Marketing Capabilities Model for Pharmaceutical Business in Thailand

There are few studies in the past which have worked on evaluating the capability of the marketing teams as the means of generating an effective strategy in terms of competiveness in the market and creation of advantage that is held by a firm in the market. However, the aim behind conducting this research is to find an effective mechanism or formula to have better performance in the export field, internationalization success, and marketing communication mainly by analyzing the role that is played by the marketing capabilities. Moreover, the researcher has mapped the relationship which exists between the capabilities and communication with the mediating impact of competitive strategy has also been evaluated in this research paper. The population of this study was the employees of different pharmaceutical firms of Thailand, and the sample was 300 entrepreneur of pharmaceutical business. The results and findings show that the impact of marketing capabilities has been favorable to enhance the export performance of the sector. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that the mediating variable of competitive strategy also positively mediates the relationship that exists between the variables of marketing capabilities and marketing communication. This study has significant implications on MC and export performance.


Introduction
As the trend for globalization is increasing worldwide, many firms are attempting to take advantage of international trading options (Martin, Javalgi, & Ciravegna, 2020). These firms aim to achieve a competitive advantage by using the human capabilities and other resources available to them for doing trade on an international basis. Hence, there is whole bunch of such firms that undergo rapid internationalization. This concept was initially conceived by Rennie (1993)   In addition to this, the marketing communication can be recognized as a capability which is specific to the firms that is embedded in the daily routines and practices of the organization (Lin and Wu, 2014). Based on the RBV, a capability refers to performing an organizational function at an acceptable level and way which leads to numerous advantages (Helfat et al., 2009; Martin & Javalgi, 2019; Rua, França, & Ortiz, 2018). This study is focused on the pharmaceutical firms of Thailand, which is the 20 th largest export destination and the 2 nd largest economy in ASEAN.

USD billion Export worth of goods
249 .8 billion Exports with US 44.5 GDP 529 Table 1

.1: Thailand economy statistics
Literature is available on the marketing capabilities and communication but empirical studies regarding their interaction to gain competitive advantage are limited (Batra & Keller, 2016;Martin et al., 2020;Morgan, Katsikeas, & Vorhies, 2012), however this study will be the first of its kind, to the best of the knowledge of the author, that has integrated these variables from the perspective of RBV for the international ventures , especially in the pharmaceutical firms in Thailand, making it worth considering as a future research topic. The researcher aimed to fill this contextual gap.
The major aim of the study is to explore the effect of marketing capabilities on performance of the pharmaceutical firms in Thailand. Specifically, this study has the following research objectives: • To find out the effect of that the Marketing capabilities exert on Export venture performance • To examine the effect of Marketing capabilities exert on Internationalization performance • To evaluate the effect of Marketing capabilities on marketing communication • To determine the mediating effect of Competitive strategy on these relationships.
This study contributes to the knowledge volume by conducting investigation into the underlying mechanism of Competitive strategy as the mediator in the above mentioned relationships. This study has several implications of practical nature that are useful for the managers of firm who can recognize the value of proper marketing capabilities that can aid in building competitive advantage for superior performance in export venturing, internationalization and communications.
This paper is arranged in the following way. Starting with Introduction, an in depth review of literature of the variables under consideration is built up with the research framework drawn out of it. The next section describes the research methodology which will be applied to test the deduced hypothesis. The fourth section will present the findings of the study by analyzing them statistically. The last section presents the discussion and draws conclusion on the basis of findings. The paper ends with highlighting the research limitations and theoretical & managerial implications.

Literature review 2.1 Theoretical background
This study is based on the RBV theory, which states that every organization possesses resources and capabilities that can be efficiently utilized by them to achieve their goals efficiently.

Effect of Marketing capabilities on export venture performance
The international marketing literature has explained the importance of MC that aids the firms to develop effective marketing strategy and implement them in export venture operations for superior performance (Morgan et al., 2012;Zou, Fang, & Zhao, 2003). In the context of this research, marketing capabilities can be defined as the process that is used to integrate and apply a firm's knowledge, its resources and its skills to achieve the needs that are related to the market. These capabilities provide the intentional venturing firms with value creation and addition for the purpose of meeting with the needs and demands of the markets which have become highly competitive (

Mediation of Competitive Strategy
Competitive strategy is defined as the strategies of a firm that allow it to decide the actions and plans which can be carried out for the purpose of achieving superior performance of export ventures.

Sample Characteristics
A questionnaire based survey design was followed for this study. The method of snowball sampling was used as the permission to visit and obtain information from pharmaceutical companies is difficult and also the staff is deliriously busy. The respondents were provided with a brief introduction and then the questionnaire was distributed among the participants. The respondents were assured that their identities will be kept anonymous. The total number of questionnaires distributed were 320. Although only 300 out of these were fit for use 10 were misplaced, 10 were discarded due to presence of missing values and the remaining 20 had missing values.

Measures
The scale items were selected after extensive literature review. In order to confirm the content validity of scale items two academicians were asked to review the construct. Then the questionnaire was pretested on 50 MBA students, minor changes were made in the construct following the advices of both. The advice of Campbell, Brislin, Stewart, and Werner (1970) was followed and the forward and back translation method was used. All scale items have been measured on a five point Likert scale, ranging from "1=strongly disagree" to "5=strongly agree".

