国际营销联盟中的伙伴选择及消费者支持：合理性理论视角

International marketing alliances (IMA) play an important role in today's global marketplace and have been identified as a key component of international marketing strategy. These alliances help international firms gain legitimacy in host countries, as well as bring numerous marketing benefits. A critical firm decision when establishing an international marketing alliance is the partner selection. Extant literature in marketing alliance, international marketing and strategic alliance, who subscribe to firm's internal economic rationale, have focused on exploring the roles of alliance partner selection and alliance governance mechanism on firm performance and firm value. Despite valuable contributions of the extant research, scant of them specifically examines the relationship between IMA partner selection and consumer behavior from the perspective of social acceptance in external institutional environment. Given that firms may seek both efficiency and legitimacy in host country, it is intriguing that how firms approach legitimacy through IMA and how IMA partner selection may affect firm's legitimacy and hence influence consumers' supports in host country. These topics have rarely been examined both theoretically and empirically in the literature. Our study, drawing from the legitimacy theory, intends to address these important gaps and investigate the relationships between the entrant firm's IMA partner selection, legitimacy and consumers' supports. This research also highlights that host country's institutional environment (e.g. degree of marketization and constituents' multiplicity) and entrant firm's characteristics (e.g. country-of-origin and international experience) are important considerations in examining the relative performance of various partner types. The research contributes to both IMA research and legitimacy theory in international marketing, by highlighting the impacts of IMA partner selection influencing entrant firm's consumers' supports. The research conclusions would supply international firms with suggestions on how to select appropriate IMA partners and hence increase international market performance.

国际营销联盟已成为国际化企业获取全球竞争优势的重要战略之一，而联盟伙伴的选择，则是决定国际营销联盟成功的因素之一。现有相关研究大多基于企业内部战略视角，从经济理性角度来考察联盟的伙伴选择标准和治理机制对企业绩效或价值的作用，甚少从外部环境的社会支持（即合理性）视角，关注企业国际营销联盟中的伙伴选择及其对消费者行为的影响。国际营销首先意味着外部环境的变化，而国际营销联盟能够帮助进入企业获取在东道国经营的合理性。基于合理性理论，本研究探讨了进入企业在东道国的国际营销联盟中的伙伴选择、企业合理性及消费者支持之间的关系，将揭示国际战略联盟帮助进入企业实现合理化进程的机制。同时，还将考察东道国制度环境特征（市场化程度和涉众多样性）和进入企业特征（企业来源国和国际化经验）在国际营销联盟伙伴选择及企业合理性关系之间的调节作用。研究结论将对企业有效选择国际营销联盟伙伴，提高国际营销绩效提供有益帮助。

国际营销联盟因其潜在的经济价值和合理化功能，业已成为国际化企业获取全球竞争优势的重要战略之一。联盟伙伴的选择，是国际营销联盟成功与否的决定因素之一。基于合理性理论，本研究立足于消费者视角来研究进入企业在东道国的营销联盟伙伴选择、企业合理性及消费者支持之间的关系。研究结果发现：国际营销联盟，无论选择的是任务型还是伙伴型联盟伙伴，都具有帮助进入企业获取和提高东道国合理性从而提高东道国消费者支持的功能。但是，国际化企业需要综合考虑东道国环境特征（市场化程度和受众多元性）和企业自身特征（企业来源国和国际化经验）来选择国际营销联盟伙伴。在东道国市场化程度较低（vs. 高）、东道国受众多元性较高（vs. 低）、企业来源国形象较差（vs. 好）和企业国际化经验少（vs. 多）时，以任务相关标准（vs. 伙伴相关标准）选择国际营销联盟伙伴的进入企业会有更高的合理性和消费者支持。研究成果是对国际营销联盟文献、合理性理论在国际营销中的应用文献的有益补充，也为企业国际化进程中的营销联盟伙伴选择提供了建议。