Developing Export Pricing Strategies : Decision-making on price adaptation in B2B industrial trade
Dolinina, Alexandra (2021-05-04)
Dolinina, Alexandra
04.05.2021
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021050428874
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021050428874
Tiivistelmä
In nowadays globalized economies companies tend to expand their presence in the foreign
markets by exporting their product offerings, which requires managers to revise their strategies
to match the international environment. Furthermore, special attention must be paid to pricing
since prices are indicated to be an essential strategic tool and have direct influence on profit. It
is also known that there are internal company- and external environment-specific contingency
factors that incline managers towards adaptation of their pricing strategies and affect export
performance of companies. However, little is known about the process that leads managers to
certain decisions on export pricing and the roles of different contingency factors in the process
are unclear. Therefore, this research develops a theoretical framework to outline the weightiest
contingency factors considered by decision-makers and get deeper understanding on the process
of developing and adapting export pricing strategies. In addition, the focus is on industrial
business-to-business (B2B) trade that has its specificities compared to the business-to-customer
(B2C) context while being characterized by more rational trade participants and more complex
processes.
The empirical data collected in the semi-structured interviews indicate that the most influential
factors affecting decisions on export price adaptation in the context of B2B industrial trade are
related to competition, market characteristics, product and distribution, together with company
goals. Moreover, customer and its situation revealed to play a significant role in the process,
which is in line with the theoretical background for the B2B trade pricing, but not considered in
the contingency theory. Finally, the heuristic model of the process of making export pricing
decisions in B2B industrial trade is proposed to provide industrial managers with indicative
guidelines about how to approach export pricing.
markets by exporting their product offerings, which requires managers to revise their strategies
to match the international environment. Furthermore, special attention must be paid to pricing
since prices are indicated to be an essential strategic tool and have direct influence on profit. It
is also known that there are internal company- and external environment-specific contingency
factors that incline managers towards adaptation of their pricing strategies and affect export
performance of companies. However, little is known about the process that leads managers to
certain decisions on export pricing and the roles of different contingency factors in the process
are unclear. Therefore, this research develops a theoretical framework to outline the weightiest
contingency factors considered by decision-makers and get deeper understanding on the process
of developing and adapting export pricing strategies. In addition, the focus is on industrial
business-to-business (B2B) trade that has its specificities compared to the business-to-customer
(B2C) context while being characterized by more rational trade participants and more complex
processes.
The empirical data collected in the semi-structured interviews indicate that the most influential
factors affecting decisions on export price adaptation in the context of B2B industrial trade are
related to competition, market characteristics, product and distribution, together with company
goals. Moreover, customer and its situation revealed to play a significant role in the process,
which is in line with the theoretical background for the B2B trade pricing, but not considered in
the contingency theory. Finally, the heuristic model of the process of making export pricing
decisions in B2B industrial trade is proposed to provide industrial managers with indicative
guidelines about how to approach export pricing.