REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART IV:
of the Mann-Whitney U test indicate that H 0
(Two independent samples are from the same
population) can be rejected and H 1
accepted at the significance level of p≤ 0.05 for 4
variables: VAR16, VAR19, VAR20 and VAR29 (see Table 2).
Table 2: Selected results of Mann-Whitney statistics for 4 variables
for sections II and III
VAR00016 VAR00019 VAR00020 VAR00029
Mann-Whitney U 25,000 24,000 29,500 26,000
Wilcoxon W 80,000 79,000 84,500 81,000
Z -2,815 -2,609 -2,226 -2,630
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) ,005 ,009 ,026 ,009
Exact Sig. [2*(1-tailed
Sig.)]
,021(a) ,017(a) ,043(a) ,025(a)
Distribution of frequencies for 4 variables in two independent samples reveals the following
differences in strategic approach to marketing between Serbian and foreign companies
operating in Serbia:
1.
2.
3.
4.
All MNCs in Serbian market plan marketing activities continuously, while
only 41.7% Serbian companies has adopted the same practice. 58.3% local
companies are planning their activities from time to time, not on constant
basis.
Some companies do not perceive the importance of planning. Although all
MNCs subsidiaries operating in Serbia think that planning of marketing
activities is either very important (80%) or just important (20%), it is not the
case with Serbian ones (25% consider it highly important, 25% as important,
17% are neutral regarding this question and 33% consider planning of
marketing activities as unimportant operation)
Very similar findings occurred in the field of the measurement of effectiveness
of promotional efforts. All but one foreign company measure how effective
their promotional activities were, whereas only 33.3% domestic companies
include the same operation in their list of activities.
Frequency of advertising also differed from one sample to another at
statistically significant level. MNCs advertise more often (continuously: 80%;
often: 10%; when need arises: 10%) than Serbian companies (continuously:
33.3%; often: 16.7%; when need arises: 41.7%; and rarely: 8.3%).
It could be stated that strategic role of marketing has not been yet perceived at full
extent in Serbian companies. Therefore, all efforts are more focused to operational and
organizational activities, while planning and control are neglected. Moreover, heavier
advertising by MNCs could be explained by higher budget that they usually have than
domestic companies, and consequently, they are more interested in and familiar with costbenefit
analysis for advertising.
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