Ambivalent aspects of parallel imports in international marketing

This paper focuses on the problems faced by international manufacturing firms (which sell their products to a variety of foreign markets) because of the development of parallel imports which result in unauthorized distributive flows between countries. The objective is to evaluate the consequences of these unauthorized flows of distribution on the manufacturing firm’s economy and to reflect on the lines of action which can be taken up to address the threats (arising from parallel imports) or the advantage that these flows can produce. The paper has only focused on lines of action affecting the elements of the international marketing mix (distribution, price, product, and communication). This work does not address aspects of a more general nature (although of great interest) related to the social desirability of parallel imports, the legitimacy of these flows in the legal systems of the other countries, nor to the possibility of firms to use legal action. The development of these arguments is based on a critical analysis of the results that have emerged from several research studies in major marketing and management academic journals at international level in recent years. This analysis shows that parallel imports are not always perceived as a negative phenomenon by the firm’s management. In some cases the unauthorized distributive flows may have a positive effect on the firm’s performance when they allow the enterprise to distribute to specific customers in order to segment the market and to overcome certain barriers to enter specific foreign countries.