قابلیت های بازاریابی B2B ضروری: دیدگاهی از ایالات متحده آمریکا و آمریکای لاتین در حال ظهور Needed B2B marketing capabilities: Insights from the USA and emerging Latin America

1. Introduction The contemporary business environment has a strong impact on current and future marketing capabilities (MCs). Some forces influencing economies worldwide in the last decades include: more demanding customers, increased competition, impact of information technology, and openness to globalization (Pels, Brodie, & Johnston, 2004). As a consequence of the latter, the economic potential and growth rate of emerging markets (EMs) has received some research attention (e.g., Gu, Hung & Tse, 2008). This academic concern has been focused on Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), but mainly on the last two countries (e.g., Johnson & Tellis, 2008). EMs pose unique challenges regarding demand characteristics, government influence, the character of competition, logistics, and the development of commercial infrastructure. Douglas and Craig (2011, p. 86) noted that “factors such as customer interests, taste preference, purchasing patterns, and, in particular, price sensitivity differ substantially among countries.” Thus, it is relevant to understand how companies in these nations operate, including their practices and perspectives. Moreover, national cultural issues (Hofstede, 1980) can affect the patterns of consumer and organizational consumption. However, EM countries sometimes actually have a resonant presence of multinationals or foreign companies and develop different international bonds due to country-specific characteristics; besides technology, income and media have converged during the process of globalization (De Mooij & Hofstede, 2002). Then the capabilities needed by B2B marketers could converge as well as diverge around the world. Therefore, due to the conflicting forces driving the future of EMs, the present research results are of the utmost importance for practitioners and academics. Several researchers have noticed that the Latin American region has been neglected as a source of science development, both in international business (IB) and marketing areas (Fastoso & Whitelock, 2011). This lack of attention is surprising because of the significant economic power of Latin America, demonstrated by a GDP based on purchasepower-parity (PPP) of approximately of USD 9,000B, making it the fourth most important region after the European Union, China, and the USA, and surpassing Germany, India, and Japan (International Monetary Fund [IMF], 2015). Latin America involves stimulating challenges for marketing strategy. On the one hand, it is probably the most turbulent growing market in the world. Many studies stress the continuous political changes, which affect regulations and market conditions (Avritzer, 2009; Karl, 1990).