Ma. Angelica S.

Sarmiento ACT18A Purposive Communication

Critiquing an Article

Journal Name: Elsevier: Journal of Business Research

Title of the Article: Marketing innovation: A consequence of competitiveness
Authors: Suraksha Gupta, Naresh K. Malhotra, Michael Czinkota and Pantea Foroudi
Date Published: May 11, 2016
Volume No.: Volume 69
Issue No.: 12
Page No.: 5671-5681
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.042

Questions:
1) What does the article cover (gap)?
The article covers or focuses mainly in the relationship between competiveness and innovation
in the marketing practises of large manufacturing firms that offer their branded products in a foreign
market by engaging a network of local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as resellers of
their brand. The article wants to prove or explains through study that competition in a market
encourages competing firms to demonstrate their ability to innovatively serve customers.

2) For whom the article become beneficial?

The article benefits the following:
 IT Firms - they benefited in the article since its focus is on how does innovation helps the
electronics and IT firms in the stiff competitiveness in the foreign market. With this, they can
gain knowledge relating to this matter and create new marketing strategies.
 Future Researchers - it's beneficial to them because it can serve as their reference in their
related research study in the future.

3) What is the scope and limitation of the article?

This study extends the understanding developed by many previous authors about
innovativeness in marketing as a mutual capability of both buyer and supplier. The article, which was
conducted in India, is limited only to two (2) variables —competitiveness of reseller and
competitiveness of the brand— in identifying the ability of manufacturing firms to marketing
innovation. They didn't include other factors that can also result to marketing innovation other than
competitiveness such as customer satisfaction. The research article also involved only two (2) IT
firms to conduct the study.

4) What are the main problem that the article need to answer?
The main problem of the article that needed to answer is 'What configuration of brands and the
reseller enable the adoption of innovative marketing practices by two firms in an international
setting?'

5) Who/Which/What are the targets of the article?

The targets of the article are those big manufacturing firms that were able to play in the
competitive environment in international market by innovating marketing strategies and approach.
They also aim to bridge the gap in the existing marketing literature by reviewing current academic
knowledge surrounding competitiveness and marketing innovation, thus becoming one of their
targets in this article.

6) How many literature/studies where used?

The article used a total of 47 literature/studies to write the second part of the article which is
the review of related literature. The article used more than a hundred literature/studies for the whole
article.

7) What are their similarities?

The similarities of these literatures or studies with each other was that they all talked or
discussed about the relationship of marketing innovation and competitiveness. These literatures all
explain the three variables of the article which is the innovation of marketing, competitiveness of
brand and of reseller. All the studies also stated different benefits of innovation that can help the
managers of the firms to utilize their resources and be able to be competitive in the foreign market.

8) How do they become relevant to the present article?

These related studies and literatures are relevant to the present article because it aids the
authors in writing this article. These also serve as supporting facts or details of this topic that adds to
the reliability of the article or that this article was done with careful study.

9) What are the studies limitations?

Although the article used many studies, these studies or literatures were also limited because
every literature wasn't explained further but rather it only stated the main point without additional
explanations which make it a little complicated to understand, though each study were related to each
other. Also, each literature and study used has gap that this article aims to solve.

10) How does the present article answer the gap?

The present article aims to bridge the gap in the existing marketing literature by reviewing
current academic knowledge surrounding competitiveness and marketing innovation. This study also
addresses the research question by first developing a suitable theoretical framework which is then
used to investigate the question by means of empirical data.

11) What is the method used?

To develop a scale for measuring marketing innovation, specifically for the context of the
current research, this study conducted an empirical study using complexity theory. The measures
identified by this article consisted of items available and missing in the existing literature about
marketing innovation. After identification, this study employed a structural equation modelling
technique and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and formally tested these through
hypothesis testing using data collected from respondents.
A deductive, quantitative research approach was employed and data were collected over a
nine-month period from resellers of international IT firms in India using a questionnaire.

12) How many are the respondents?

This study had a total of 649 respondents participated who answers the questionnaire made by
the researchers.

13) Does the article use statistical treatment?

Yes, the article used statistical treatment. All the items in their questionnaire were measured
using a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree).
They also uses miltiple regression analysis for two random samples to carefully measure the
answers of the respondents and to be able to interpret the outcome of the said survey.

14) What are the procedures considered/conducted?

