The international marketplace presents numerous additional
challenges for service providers. Success requires marketers to understand
these challenges clearly, especially as they relate to the unique
characteristics of services and the nature of individual foreign markets.
Indeed, market research and knowledge of international business are
prerequisites for the successful launch of service offerings abroad.
International business blunders typically result from inadequate knowledge
and comprehensive market research pays for itself, usually in the short run. It
allows the firm to plan for a successful venture or reveal disqualifying
problems before any investment is made.
Clark et al. (1996) note that the nature of international services is so diverse
that no single, all-encompassing theory will likely emerge. This is plausible
since no all-explaining theory exists for products either. Services theory is
likely to be complex and can undoubtedly benefit from excursions into the
literature of several domains, including economics, psychology and
communications theory. Moreover, services encompass such a wide range of
activities that they would seem to defy generalization. This may partially
account for why marketing scholars have been relatively slow to devise
externally valid theories on international services (Clark et al., 1996). Clark
et al. (1996) point to several problems associated with attempting to define
international services. For example, how can scholars delineate the
international dimension of services that are transacted across borders by
telecommunications or the Internet? ``Citizenship, residency, location of the
transaction, who or what (if anything) crosses national boundaries, all serve
to complicate the problem of definition'' (Clark et al., 1996, p. 11).
The intangible, perishable, heterogeneous, inseparable and culturally
sensitive aspects of services are all likely to pose special problems (in
addition to the foreign market entry question highlighted earlier) as scholars
attempt to define and operationalize appropriate constructs and construct
measures. Perhaps most problematic for research on international services
are attempts to define what exactly constitutes superior service quality across
various cultures.
Future research directions
Earlier, a call was made for more research on international services
marketing. Clark et al. (1996) suggest that research attention is needed in
three critical areas:
(1) the development of appropriate operational measures of international
service activity and quality;
(2) analysis on competitive and strategic behavior in international services;
and
(3) theory development that accounts for the complex cultural and political
sensitive dimensions of the intangibility of services (Clark et al., 1996).
At a more specific level, we now present a collection of research questions,
based on findings of the present work. While far from exhaustive, it is hoped
that these questions will spur inquiry into an area which has come to play
such a major role in the global economy.
Given that much of the work to date in international services has been devoid
of theory and conceptualizing, it is appropriate to investigate the explanatory
value of existing theories. Do traditional theories of marketing, especially in
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 4/5 1999 357
the international context, apply to the international marketing of services?
Similarly, do traditional international business perspectives, such as
internalization theory, the eclectic paradigm, the stages theory of
internationalization and the product life cycle theory, hold equally valid for
international services? What are the gaps in knowledge of services
internationalization that cannot be explained by existing theories which have
been largely developed with products in mind?
Internationally, with such a mix of cultures and business environments, a big
challenge is maintaining quality control and consistency in providing
services. What can firms do toward standardizing the service offering
abroad? What challenges do firms face in overcoming the asymmetry of
culture in the seller-buyer dyad that accompanies international service
exchanges?
Some services can be exported; others can be licensed; many more can be
offered only through physical facilities that the firm establishes at the
buyer's location. What entry modes are most appropriate for the various
types of services? A typology is needed which aids firms in ascertaining the
best methods for taking their particular service offering abroad.
To the extent that services must be internationalized via direct investment,
and given that this tends to be the most expensive foreign entry mode, what
are the associated implications for the internationalization of small- and
medium-sized service firms? That is, given that smaller firms may lack the
resources to internationalize via direct investment, what other modes and
strategies are available to such businesses? Are larger, resource-rich
companies always advantaged in services internationalization relative to
smaller rivals? What advantages, if any, do smaller firms hold over large
rivals in the internationalization of service offerings?
Inward internationalization can be said to involve the ``importing'' of
customers from abroad so they can consume a particular service in the
provider's home country (Bjorkman and Kock, 1997). Sectors that benefit
from inward internationalization and are worthy of future research are
tourism, education, health care, retailing, as well as international
transportation and aviation. What are the characteristics of buyers that can be
imported? What is the nature of the customer importation process? What
modes and strategies are optimal for maximizing the performance of
companies that seek to import customers?
In addition, research is needed regarding the ``importing'' of customers via
telecommunications and the Internet to take advantage of services that can be
offered via such systems (e.g. distance learning, computer software,
investments and financial instruments). What opportunities and challenges
does the Internet hold for the marketing of services worldwide? What types
of offerings are most amenable to marketing and distribution via the
Internet?
The key challenge in marketing services abroad is probably that of
overcoming hurdles associated with the unique characteristics of each
country and the fact that services are particularly prone to culture and other
country-specific influences. Services are fundamentally people-centered and
are therefore highly culture-sensitive. In service encounters, people as
``culture bearers'' interact directly in simultaneous production and
consumption. Such encounters and the communications process that they
rely on are infused with the cultural idiosyncrasies that each party embodies.
358 JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 4/5 1999
These are factors to which managers must give particular attention in
international services marketing.