ABSTRACT. Recent reports highlighting the need to address the impact of climate change have emphasised the role of individuals to be less resource intensive in their consumption. However psychological choice processes of buying second-hand or renting consumer goods can be complex. This paper examines the motivations and barriers to participate in the sharing economy, i.e. buying and renting of pre-used goods, in the UK and UAE. Furthermore, we examine affective motives and aim to understand to what extent self-perception and self-signalling encourage or hinder the use of pre-owned goods. An interpretivist approach is adopted for this study comprising a mixture of interviews and focus groups. Six consumer focus groups aided with projective techniques were held in the UK (n=39). In the UAE, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted in the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The results show that contributing to sustainability remains stronger in Western countries as one of their motivations for purchase of second-hand goods. Meanwhile, culture and tradition are closely linked to self-perception of UAE consumers where status and social distance may hinder consumption of second-hand goods. Stigma still remains for both societies and are closely associated with negative contamination (i.e. hygiene issues).

ABSTRACT. This study examines the effects of culture on consumers’ salient privacy threats (i.e., threats come off the top of a person’s mind) in the context of loyalty programs. Drawing from the protection motivation theory and the availability heuristic cognitive bias, a theoretical framework is developed that tries to explain cultural variations of privacy threats and their consequences in the loyalty program context. Culture is approached as a latent normative value system (Fischer & Schwartz, 2011) and its effects are examined at individual and national level. The model is empirically tested on data collected from a theoretical sample of four culturally distinctive countries. Results show that culture at both levels influences the salient privacy threats as well as consumers’ appraisal of those threats. Subject to cultural variations, defrauding and commercial exploitation threats were found to be important for consumers.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to examine the purchasing behavior for luxury fashion goods using the framework of the theory of planned behavior. Additionally, it extends the scope of investigation to include an extensive qualitative data corpus to inform and explain the consumption practices in the UAE. The study sheds the light on a significantly important and emerging phenomenon; the increasing consumption of luxury in the gulf region and specifically in UAE in an attempt to understand the purchasing behavior towards luxury fashion. Luxury fashion consumption is getting significant attraction based on the customer new preference as to consume prestigious brands. This study will contribute towards a better understanding of the aspects of consumer buying behavior in this lucrative sector in the UAE. This type of study is crucial to delineate the new trends in the UAE luxury consumption behaviours.

A structural equation modeling-based approach will be used to examine the relationship among the study constructs. Data will be collected from self-administered questionnaires by surveying real luxury consumers visiting the luxury exhibition held at World Luxury Expo Abu Dhabi.

ABSTRACT. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Eastern consumers respond more favorably to anthropomorphic products than their Western counterparts. We demonstrate that this is indeed the case, and uncover the specific individual difference driving such effects. Specifically, we propose and demonstrate that because collectivistic consumers are more motivated to consume in a communal manner and anthropomorphic objects can serve as social surrogates, anthropomorphic products are preferred by consumers who maintain a collectivistic orientation. Across six studies, including the analysis of a real-world international field data and five controlled experiments, we demonstrate that collectivist consumers do indeed show an exaggerated preference for anthropomorphic products. The effect holds across various product categories, regardless of whether collectivistic thinking is measured, primed, or operationalized based on nationality or ethnicity. We provide evidence for the underlying mechanism, perceived consumption companionship, and offer theoretical and practical implications that stem from our findings.

ABSTRACT. Recent years have witnessed the global expansion of sharing economy firms at an unprecedented pace. Due to the transactional and disposable nature of liquid consumption, trust and loyalty are considered as the lifeblood of the sharing economy, enabling billions of strangers across the globe to connect and interact with each other in confidence. However, managers and providers in sharing platforms may be overlooking the fact that self-disclosure serves an important role in enhancing consumers’ liking, generating trust, and engendering loyalty. The authors demonstrate that providers’ self-disclosure significantly and positively affects consumers’ liking in terms of feelings of closeness, connectedness, and perceived provider friendliness, and consumer trust, which subsequently leads to greater consumer loyalty. The findings also reveal that objective similarity/dissimilarity influences the degree to which self-disclosure drives loyalty. Paradoxically, when consumers and providers are objectively similar (e.g., having same country-of-origin), they do not pay much attention to disclosure information of the providers. Conversely, in the case of objective dissimilarity, consumers tend to search for more intimate information from providers to create the connections between them. Finally, our results highlight the differential moderating roles of a feeling of existential isolation in the interpersonal relationship development in the sharing economy context.

ABSTRACT. Value co-creation has received much attention due to its significance in business contexts. However, there is a lack of understanding of o-creation in business networks. Multiple stakeholders’ involvement in value co-creation is an area that remains under researched. This study investigates value co-creation process in a three-actor constellation (i.e. supplier, distributor and customer) in an Information Technology (IT) service network. Triadic data were obtained and analysed to illustrate how actors co-create value in the smallest unit of business networks. The results show the complexity of service interactions among a constellation of three actors (e.g. supplier, distributor, customer) and illustrate the change of the triadic structure (i.e. from an open triad to a closed triad) in value co-creation. It extends the dialogic co-creation process into a wider network perspective, drawing attention to the direct and/or indirect engagement of a third party in the network which forms a tri-logic process of value co-creation. The findings highlight distributor’s contribution to facilitating and enabling direct interactions and value co-creation between supplier and customer in a triad. This study alerts organisations of the danger of a myopic view of focusing on direct actors and direct value outcomes in value co-creation among triads.

ABSTRACT. The study explores how firms create, renew, and coordinate their resources more skillfully to effectively manage differences in cultural, social, economic, political, and technological factors between the global markets as well as levels of uncertainty inherent in global operations.

