Variation of Marketing Mix:

A mvQCA Approach to Configuration of the 4P’s

Abstract

Marketing mix is the first tool that marketers learn, but the issue of how the 4 P’s are combined has not been clearly addressed. The reason for this is that in regression analysis, which has become a mainstream approach in the social sciences, it is difficult to examine combinations of three or more variables. In this paper, three outcome variables: (1) price elasticity (high or low), (2) product category (shopping goods or convenience goods), and (3) top market share or not, are identified, and a hypothesis on the marketing mix is proposed to realize these variables. Product-level marketing mix data (n=167) are then collected from Japanese consumer goods companies and evaluated using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to examine the marketing mix combinations.