Data Equivalence in International Marketing Research

The field of international marketing research is a challenging one through its proportion and complexity. The model construct submitted for testing in an international research is more complex and difficult to manage as more factors and variables are interfering and the simple identification of all of them can be a real challenge. As the international environment is considered to be formed from a large number of diverse environments, the research design must prove its validity for any of these environments and also for the entirety, or for the international one as a whole. Also choosing a representative sample is usually confronted with limited resources and the samples used in international marketing research are often associated with research limits. The sampling encounters difficulties as much in sample size as in sample structure, due to the amplitude of international phenomena and to the large sample frame to which the research results must be extended. The research in the field of international marketing demands a higher degree of refinement as both global and local aspects, as well as the interactions between them, must be comprised in the analysis. But in spite of all of these impediments, the international research is gaining importance among the researchers, as more companies and institutions are targeting a bigger market. The paper covers the topic of international data equivalence by providing a conceptual base for international marketing research and emphasizes the importance and the specificity of this area.