

1999) for managerial practice. One stream of research has

recently begun a longitudinal, cross-national investigation
designed to link academic and practitioners views of
marketing practices. This stream of research, organized
under the umbrella of the Contemporary Marketing
Practice (CMP)[1] program, has improved our
understanding of how marketing in practice differs from the
academic literature. In particular, the CMP research program
suggests that the classic transactional marketing paradigm and
the relational marketing paradigm co-exist, and that firms
serve their markets in a variety of ways, contingent upon
market conditions (Coviello et al., 2002).
Although the CMP framework has a universal appeal, much
more empirical research needs to be done to improve our
cumulative understanding of contemporary marketing in
global markets. This is especially true for emerging and
transitioning economies (Faria and Wensley, 2000). Much of

An executive summary for managers and executive

readers can be found at the end of this issue.

Introduction
Changes taking place in the business environment worldwide
have led to a resurgence of academic debate about the nature
of marketing practice and its validity within the contemporary
business environment (Brown, 2005; Day and Montgomery,
1999; Gronroos, 1991; Kotler, 1992; Webster, 1992). The
extant literature suggests that marketing has gradually evolved
from the classic transactional marketing paradigm to a more
process-based relational marketing paradigm. However, some
scholars have questioned the relevance of the academic
literature (Coviello et al., 2002; Sheth and Sisodia, 1999;
Price and Arnould, 1999; Varadarajan and Jayachandran,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0885-8624.htm

The data for the Ivory Coast were collected as part of a collaborative effort
with the University of Cocody under USA Information Agency Grant No.
IA-ASJL-G8190027, and with the financial support of the Center for
Business and Industrial Marketing at Georgia State University. The
authors would like to thank Ralf Wagner and Rod Brodie, Andre Torres
Urdan and other JBIM reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft
of this paper, and Seth Buatsi for help in data collection.

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing

23/2 (2008) 115 123
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624]
[DOI 10.1108/08858620810850236]

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Volume 23 Number 2 2008 115 123

the empirical work using the CMP framework (for a review,

see Brodie et al., 2008) has been conducted in Western
industrialized nations, with the exception of the recent work
in Argentina (Pels et al., 2004; Pels and Brodie, 2003), and
Russia (Wagner, 2005). Because of its focus on business-tobusiness firms, the conclusions from the Argentina study are
of special interest to this study. Based on a comparative study
of business-to-business marketing practices in Argentina, the
USA and New Zealand, Pels et al. (2004) concluded that,
although business-to-business marketing practice in
Argentina conforms to the pluralistic nature of marketing
posited under the CMP framework, there were some
important differences in the scope of marketing practices
between Argentina, the USA and New Zealand. Among them
was the low level of marketing practice by some Argentine
firms and the heavy emphasis on interaction marketing as a
function of the Argentine social environment (Pels et al.,
2004). Given that Argentinas economy is larger than most
emerging economies, there is a need for more research on
other emerging nations with much smaller economies, less
developed free-market governance systems, and different
social and economic conditions.
In this study, we extend the Argentine study by Pels et al.
(2004) to West African business-to-business marketing firms
by addressing two research questions. The first question
relates to whether the domain of business-to-business
marketing in West Africa is more (or less) transactional than
relational when compared to marketing practice in the USA
and in Argentina. This issue is at the heart of the CMP
proposition that firms practice transactional marketing,
relationship marketing and a hybrid of both with similar
levels of intensity. Thus, knowledge of the relevance of
relationship marketing relative to traditional transactional
marketing is important in establishing the validity of the CMP
framework in emerging African economies as well as in
providing benchmarks for new and multinational firms in
these nations.
The second research question addressed is whether market
conditions that are linked to business-to-business marketing
practices in the West African nations are similar to those in
Argentina. This issue is becoming critical to our
understanding of the differences between small and big
emerging market economies as these nations are increasingly
being characterized on the basis of the size of their economies.
Thus, Argentina, like other large economies, such as Brazil,
China and India, is characterized as a big emerging market
(BEM) (Cateora and Graham, 2007). Empirical investigation
of environmental conditions that account for differences in
marketing practices between BEMs and small emerging
markets (SEMs) is sparse.
We chose West African nations for this study because,
among emerging nations, African business practices are
under-researched (e.g., Okoroafo, 2004) and, therefore,
worthy of inclusion in the CMP research efforts. Although
considerable research has been done on marketing in African
nations (e.g., Arnould and Mohr, 2005; Akaah et al., 1988;
Bonsu and Belk, 2003) these scholars have not been
concerned with the domain of contemporary marketing.
Consequently, we chose Ghana and the Ivory Coast for the
empirical investigation of CMP theoretical framework.
Additionally, both nations are considered to be among the
few African nations with attractive opportunities for foreign
direct investments (Hirsch, 2000).