This study chose the electronics and information technology industry as the research sampling
frame for four reasons. A sample of 650 resellers participated in the study over a six-month period.
The data were collected from Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat which are technology friendly states. The
preliminary measures were subjected to a series of factor and reliability analyzes as preliminary tests
of their performance within the entire sample. A two-step approach was taken using the Anderson and
Gerbing (1988) and Foroudi, Melewar, and Gupta (2014) two-stage procedure. First, an exploratory
factor analysis and second, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

15) How do the research secure the identity of the respondents?

The research article didn't specify how did they secure the identity of the study participants.

16) Are the findings related to the RQS? How?

Yes, the findings are related to the research question. The findings that they came up with
answer the main problem of the article. The results of the survey they conducted further explains the
research question which is said to be the gap this article wants to solve. The findings also serves as
the supporting evidence of the research problem.

17) What are the key findings?

The article came up with the following key findings:
 There is a strong relationship between the competitiveness of the firms and innovation of their
marketing practices. Findings show that innovativeness in the marketing practises of a brand
is highly influenced by the competitiveness of its own firm, and significantly, not from the
reseller firm.
  The finding of this study has various implications for buyer firms from a mature market and
seller firms in a growth market.
 The study shows that the competitiveness of the firm can enable its managers to innovate
their marketing practices.
 Mutual contributions to competitiveness do not change the capability of the reseller to
flexibly address marketing opportunities.
 The study were able to justify a marketing innovation approach based on the findings as
regards the ability of a firm to use modified methods for getting access to the appropriate
target segment for their product in a competitive market and improved communications about
the product and the firm behind the product for facilitating comparison between the product
and its competitors apart from ensuring the efficient delivery of the product or service for
nurturing satisfied customers.

18) What are the limitations of the findings?

The limitations of this study are that the data was a limited sample and they have only
investigated the influence of competitiveness on innovation. The data is collected only from India
and only from electronics and information technology small- and medium-sized enterprises. Also this
research has not tested the reverse influence of innovation on competitiveness that this paper
recommends as an area of enquiry for future research.

19) How does the study become beneficial to the field?

The study become beneficial to the field of business and marketing because this article shows
and explains additional ideas and knowledge to the existing ones wherein they can use to better
innovate their marketing practices. Although this article has limitations, it is still essential for the
development of the firm or business. It also provides new knowledge that are subjected for further
improvement, thus, a very big help for the future researchers as it can serve as their basis or
reference.

20) What are the recommendations of the study?

The study recommends the following:
 To the firms. The results suggested that collaboration between buyer firms from a mature
market and seller firms in a growth market can help both firms in identifying areas of both
radical and incremental marketing innovation. On the other hand, this study also suggested
that the availability of brand support will generate higher brand value for resellers and
therefore will stimulate higher competition within resellers' markets.
 To the Future Researchers. This study suggested that future studies could examine the
proposed integration in different industry settings or multi-country settings by examining
cross-cultural differences in the relationship between the research constructs, process
integration and firm performance that will serve as a catalyst for further research in this area.
They could also conduct a research regarding the reverse problem of this study or a future
research on the ability of the buyer firm to create a value chain and contribute to the
 productivity forecast.

SUMMARY
This study interrogates the construct of marketing innovation as an outcome of the integrated
competitiveness of a brand and the competitiveness of its resellers. Given the landscape of the
competitiveness of brand versus competitiveness of firm owning brands and individual
competitiveness of partners in a distribution network and the individual competitiveness of marketing
innovation, causality related to the competitiveness of a brand and its resellers for the capability of
the brand to innovate its marketing practises was hypothesised.
Regarding its methodology, this research is one of the first studies to examine the configural
analysis based on individual-level data. In addition, this study used structural equation modelling,
multiple regression analysis and fsQCA to emphasise interdependencies and interconnected causal
structures between the research constructs by employing complexity theory from a configurational
approach. Furthermore, unfortunately, not many studies examine and report on predictive validity,
almost all studies test and report only on fit appropriateness. This research reported predictive
validity as well as fit.
The research findings explained the strength of three of the four relationships tested, with
strong support found for the relationships between the competitiveness of brand and the
competitiveness of the reseller. The paper explained that innovativeness in the marketing practices of
a brand is highly influenced by the competitiveness of its own firm. This research claims that the
framework conceptualized was valid as the results indicate the robustness of the concepts for
analysing the adoption of innovative marketing practises by brand managers. In conclusion, this
study makes several contributions to theoretical and practitioner understanding, and suggests
directions for further research.