Digital Marketing in Developing and Emerging Economies: A Systematic Review of Introductory Phase Features

Abstract

Internet and social media offered a different arena of how marketing was done internationally. Its usage was still in infancy and available research was in embryonic stage to address the realities in developing nations, however. Therefore, this systematic review was done to identify contextual factors impacting digital marketing, dominant marketing practices over digital channels, and the consequences of adopting digital marketing. The study adopted the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 to collect evidence. Thematic content analysis was performed to extract pertinent information from 35 eligible studies included in the study. From obtainable digital channels; social media, m-marketing and e-commerce platforms are familiar in emerging markets. The findings revealed that demographics, psychological factors such as perception of medium trust, usability, enjoyment, satisfaction, risk, etc., at customer level and dynamic digital capabilities, management openness, collaborative digitalization, social networking ability, knowledge, and financial resources, etc., of firms were contingency factors impacting digital marketing. Evidence showed that marketing communication was principally accomplished online and doing marketing digitally enhanced marketing capacity, efficiency, and performance.