Furthermore, Ghana and the Ivory Coast provide good

examples of business-to-business marketing practices in SEM
nations so comparisons can be made with practices in
Argentina, which is a BEM, and the USA, which is a
developed economy. As the summary census data in Table I
indicate, the economies of both West African nations are
under $20 billion as compared to Argentinas economy of
$182 billion and the US economy of $13 trillion. However,
both African countries have been implementing market
reforms aimed at ensuring private enterprise and free
market economy. The economy of Ghana has averaged a
5.8 percent growth rate as compared to Argentinas growth
rate of 9.2 percent and the 3.5 percent rate for the USA.
Because of political instability, Cote dIvoires economic
growth rate was negative (0.3 percent) in 2005 (World Bank,
2005). Thus, the second research question seeks to determine
the environmental conditions that are linked to business-tobusiness marketing practices in West Africa.
The paper proceeds by first reviewing the business
marketing environment in the West African nations of
Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Next, we present the studys
methodology and analysis of the data. Finally, we discuss the
results and the managerial and theoretical implications.

Ghana and the Ivory Coast as emerging markets

The term emerging economies has been used variously to
describe the economies of former middle income countries,
newly industrialized countries, and developing nations that
satisfy one of three conditions. The first condition is that the
economy must meet a certain level of absolute economic
development as measured by gross domestic product (GDP).
The second condition is that the economy must have been
going through a rapid period of economic growth, while the
third condition pertains to the pursuit of market reforms
based on a market governance system (Arnold and Quelch,
1998; IFC, 1999). Based on the notion that any of these
conditions can be used to characterize a nation as an
emerging market, Hoskinsson et al. (2000) identified 61
emerging market nations including China and former Soviet
block nations. Only seven Sub-Saharan African countries
were included in the 61 emerging economies, including
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda and
Zimbabwe.
Most African nations are SEM nations as compared to the
BEM nations, such as Argentina, China, and India. As such,
several distinct differences may be discerned among them on
the basis of the three conditions for attaining emerging
economy status. With respect to economic growth, many
African nations have lagged behind their counterparts in Asia
and Latin America as the result of poor performance of
structural adjustment programs put in place in the 1980s.
Market governance has yet to be firmly established in many
African nations, and changes in governments often imply
changes in trading policies. As a result, doing business in
emerging African nations is challenging.
Ghana has a population of 22 million and an economy
based on the export of cocoa and natural mineral resources
such as gold, diamond, bauxite, and manganese. With an
income per capita of $400 (World Bank, 2005), Ghanas
economy is typical of most African economies. The country
has pursued a structural adjustment program under World
Bank supervision since the 1980s. As a result, the economy
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Table I Micro economic indicators of business environment

Indicatora

USA

Ghana

Ivory Coast

Argentina

296.5
13,000.0
3.5
43,740

22.2
10.7
5.8
450

18.2
16.1
2 0.3
850

38.7
183.3
9.2
4,470

Structure
Industry (%)
Services (%)
Agriculture (%)
Number of internet users (per 1,000)

24.2
74.6
1.2
630

24.6
36.6
38.8
17

Starting a businessb
Procedures (number)
Time (in days)
Cost to import (US$/container)
Procedures (number)

10
5
625
17

Population (in millions)

Gross domestic product (in billions)
Real GDP growth rate/annum (%)
GNI per capita (US$)

12
81
842
29

21.20
57.5
21.7
16.8
11
45
1,395
25

35.6
54.0
10.4
133.4
15
32
1,750
33

Sources: a World Bank (2005); b World Bank (2007)

seek to investigate the relevance of the CMP framework for

current market conditions in two West African nations; Ghana
and the Ivory Coast.

