The GMS: A Broad Conceptualization of Global Marketing Strategy and Its Effect on Firm Performance
Shoaming Zou & S. Tamer Cavusgil

Introduction
The authors in this article develop a broad conceptualization of global marketing strategy, the GMS, that integrates three major perspectives. (1) The standardization, (2) configuration-coordination, and (3) integration perspectives of global marketing strategy.

A fundamental proposition of international marketing is that a firm’s global marketing strategy has a positive effect on its global market performance.

The purpose of the present research is twofold: First, the authors develop a broad conceptualization of global marketing strategy, named the GMS, to integrate the three major existing perspectives of global marketing strategy. Second, they attempt to substantiate the fundamental relationship between global marketing strategy and a firm’s performance by developing and testing a conceptual model that links the proposed GMS to a firm’s global market performance.

They two questions the authors ask in this paper are: 1. What is global marketing strategy? 2. Does it matter whether a firm pursues a global marketing strategy?

A brief review of the global marketing strategy literature
Many researchers argue that global marketing strategy plays a critical role in determining a firm’s performance in the global market. In the current literature, there exist three major perspectives of global marketing strategy. These perspectives are summarized in table 1.

1. Standardization perspective
This views a firm as pursuing a global marketing strategy if its marketing programs across different countries are standardized, particularly with regard to its product offering, promotional mix, price, and channel structure.

Proponents of standardization believe that world markets are being homogenized