Marketing in turbulent environments

Increasingly, firms need to develop strategies to cope with unanticipated events and challenges in a rapidly changing external environment. Whether a firm can keep up with a high-velocity, complex market is determined by whether it adopts appropriate marketing strategies. In my dissertation, I examine how firms can effectively use marketing to achieve strong financial performance in the presence of sweeping institutional changes. In the first essay in my dissertation, I examine incumbent firms’ marketing mix responses to turbulence in their environment in the form of liberalization. Many governments are opening up their economies to foreign competition, with the expectation that it will increase economic growth. While foreign competitors with superior technology and management practices pose serious threats to incumbent firms, they also provide them an opportunity to gain new knowledge. In this essay, I explore the following two questions. First, how do incumbent firms, who have thus far operated in a highly protected market, respond to liberalization? Second, how do incumbent firms’ responses affect their performance? The findings suggest that incumbent firms’ knowledge significantly shapes their marketing mix responses to liberalization and that their performance outcomes are significantly affected by their marketing mix responses. In the second essay in my dissertation, I examine the effect of environmental turbulence in the form of CSR mandates on firms’ performance. While firms’ CSR initiatives have been traditionally considered voluntary, in an attempt to achieve inclusive development, some governments are enacting policy to encourage firms to engage in CSR initiatives. Can firms make strategic use of CSR mandates? CSR mandates affect two types of firms – those that were already engaging in CSR spending before the mandate (already-compliers), and those that are doing so for the first time (first-time compliers). The findings suggest that both already-compliers and first-time compliers can increase their shareholder value through their mandated CSR spending by increasing their advertising and research and development (R&D) spending. In addition, while already-compliers can increase their shareholder value through their mandated CSR spending by introducing mechanisms to alleviate agency concerns, first-time compliers can do so by decreasing their promotion spendingMarketin