Marketing capabilities
Marketing capabilities was measured on three dimensions; distribution, service and new product development. The items for measuring this construct were adapted from the studies of Zou et al. (2003) and Katsikeas, Paparoidamis, and Katsikea (2004). The items for the construct were modified according to requirements of the present study. A sample item is "Delivering high quality after-sales service".

Competitive strategy
Competitive strategy, the latent variable was measured on the basis of three dimensions. These were market differentiation, cost leadership and delivery differentiation. Cost leadership is a measure of the degree to which lower prices than competitors are offered to customers, the items were developed from the studies of Styles and Ambler (1994) and Aulakh, Kotabe, and Teegen (2000). The other dimesnions were adapted from the studies of Menguc, Auh, and Shih (2007) and Spanos and Lioukas (2001). A sample item is "Invest in marketing communications to build brand awareness" and "tightly control export venture selling and promotion expense" 3.2.3 Export venture performance Perceptual measures were used to measure export venture performance. The scales were adapted from the studies of Katsikeas, Leonidou, and Morgan (2000), Jaworski and Kohli (1993) and Moorman and Day (2016). The dimensions of effectiveness, adaptiveness and efficiency were used to measure the export venture performance. A sample item is "A large number of new product ideas have been made possible through technological breakthroughs in our industry".

Export venture performance
Internationalization performance

Marketing Capabilities
Competitive Strategy

Internationalization performance
Internationalization performance was measured on the basis of the five item scale developed by Nummela, Saarenketo, and Puumalainen (2004). A sample item includes "We have achieve dour profitability objectives set for our internationalization over the last five years".

Marketing communication
The scale was developed from the studies of Zou et al. (2003). The scale was modified according to the requirements of the present study. A sample item is "Developing effective export advertising and promotion".

Demographics:
The sample consisted of 300 respondents, out of these 48 percent were male and 52 percent were female. Thailand is particularly a country that demonstrates patriarchy in almost all sectors of its business industry therefore the disparity in gender division is observed. 79 percent of the sample is aged between 30 and 45. And the experience levels of more than half of the sample are spread between 3 and 8 years. The target employees were managers and assistants. Therefore the variation in ages and experience is observed.

Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive analysis is used to check the normality of data, agreeableness of respondents and to detect outliers. The mean values are approaching 4 which signifies the agreement of respondents with the statements of the variables. The normality of data is checked by observing the skewness values, all values fall within the prescribed range of -1+1, thus it can be proclaimed that data is distributed normally. . The Likert scale was used to record responses, referring to Table 1 it can be seen that the outliers were not present.

KMO
This test is used to measure of the adequacy of the sample. The KMO test checks for the sample adequacy and also analyzes the sample for relevancy among variables. The KMO value is greater than the threshold of 0.8 and the results of Bartlett's test are also significant. Thus the sample is adequate and unrelated, it is fit for factor analysis. .000

factor analysis
The component matrix is used to check the contribution of each individual scale item in the overall construct. All items have loadings more than 0.7 thus they are significant. .844

Model Fitness
The model fitness is conferred by the CFA test. Results are evident in table 5 and figure 1. The measures are in accordance with the defined threshold ranges therefore the model is fit.

Discussion
The role of marketing capabilities is very significant in improving export performance as well as marketing communication because marketing capabilities are the capabilities of marketing team members that make some strong strategies about brands and products (Martin & Javalgi, 2016).
According to the first result of this research, it is revealed that the impact of the strategies of marketing has been positive and favorable in enhancing the performance of the export ventures. The marketing capabilities seize the difficult collection of data and knowledge that help firms to enhance the performance of export and it also offers the best way of working and tools that also play a crucial role in export performance (Morgan, Feng, & Whitler, 2018). Therefore, the hypotheses related to the direct impact of MC on export performance has been supported and accepted. Marketing capabilities are an important enabler of marketing communication because MC can help a sector to sense and respond to changes in the market with the effective mechanism of communication, thus, the ability of marketing communication will be enhanced (Gregory, Ngo, & Karavdic, 2019). That's why the hypotheses have been accepted and show positive results. Moreover, the results of this research also propose that the competitive strategy of the firm can enhance that the relation between MC and export venture performance and the hypotheses have been accepted.

Conclusion
The research paper shows that the most important keys to a successful business are Effective Marketing.
With the proper usage of marketing strategy, the firms can achieve a level. The marketing capabilities as products, a strong link between partners, market sense, creates a positive effect. The study also shows that the possessions of marketing capabilities in the competitive strategy will lead to greater success and achievement internationally and the firms achieve a piece of knowledge through this experience of success to face the competitive atmosphere to counter the acts of the rivals. This data was gathered by 411 employees of the various firms to evaluate the results. Out of which the number of the male was 226 and the 185 were of the female.

Implications and Limitations
This study has a very positive influence and it is the gateway for further study and research to look for effective ways to enhance the product quality according to international standards. Cross-sectional nature is the first limitation of this research study which prohibits causal inference, so, it is proposed to future studies that they should conduct a study that is longitudinal. A future research study should be aimed at developing longitudinal information and data. Second, this study only considered one independent variable in his model, thus, it is recommended to further studies that they add other independent variables for more accurate results.