has experienced rapid growth of 5.8 percent per annum in

recent years. A recent World Bank survey of the nature of
business sectors indicates that Ghana has moved into the top
100 countries in its rankings of how easy it is to do business
(World Bank, 2007). The political environment has been
described as very stable during the past three decades and the
volume of business-to-business activities is expected to grow
in the future.
The Ivory Coast is located west of Ghana with a population
of 18.2 million people and a strong economy based on the
cultivation and export of cocoa. Its income per capita of
nearly $850 (World Bank, 2005) is one of the highest in
Africa. The nation, however, has been embroiled in a civil war
for the past decade. Hence, the continued economic growth
of the Ivory Coast, despite the looming civil war, is
remarkable and the volume of business-to-business activity
should increase with improvement in the political stability.
The environmental conditions in Ghana and the Ivory
Coast are similar to those of most African nations. However,
they also differ from conditions in BEMs, such as Argentina.
With a population of 38.7 million (World Bank, 2005), and
income per capita of $4,470 (World Bank, 2005), Argentinas
economy is much bigger than that of most emerging African
economies and meets most of the important features of a big
emerging market economy, including physical size, strong rate
of growth, political importance, and a regional economic
driver (Cateora and Graham, 2007).
Although market conditions in emerging African economies
are different and are moving steadily towards free-market
economy type, there are still barriers that warrant caution in
the application of theories tested in advanced economies to
current conditions in emerging African nations. One such
barrier is that the fragile market economy is liable to change
because of limited economic prosperity and persistent state
control. These conditions imply that economic shortages still
do occur and when they do, managers may find it difficult to
implement any form of marketing strategies. Similarly, the
effects of economic shortages can impact the relevance of
Western marketing practices in various types of markets in
Africa (Akaah et al., 1988; Dadzie, 1989). Consequently, we

The CMP framework

The potential value of the CMP framework for explaining
marketing practices in emerging African economies derives
from the fact that its theoretical foundation draws from a
variety of constructs including relationship marketing,
resource dependency theory, channel research, and network
relationships, strategic management, and information
technology (Coviello et al., 2002). Under the CMP
framework, marketing is operationalized as a comprehensive
process comprising the following nine activities:
1 purpose of exchange;
2 nature of communication;
3 type of contact;
4 duration of exchange;
5 formality in exchange;
6 managerial intent;
7 managerial focus;
8 managerial investment; and
9 managerial level.
The Appendix presents the full definition of each activity.
These nine activities are then used to measure contemporary
marketing along four dimensions: transactional marketing,
database marketing, interaction marketing, and network
marketing.
According to the CMP framework, transactional marketing
(TM) refers to the exchange process between customers and
suppliers characterized by discrete economic transactions that
are conducted at arms length with emphasis on a formal and
impersonal process. Database marketing (DM) is offered as
the next stage in transitioning from a transactional marketing
to relational marketing emphasis. Firms at this stage
undertake very limited ongoing relationships and rely on
technology to personalize relationships. The third type of
relationship marketing, interaction marketing (IM), is
characterized by reliance on face-to-face communication to
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Volume 23 Number 2 2008 115 123

pursue complex and personal interactions with customers.

Finally, firms in the network marketing (NM) stage are
characterized as emphasizing total relationships with
members in a market or industry (Coviello et al., 2002). It
is important to note that these four aspects of marketing
practice within the CMP framework are not mutually
exclusive and are, therefore, relevant to all supply-demand
relationships, thus making them suitable for comparing the
business-to-business marketing practices of firms in emerging
and developed economies. However, given the different
market conditions in emerging African nations, we investigate
the application of the CMP framework in explaining
marketing practices in these nations.

Table II Company characteristics

USA
Ghana
Ivory Coast Argentina
(n 5 60)
(n 5 83)
(n 5 114) (n 5 112)

