40 Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies (ISSN: 2220-6140) Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 40-55, April 2016 The Influence of the Level of Environmental Complexity and Turbulence on the Choice of Marketing Tactics Roger B. Mason, Thomas Dobbelstein Institute of Systems Science, Durban University of Technology, South Africa Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, Ravensburg, Germany rogerm@dut.ac.za Abstract: This paper proposes that the choice of marketing tactics is influenced by the companyǯs external environment. It aims to illustrate the marketing tactics suggested for a complex, turbulent environment, when marketing and the environment are viewed through a complexity lens. A quantitative, descriptive, cross sectional study was used, based on an e-mailed survey to a purchased mailing list, which resulted in a sample of 860 senior marketing or sales managers in medium to large profit oriented businesses in South Africa. The study found that the managerǯs evaluation of the environment as complex/turbulent was important, and that there is a relationship between the use of destabilizing marketing tactics and complex/turbulent environments. Although there is only a limited relationship with Ǯsuccessǯ, the study generally stresses the importance of destabilizing tactics, and in fact, all marketing tactics, in a complex/turbulent environment. Most work on complexity in marketing has concentrated on strategy, with little emphasis on tactics and the marketing mix. Therefore, this paper is an important contribution to the understanding of marketing mix choices, of interest to both practicing marketers and marketing academics. Keywords: Complexity theory, chaos theory, external environment, marketing tactics, stabilizing, destabilizing 1. Introduction With the demise of the Apartheid government, and the development of a new constitutional democracy, South Africa has seen dramatic changes in all aspects of the external environment over the past 25 years. Continual change and disruption in the politico-legal, economic, socio-cultural and technological environments have meant a more complex and dynamic environment resulting in continuous challenges for business management. It has been proposed that such levels of complexity and turbulence must influence the nature of marketing tactics adopted by firms operating in such environments. Most research in this field relates to traditional methods, such as planning, forecasting and scenario planning, which are inadequate to cope with the speed, volume and unpredictability of discontinuous change (Edgar and Nisbet, 1996; Leitner, 2015).Most of the research using the new sciences (chaos and complexity theory) which are more suited to the volatility of turbulent and complex environments(Smith, 2002; Wollin and Perry, 2004; Gundlach, 2006; Turner, 2014; Woodside, 2015) have been either theoretical (e.g. Smith, 2002; Wollin and Perry, 2004), based on simulations or statistics (e.g. Hibbert and Wilkinson, 1994;Vojtko and Heskova, 2010),or exploratory/qualitative studies (Mason, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013a & b; Mason and Staude, 2007, 2009).Thus a gap in the literature exists for a more quantitative approach to descriptive and/or conclusive research, adopting a new sciences approach. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to assess marketing activities (tactics) applied in complex and turbulent environments, as suggested by a review of the chaos and complexity literature, as applied to marketing. The following objectives were set to meet the above purpose:  To test the model of the marketing mix tactics that could be expected to be found in successful companies in complex and turbulent environments,  To identify the differences in marketing mix tactics between companies operating in complex/turbulent industries and in simple/stable industries,  To identify the relationship between the different marketing mix tactics and marketing success in complex/turbulent industries.