Prioritizing B2B marketing capabilities: Crossvergence in advanced and emerging economies

Abstract

Marketing capabilities in business-to-business (B2B) settings are increasingly gaining attention of international business managers and scholars. However, research has not examined which B2B marketing capabilities are most influential across developed and emerging economies from a firm performance view. Selecting the most potentially relevant marketing capabilities is driven by an executive panel and prior literature. Drawing on the crossvergence phenomenon, this study presents an empirical test of a parsimonious conceptual model, identifying the key capabilities driving customer satisfaction, sales revenue, and profitability at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. Using data from 702 senior managers in the United States (US), Denmark, and Chile, the authors find the convergence and divergence of B2B marketing capabilities influence. In particular, the results indicate that three capabilities are universal to marketing practice: (1) segmentation and targeting capability as the baseline for cultivating a higher-order marketing capability; (2) pricing capability as the main driver of SBU profitability; and (3) new offering development capability as the key driver of SBU customer satisfaction. Building over the findings, the study suggests that political view on the market, industry structure, and the more rational nature of B2B firms seem to be the pivotal tenets of the marketing capabilities convergence.