Methodology
To examine marketing practices in West Africa in comparison
with marketing practices in Argentina and the USA, we
conducted field surveys of business marketing practices in
Ghana, the Ivory Coast and the USA, using the same
instrument employed by Pels et al. (2004) for their study in
Argentina.
Data collection procedures and sample characteristics
The data used for this research were collected following the
procedure used by Coviello et al. (2002). Following the CMP
protocol (see http://cmp.auckland.ac.nz/), the survey was
administered by working MBA students in to managers in
their firms. Participants received the survey during the first
week of a marketing class and were asked to collect the data as
a take-home project. This non-probabilistic data
administration process allowed for close supervision by the
instructors as part of their class projects, an approach that is
common in international marketing studies (Neelankavil et al.,
2000), where controlling the potential effect of field
conditions on the quality of the data is very critical (Dadzie
et al., 2002).
In all countries, steps were taken to minimize potential bias
from the use of student interviewers. Students were trained on
how to administer the surveys, as well as the importance of
administering the survey to the most senior marketing
manager in the company who was most knowledgeable
about the firms marketing activities.
In Ghana the questionnaire was administered in English
and in French to the Ivory Coast samples because these are
the business languages used. The Ivory Coast survey was a
translated version of the English version used in Ghana. For
the West African surveys additional questions were included
to obtain information about the influence of the changing
nature of the marketing environment and the consequences of
the market liberalization polices in these nations. These were
the influences of changing demand, increased competition,
and increased availability of technology. The survey
instrument was examined for face and content validity by
selected professors in each country before the pre-test in each
country. Based on the pre-test results, further changes were
made, including the length of the questionnaire, which was
shortened by eliminating some of the items related to
environmental conditions. The data collection process for
Argentina is provided by Pels et al. (2004).
Table II provides a summary of the profiles of firms in the
different samples. The distribution of responding firms
focusing on goods versus services is similar for the West

Firm type
Bus-to-bus goods
Bus-to-bus services
Both

25.3
39.7
35.0

46.6
26.4
27.0

43.7
25.0
31.3

36.1
63.9
NAa

Age (years)
5 and under
6-10
Over 10

22.8
8.8
68.4

15.4
29.4
54.2

19.2
30.3
50.5

18.7
32.5
48.8

Employees
20 and fewer
21-100
Over 100

29.2
30.7
40.1

44.3
14.5
41.2

42.5
15.2
42.3

19.0
32.9
38.1

Ownership
Locally owned
Foreign
Joint venture

86.4
7.3
6.3

56.3
5.9
37.8

54.4
20.5
30.1

51.6
NAa
48.4

Export level (%)

None
1-10
More than 10

50.0
10.3
39.7

50.4
37.1
12.5

49.5
38.0
12.5

48.4
25.6
26.0

Note: a Argentina sample was not broken down by these categories

Source: For Argentina Pels et al., 2004, p. 392

African countries and Argentine sample while the USA had

more business-to-business service firms. In all four samples,
the typical firm has been in operation for over ten years and is
locally owned and the proportion of joint venture-owned
firms was similar for Ghana the Ivory Coast and Argentine
firms. Firm size, measured by number of employees, was also
approximately the same across all four countries but Ghana
and the Ivory Coast had a larger number of smaller firms (20
employees or less). In all countries approximately half of the
firms were involved with exporting. Based on the similarities
in the Ivory Coast and Ghana samples, they were
subsequently pooled for the analysis: a t-test revealed no
significant differences among respondents on selected study
variables, including the type of market served (goods versus
service), years in operation and type of ownership (joint
venture versus local ownership).
Data analysis
The comparative analysis of business-to-business marketing
practices across USA, West African and Argentine firms
involved two separate analyses. Consistent with Brodie et al.
(2007), we treated the four marketing activity constructs;
transactional (TM), database (DM), interaction (IM), and
network marketing (NM), as formative measures. This means
that traditional validation measures were not relevant and,
hence, were not applied. In the first analysis, marketing
activity indices for TM, DM, IM, and NM were computed
using the nine items that were used each of the activities to
provide measures of the intensity of each practice (see the
Appendix). The method used was the same as for Pels et al.
(2004) where the nine items were summed and converted to
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Kofi Q. Dadzie, Wesley J. Johnston and Jaqueline Pels

Volume 23 Number 2 2008 115 123

an index ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. Second, we performed

cluster analysis to identify common combinations of
marketing activities (TM, DM, IM, and NM) also in a
similar way to Pels et al. (2004).

