Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify the skills needed to be effective in international marketing, (2) identify the level of importance of each of these skills, (3) identify the degree to which these skills are present in employees of exporting companies, and (4) describe the gap between the skills these employees have and the skills they need. Methodology. Data were collected, regarding skill importance, through a Delphi panel of thirty academic and practitioner international marketing experts. Seventy companies, exporting between $500,000 and \\\\$50 million, were surveyed regarding the degree to which their employees possessed the identified skills. Possession ratings were compared across importance ratings, in a way that allowed skill-based areas for training programs to be prioritized. Findings. Sixty-six skills were identified as being needed for effective international marketing, and were classified into five categories: (1) planning and operational skills; (2) pricing skills; (3) promotional skills; (4) product skills; and (5) distribution skills. Twenty-five of the skills were rated as being highly important, forty-one were rated as being of medium importance, and none were rated as being of low importance. Small and medium-sized actively exporting companies indicated high or medium degrees of possession for sixty-five of the sixty-six skills, yet the promotional skill category clearly emerged as their most deficient. Possession ratings were compared across importance ratings, which identified twenty-five international marketing skills as training priorities. Conclusions. There were three major managerial implications based on the findings: (1) implications relating to the degree that small and medium-sized actively exporting companies may participate in international marketing training programs; (2) international promotional skills should be the topic most emphasized when offering international marketing training programs; and (3) this study has produced a new assessment tool which would go a long way to assist firms in identifying international marketing training needs.