International Brand Strategies. The Perspective of the Companies from Emerging Markets

Warsaw School of Economics Press The monograph by Marzanna Witek-Hajduk touches upon issues important for the contemporary development of knowledge about international brand strategies implemented by companies from the so-called emerging economies and markets (Latin America, Asia, Africa, China, and Eastern Europe). The author concentrates on the so-called “brand orientation of a company” and its significance for the strategy of creating a strong brand with an international outreach, especially in the context of shaping the international competitiveness of entities representing an emerging economy. In general, International Brand Strategies. The Emerging Markets Perspective is an extensive study of a total of 355 pages, including an Introduction, five chapters, a Conclusion, and the corresponding tables. The layout of the publication is neat – the chapters have a clearly defined subject matter and an intelligible internal structure. Certainly, the rich bibliography is worth highlighting as in large part it contains publications by foreign authors and documents the author’s excellent knowledge of the international achievements in the examined area. With regard to the content of the individual parts of this extensive monograph, one needs to emphasize the logic and legibility of the argumentation noticeable in the internal layout of the publication. First, in the introduction to the book, the author formulates an ambitious set of research goals (theoretical, empirical, methodical, and practical), a list of research questions, and a group of research hypotheses concerning the realization of the empirical goal. There is also a diagram showing the subsequent stages of research carried out by the author, which is a good preparation for the further reading of this original work. The first three chapters of Marzanna Witek-Hajduk’s monograph are of a theoretical and cognitive nature and contain a full identification of the challenges for companies representing Eastern markets, in terms of creating international product brand strategies. The author directs the reader’s attention to the new problem of brand management on the international market in the context of the resource management concept and the concept of a company’s dynamic capabilities. It should be agreed that the main challenge for companies from the emerging markets is to adapt their internationalization strategies to their resources and competitive advantages, and to create or acquire key resources and capabilities, including brand management in foreign markets. In Chapter 1, Brand and Enterprise Competitiveness, the author discusses, among other things, the potential of the brand as a source of competitive advantage in foreign markets, the elements of the brand orientation model and their relation to the performance of the brand and the organization, as well as the problem of international brand management in the context of the resource management concept and the dynamic capabilities concept of the enterprise. Chapter 2, entitled International Expansion of Brands in the Light of Theoretical Concepts for the Internationalization of Companies, is entirely based on a detailed review of the literature on foreign business, trade, and international marketing and facilitates identifying possible strategies for the expansion of brands into foreign markets. There appears an important thread suggesting that the Review