in Tables IV-VI, To help facilitate country comparisons, we

also included the results for the Argentina study (Pels et al.,
2004).
For the USA sample the data show that the largest cluster
of business-to-business firms seems to emphasize IM and NM
(51 percent), while the second largest cluster emphasizes
pluralistic marketing. For the West African sample the largest
cluster (48 percent) emphasizes TM, and the second largest
cluster (32 percent) TM/NM, while the smallest cluster (20
percent) reflects a low level of marketing activity performance.
The Argentine results differed from the West African results,
where the largest cluster of firms (50 percent) emphasizes
NM. The second largest Argentine cluster (32 percent)
emphasizes pluralistic marketing in contrast to the TM and
NM emphasis for the second West African cluster. The
smallest and third Argentine cluster (18 percent) is very
similar to the third African cluster by virtue of the low level of
marketing activity.
Our research indicates that West African firms, Argentine
firms, and USA firms use transactional marketing and
network marketing, more or less, to the same extent.
However, database marketing is used only marginally by
West African firms and Argentine firms, while used intensively
by USA firms. In addition, Argentine firms are similar to USA
firms in that they use interaction marketing more extensively
than do West African firms. Collectively, the results suggest
that, in West Africa, business-to-business marketing practice
is still predominantly transactional marketing, followed by a
transactional/network marketing hybrid; while in Argentina

Findings
Incidence of business-to-business marketing practices
The comparisons of the CMP indices are presented in
Table III. For TM, intensity of practice was rated as medium
to high by 68 percent of USA firms, 59 percent of West
African firms and 52 percent of Argentine firms. This pattern
of practice suggests that TM is very actively practiced in all
four countries. However, for DM, the index for medium and
high intensity of practice was highest among USA firms (67
percent), while all the corresponding indices for West African
and Argentine firms were lower at 30 percent and 39 percent,
respectively. This finding also suggests that DM is rarely
practiced in this sample of emerging market nations. With
respect to IM, the medium-high indices were 90 percent for
USA firms and Argentine firms, but only 65 percent for the
West African firms, while the corresponding figure for NM
were 64 percent, 68 percent, and 76 percent for the USA,
West Africa, and Argentina, respectively.
Combinations of business-to-business marketing
practices
Following Pels et al. (2004), the K-mean cluster algorithm
was used to identify common combinations of marketing
practices in each country. The final number of clusters for the
analysis was based on cluster interpretability and
homogeneity. The analysis yielded three clusters of
marketing practices in each country, with the Ghana and
Ivory Coast samples combined. The results for the cluster
analysis for the USA and West African samples are provided

Table IV Clusters analysis results US sample

Cluster label
Transactional
Database
Interaction
Network
Percentage of firms

Table III Comparison of marketing activity index values (%)

USA Ghana & Ivory Coast Argentinaa
(n 5 114)
(n 5 1172)
(n 5 183)

Pluralistic

IM/NM

TM

Mean (all firms)

0.83
0.81
0.90
0.86
31

0.67
0.65
0.86
0.77
51

0.70
0.60
0.71
0.58
18

0.73
0.69
0.82
0.74

Transactional marketing
Low
Medium
High

32
38
30

40
30
30

48
40
12

Database marketing
Low
Medium
High

32
47
21

70
30
0

60
31
9

Transactional
Database
Interaction
Network
Percentage of firms

Interaction marketing
Low
Medium
High

10
65
25

35
15
50

35
15
50

Table VI Clusters analysis results Argentina sample

Network marketing
Low
Medium
High

Table V Clusters analysis results West African sample

Cluster

Cluster
36
28
36

24
14
54

Transactional
Database
Interaction
Network
Percentage of firms

24
14
54

Note: Index scores less than 0.60 categorized as low, 0.60 to 0.79 as
medium and 0.80 or above as high
Source: a Pels et al. (2004, p. 392)

TM/NM

TM

Low

Mean (all firms)

0.78
0.52
0.47
0.70
32

0.69
0.42
0.39
0.50
48

0.43
0.32
0.27
0.40
20

0.63
0.42
0.38
0.53

Pluralistic

IM/NM

Low

Mean (all firms)

0.68
0.67
0.80
0.73
32

0.51
0.46
0.82
0.71
50

0.60
0.51
0.61
0.51
18

0.61
0.57
0.76
0.68

Source: Pels et al. (2004, p. 393)

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Volume 23 Number 2 2008 115 123

and the USA, it is predominantly relational, followed by

pluralistic marketing.

environmental profile of the West African business conditions

can explain this question In general, West African firms
emphasizing transactional marketing and transactional/
relational marketing are in the early stages of the evolution
of marketing practice. Where market conditions are far less
demanding, the norm appears to a low level of intensity of
marketing practice. As free market competitive conditions
become more intense, some emerging market firms emphasize
transactional marketing and combine these with one aspect of
relational marketing. This stage of combination marketing
is found in small emerging markets such as those in West
Africa as well as in a big emerging market such as Argentina.
However, the emphasis is on pluralistic marketing as found in
both big emerging market economy (Argentina) and the USA
is not prevalent.

