REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART IV:
global orientation.(Homburg et al, 1999) We focused our investigation on the following
research questions:
• Do local and foreign companies comprise the same set of marketing
activities
• Up to what extent they find the marketing is significant for their business
success
• How many employees are involved in conducting marketing activities
If Serbian companies in large extent perform the same activities as MNCs and consider
marketing orientation as very important, then it is reasonable to conclude that approach to
marketing of both local and multinational firms is quite similar. Furthermore, one of the
expected results is the larger staff employed in marketing department in foreign companies
as far as the total number of their employees is much greater than the number of employees in
domestic companies. If, on the other hand, prevail that Serbian companies apply their own,
particular marketing practices, different to those applied in foreign companies operating in
Serbia, this would imply that there are not much spillovers of marketing capabilities from
multinationals to local firms.
In order to answer the research questions, we used a survey in total of twenty two
companies operating in Serbia, divided into two independent samples: Sample 1 (Serbian
companies) and Sample 2 (MNCs’ subsidiaries in Serbia). None of the domestic companies
has experienced significant changes in marketing, ownership status or management in its
recent past.
The research took place during 2008 and adopted questionnaire that was handed to specialists
working within marketing department. Therefore, access to companies was an important
criterion that led us in this research (convenient sampling). Questions included following
areas: the organisational position of marketing department in the company (6 questions),
the process of planning of marketing activities (5 questions) and structure of promotional
costs (6 questions). We also collected some general data about selected organisations such
as size, history, industry sector.
To see whether same marketing activities are applied in two independent samples (H 0
: Two
independent samples are from the same population; H 1
: Two independent samples are from
different populations), we performed nonparametric statistics, since assumptions required
by parametric statistics were not fulfilled (such as sufficient size of samples to provide for
normal distribution, both samples having the same variance, as well as the requirement of
the variables being compared to be measured on an equal interval level) (Reaves, 1992).
To analyze collected data we performed the Mann-Whitney U test for testing the null
hypothesis that two independent samples are coming from the same population, at the
significance level p≤ 0.05. Obtained results are presented in the following section.
3. Research findings and discussion
Section I of the Questionnaire, which regards the organisational position and structure
of marketing activities, has been transformed into 12 different variables. The results of
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