Matching organizational frame of reference and business strategy with contemporary marketing practices : Evidence from Arab world

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate diversity of marketing practices of firms operating in the same environment, by identifying how management perception and business strategy (BS) fits with the choice of the marketing practice. Design/methodology/approach A model was developed and tested using survey methodology based on three well-validated research instruments. Data were analyzed using the partial least square approach. Findings The results showed that different marketing practice were coupled with different frame of reference, as well as different BS. These forces were found to be inter related, and internally coherent, resulting in viable configurational profiles. Research limitations/implications The research is unique and exploratory, and was conducted in three Arabic countries with a small sample size. For these reasons, generalizability is somewhat constrained. Practical implications The findings would help managers to carefully examine the internal logic of their marketing-related profiling; it can be used as an assessment tool, where performance should be enhanced if the variables are coherent. Originality/value To author’s knowledge this is the first study that inspect three variables that had been associated with decision making, but not integrated together in a holistic framework to explain marketing diversity. Additionally it identified four viable types of marketing practices with its corresponding frame of reference and BS. Therefore, the paper reports a work in an area not previously researched.