Linking CMP to market conditions

To explain business-to-business marketing practice in terms of
the prevailing market conditions in West African nations,
additional profiles were derived for the three CMP clusters
derived in earlier analysis by using the three measures of the
environmental dynamism construct. These variables included
changing demand environment (five items), the competitive
environment (five items), and the technological environment
(five items). Table VII presents the results of the cluster
analysis. The largest cluster transactional marketing has the
highest scores on competitive intensity, while the second largest
cluster, the transactional/networking hybrid cluster, has the
highest scores on all three environmental variables. This finding
suggests that West African business-to-business marketing
practice is clearly contingent on the level of environmental
stability; that is, firms characterized as facing more turbulent
consumer demand, in a competitive and technological
environment, tend to emphasize networking/transactional
marketing activities, while firms operating in less dynamic
market environments tend to practice very little marketing.

Managerial implications
The results have several managerial implications. The first
implication is the need for caution when seeking to improve
business-to-business marketing practices under current
conditions of free-market polices and reforms in West African
nations. The study results suggest that managers need to be
cognizant of the fact that some of the international benchmarks
reflected in other emerging market economies, such as
Argentina, and the industrialized nations, such as the USA,
may lack relevance for West African firms. This is especially true
of database marketing. Hence, heavy investment in database
technology may not be the most effective use of limited
resources for most West African firms. Similar implications are
suggestive of our findings relating to interaction marketing
activities. Firms in this study make less use of interaction
marketing activities, perhaps as an adaptation to the low level of
dynamism in the current marketing environment, while
interaction marketing is relatively more important in
Argentina. Hence, the usefulness of interaction marketing may
increase as the marketing environment becomes more dynamic.
In addition, firms in more dynamic markets need to benchmark
their marketing activities in the transactional and relational
marketing areas, as happens in Argentina. For the majority of
firms, however, the traditional transactional marketing activities
may be the norm. For other firms facing increasing customer
demand and competition, the development and configuration of
network relationships with other firms and government agencies
may be critical for survival.
Another implication derives from the narrow focus of West
African business-to-business marketing practices in
comparison to that of the industrialized Western markets,
such as the USA. While our study suggests that the narrow
focus may be a function of the lack of competitive pressure, a
myriad of other factors may also account for this focus.
Therefore, this finding cannot be asserted with confidence
until the influence of other environmental factors, (such as the
nature of state control on marketing decisions and activities,
organizational culture, leadership influences, etc.), have been
considered.

Implications
Empirical results
Given the changes taking place in the global environment,
there is interest in determining whether changes in marketing
practices are uniform between firms in the developed nations
and emerging market economies (Pels et al., 2004). Our
findings support this claim in that we consistently found that
some firms combine both dimensions of marketing while other
firms emphasize one or the other in all four countries Ghana,
the Ivory Coast, Argentina, and the USA. From the perspective
of emerging African economies, our findings suggest that both
local and foreign competition may use the international
benchmarks in establishing marketing programs in Ghana and
the Ivory Coast. As in the case of Argentina, some low level of
marketing activity occurs for a certain proportion of firms in
Ghana and the Ivory Coast, while a combination of
transactional and relationship marketing is the norm.
There are distinct differences between West African
practices and the international benchmarks involving
Argentina and the USA One such difference is the emphasis
on transactional over pluralistic marketing obtained in the
USA and Argentina. While the CMP framework proposes
that pluralistic marketing is one of the major international
benchmarks across all markets, the West African results
suggest that pluralistic marketing is not that common. Rather,
transactional marketing is more the norm.
Thus the question arises why is transactional marketing
more prevalent than relational marketing in West Africa? The
Table VII Environmental profile of West African clusters
Cluster
a

Level of competition
Technological changea
Changing demand pressuresa

TM/NM

TM

Low

3.3
3.5
3.2

3.1
1.5
1.9

1.0
2.2
1.7

Theoretical implications
Our study has important theoretical implications, especially as
it relates to the applicability of the CMP framework in a
global context involving small emerging markets economies,
big emerging market economies and industrialized market
economies. We found that, although firms practice pluralistic
marketing regardless of the type of economy (SEM, BEM,

