Emerging Market Entry Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa Tribal Rule Economies

This study examines reactions to foreign firms’ marketing strategies in tribal rule emerging markets. The study methodology was based on empirical experimental design, exposing tribal leaders to marketing scenarios followed by a survey. The study finds that taking the role of local leadership into consideration when planning strategies significantly improves attitudes toward proposals made by foreign firms and the probability of acceptance of the proposals increases. The results showed that the level of threat to leadership influence perceived by local tribal leaders is a significant mediator in responses to proposed strategies both in terms of attitudes and acceptance levels. When the level of perceived threat is high, it impacts negatively on attitudes and acceptance levels. Finally, we find that cosmopolitanism orientation will moderate local tribal leaders’ reactions toward foreign firms and their strategy proposals when the tribal leader perceives a threat to his/her influence. The higher the cosmopolitanism orientation, the more positive are the attitudes toward and levels of acceptance of foreign firms and their proposals.