Note: a Five-point scale with 5 strong pressure and 1 low pressure

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Kofi Q. Dadzie, Wesley J. Johnston and Jaqueline Pels

Volume 23 Number 2 2008 115 123

and industrialized market economy), the scope and intensity

of pluralistic marketing vary in a seemingly evolutionary
pattern with SEM at the bottom of the pattern, BEM in the
middle and advanced market economies at the top. This
pattern corresponds to the market pyramid pattern (Cateora
and Graham, 2007). Thus, CMP in countries at the bottom
of the market pyramid, such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast
and Argentina, have a large proportion of firms with a low
level of intensity of marketing practice across both domains.
As firms in SEMs face significant competitive market
conditions, they integrate transactional marketing with some
components of relationship marketing, while their
counterparts in BEMs such as Argentina integrate pluralistic
marketing. These firms may be operating at market
conditions that parallel middle of the market pyramid
conditions. Finally, a high level of intensity of pluralistic
marketing occurs as firms reach the top of the market
pyramid, as is reflected in the dominance of pluralistic
marketing practices in the USA and Argentina.

should focus on additional theoretical analysis of CMP. Such

analysis may consider institutional theory to explain how
conformity emerges in marketing practices. Similarly, future
analysis that tests resource dependency and transaction cost
theory seems to hold promise for systematic examination of
CMP practices around the world. Ideally, future analysis of this
kind should focus on both country-specific studies, as well
comparative studies in order to increase our cumulative
understanding of the nature of CMP in both BEMs and SEMs.

Note
1 The CMP web page provides a complete description of
the CMP project, aims, research program and list of
publications http://cmp.auckland.ac.nz

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Dadzie, K.Q., Johnston, W.J., Yoo, B. and Brashear, T.
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Future research
To compare our results with the CMP study in Argentina, we
limited our study to only business-to-business firms and,
therefore, our findings may not be generalizable to the full
CMP framework proposed by Coviello et al. (2002). So,
future study should replicate the full CMP framework in
emerging markets to fully confirm the generalizability of the
framework in emerging African economies. In addition, many
emerging markets operate under conditions of strong state
intervention in marketing activities, a feature that is not
recognized by the CMP framework. Therefore, future
research could consider the impact of state intervention on
CMP activities, especially among firms characterized as
engaging in low marketing activities.
We believe that expanding the CMP framework to emerging
economies is extremely important for several reasons. First, as
Prahalad and Hart (2002) point out, the GDP of the
emerging economies is collectively (as a market) larger than
the GDP of Japan, Germany, France, the UK and Italy
combined. This market is not to be ignored. Thus, the study
of emerging markets and how marketing is practiced in these
countries are extremely relevant both to academics and to
managers. Second, the dominance of emerging market
nations in the global market economies, especially BEM
nations, may call for a reconceptualization of marketing to
reflect the emerging nations, characterized by consumers with
lower purchasing power. In this regard, the recent efforts of
the CMP studies in Argentina (Pels et al., 2004), Russia
(Wagner, 2005), and in Africa are but an initial step.
Collectively, these studies show the important differences
between developing and transitional markets (i.e. Argentina
versus Russia), between SEM and BEM (West Africa versus
Argentina), and between developed and emerging markets
(USA versus West Africa versus Argentina). The
heterogeneity of our findings suggests that further studies
are needed (i.e. India and China) in order to improve our
understanding of how CMP is conducted in these regions.
Another important aspect that these studies highlight is that
there is a link between contextual and historical factors and
choice of marketing practice. Tying together all the various
contextual factors that influence the practice of marketing
under the variety of global market conditions requires a new
theoretical framework and sound theory. Thus, future work
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Volume 23 Number 2 2008 115 123

Further reading

Faria, A. and Wensley, R. (2000), Marketing management

within networks: revelations about the research process and
cultural specificity as prospects for reconciliation between
practice and academe, in Pels, J. and Stewart, D.W. (Eds),
Marketing in a Global Economy, The International Marketing
Educators Conference, American Marketing Association,
New York, NY.
Gronroos, C. (1991), The marketing strategy continuum:
toward a marketing concept for the 1990s, Management
Decision, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 7-13.
Hirsch, S. (2000), Africas potential as emerging market
cited, UN Business Weekly, available at: www.globalpolicy.
org/socecon/inequal.afrfdi.htm
Hoskinsson, R.E., Eden, L., Lau, C.M. and Wright, M.
(2000), Strategy in emerging economies, Academy of
Management Journal, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 249-67.
International Finance Corporation (IFC) (1999), available at:
www.ifc/EMDB/SLIDES/img009.glf
Kotler, P. (1992), Marketings new paradigm: what is really
happening out there?, Planning Review, Vol. 20 No. 5,
pp. 50-2.
Neelankavil, J.P., Mathur, A. and Zhang, Y. (2000),
Determinants of managerial performance: a crosscultural comparison of the perceptions of middle-level
managers in four countries, Journal of International
Business Studies, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 121-40.
Okoroafo, S.C. (2004), Marketing orientation, practices,
and performance of Sub-Saharan African firms: a review,
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Pels, J. and Brodie, R.J. (2003), Profiling marketing practice
in an emerging economy: the Argentine case, Journal of
Global Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 67-91.
Pels, J., Brodie, R.J. and Johnston, W.J. (2004),
Benchmarking business-to-business marketing practices
in emerging and developed economies: Argentina compared
to the USA and New Zealand, Journal of Business
& Industrial Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 386-96.
Prahalad, C.K. and Hart, S.L. (2002), Fortunes at the
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friendship: service provider-client relationships in
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Varadarajan, P.R. and Jayachandran, S. (1999), Marketing
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Appendix. Marketing practice measures derived

from the nine CMP dimensions
1. Purpose of exchange
When dealing with our market, our focus is on:
.
Generating a profit or other financial measure(s) of
performance (TM).
.
Acquiring customer information (DM).
.
Building a long-term relationship with a specific
customer(s) (IM).
.
Forming strong relationships with a number of
organizations in our market(s) or wider marketing
system (NM).
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2. Nature of communication
Our marketing communication involves:
.
Our organization communicating to the mass market
(TM).
.
Our organization targeting a specifically identified
segment(s) or customer(s) (DM).
.
Individuals at various levels in our organization personally
interacting with their individual customers (IM).
.
Senior managers networking with other managers from
organizations in our market(s) or wider marketing system
(NM).

Develop cooperative relationships with our customers

(IM).
Coordinate activities between ourselves, customers, and
other parties in our wider marketing system (NM).

7. Managerial focus
Our marketing planning is focused on issues related to:
.
Our product/service offering (TM).
.
Customers in our market(s) (DM).
.
Specific customers in our market(s), or individuals in
organizations we deal with (IM).
.
The network of relationships between individuals and
organizations in our wider marketing system (NM).

3. Type of contact
Our organizations contact with our primary customers is:
.
Impersonal (e.g. no individualized or personal contact)
(TM).
.
Somewhat personalized (e.g. by direct mail) (DM).
.
Interpersonal (e.g. involving one-to-one interaction
between people) (IM/NM).

8. Managerial investment
Our marketing resources (e.g. people, time, money) are
invested in:
.
Product, promotion, price, and distribution activities (or
some combination of these) (TM).
.
Technology to improve communication with our
customers (DM).
.
Establishing and building personal relationships with
individual customers (IM).
.
Developing our organizations network relationships
within our market(s) or wider marketing system (NM).

4. Duration of exchange
When a customer buys our products we believe they expect:
.
No future personalized contact with us (TM).
.
Some future personalized contact with us (DM).
.
One-to-one personal contact with us (IM).
.
Ongoing one-to-one personal contact with people in our
organization and wider marketing system (NM).

9. Managerial level
In our organization, marketing activities are carried out by:
.
Functional marketers (e.g. marketing manager, sales
manager, major account manager) (TM).
.
Specialist marketers (e.g. customer service manager,
loyalty manager) (DM).
.
Non-marketers who have responsibility for marketing and
other aspects of the business (IM).
.
The managing director or CEO (NM).

5. Formality of exchange
When people from our organization meet with our primary
customers, it is:
.
Mainly at a formal, business level (TM).
.
Mainly at an informal, social level (DM).
.
At both a formal, business and informal, social level (IM/
NM).

Source: Coviello et al. (2002).

6. Managerial intent
Our marketing activities are intended to:
.
Attract new customers (TM).
.
Retain existing customers (DM).

Corresponding author
Kofi Q. Dadzie can be contacted at: kdadzie@gsu.edu

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