ABSTRACT. The paper aims to explore the interplay between managing innovation process, marketing capabilities and internationalization on example of a sample of SMEs from several European countries. Selected SMEs attempt to integrate their strategies in the area of open innovation, internationalization and marketing in order to overcome the liability of smallness. All selected SMEs pay strong attention to their innovation strategies, are involved in collaborative innovation projects and prioritize their efforts in the area of product innovation, customers development and marketing. However, their internationalization paths differ and are the subject of our research. The first research question addresses the role of collaboration and open innovation practices as a leverage to firm’s liability of smallness. The second research question addresses the problem how firms overcome the liability of smallness by early-stage involving customers and users in their innovation process. Finally, the third research question focuses more specifically how internationalization path is intertwined with the firm’s decisions on innovation and marketing strategy.

ABSTRACT. Prior theoretical explanations about value capture from technology focus on the role of legal institutions in a jurisdiction and on the inimitable nature of certain technologies. We complement these explanations by developing the view that the value firms’ capture from technology is driven by how effective firms are in engaging in patent litigation. To enhance understanding of the performance consequences of patent litigation, we examine how three growth strategies of the firm (product diversification, internationalization and accumulation of intangible assets) determine the effectiveness of patent litigation in enhancing firm performance. We show that the magnitude and directionality of the effects of patent litigation on firm performance change significantly depending on the decisions that firms make with respect to these growth strategies due to disproportionate increase in revenues and costs. Our study helps us understand prior conflicting findings and explains why firms that possess similar technologies and operate in the same environment exhibit different performance.

ABSTRACT. We contribute to research on knowledge exploration and exploitation by examining how the context of an industry influences the effectiveness of specialization in either exploratory or exploitative R&D in enhancing firm performance. We develop a typology of industry orientation that conceptualizes how variations in the concentration of the exploration and exploitation activity across industries affects the availability and value of collaborative and knowledge-sourcing opportunities and, in turn, determines which specialization strategy (exploratory or exploitative) is more advantageous for firm performance. The empirical analysis of 32,537 firm-year observations indicates that the returns to specialization in either exploratory or exploitative R&D are affected differently and depend on whether the context of an industry is exploitative-oriented, exploratory-oriented or hybrid. Our study therefore advances the debate on whether firms should be ambidextrous by showing that the answer to this question depends on the industry context within which the firm operates.

ABSTRACT. Authenticity perceptions are subjectively driven and rely on social constructions making the concept hard to be defined. The current study is following a big data approach in order to capture perceptions and beliefs concerning the authenticity of ethnic restaurants and also when online positive reviews are given in relation to authenticity under the influence of a visit to the country of origin. The key idea of our method relies on the analysis of a 3-step characterization of a big data repository extracted from TripAdvisor. Step 0 concerns reviews made for Italian restaurants before consumers visit Italy, step 1 concerns the reviews made while consumers were in Italy and step 2 concerns reviews made after their visit to Italy. This characterization exploits both sentiment analysis and graph data models. Our findings propose a depiction of authenticity for ethnic restaurants via e-word of mouth. With a big data analysis on TripAdvisor, we provided an analysis on both ratings and comments which showed the impact of authenticity. As such, consumers, after visiting the country of origin, were more critical while they provided lower ratings and they were also focusing more on authentic atmosphere and service, showing an evolution of their online reviews.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the multiple and comprehensive effects of a digital paywall sales strategy, an increasingly common means of go-to-market for global and local media firms. Specifically, we examine the effects of a digital paywall on a media firm’s two sources of income—subscription and advertising—across its two channels—traditional and digital. We compile a unique data set from multiple sources that contain detailed data on 79 major print media firms; and, for causal inference, we utilize a synthetic control method to distinguish the true effect from naturally occurring time trends. In addition, we take into account demand spillover—substitution vs. complementarity—across channels, as well as factors that moderate such spillover effects. We find that, although heterogeneous across media firms, a paywall sales strategy can lead to positive demand substitution from digital to traditional channels, especially for firms with large circulation and uniqueness of content. Furthermore, uniqueness of content reduces the decline in digital demand, moderating the loss in digital advertising revenue while increasing digital subscription revenue. Overall, the effectiveness of a digital paywall varies by both the source and the channel of income across media firms with different characteristics.

ABSTRACT. This is an ongoing study. In recent years, the number of cruise travellers has been increasing substantially. Social media provides significant opportunities for cruise lines for attracting growing number of cruise passenger who are from around the world. It is of critical importance for cruise lines to achieve social media engagement with their followers, yet the social media posts are heterogeneous in terms of engagement levels. That is, social media posts with different characteristics have different engagement levels. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to classify and identify social media posts of international cruise lines based on the interaction between their engagement level and characteristics. In this way, we can determine the characteristics of social media post that yield higher engagement rate. To do that, we will conduct Chi Square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) analysis which is a decision tree method. The results are expected to help cruise lines implement more effective social media marketing.

ABSTRACT. Mobile social media advertising is an emerging advertising tool, with its application evolving into several new forms. For example, Local Moments Promotional Advertising (LMPA) from WeChat (since 2016) or Messenger Home Tabs from Facebook (since 2017) is one of the new forms. However, the effectiveness of the new form on firms’ offline and mobile sales and whether the effectiveness depends on store characteristics are largely unknown. We analyze daily sales data from a company which has quick-service restaurants in China, including three restaurants with LMPA drops and 26 restaurants without LMPA drops. Using an interrupted time-series analysis with panel data, we find that LMPA increases offline sales. We further show that the positive effect varies across stores (weaker for older stores and for stores with larger review volume). LMPA exerts no effects on mobile sales, but stores with larger review volume benefit somewhat more from LMPA in terms of mobile sales. The findings have important implications for marketing managers in deciding on using LMPA in their mobile social media advertising spending. We also provide answers to effective combinations of LMPA and store characteristics on offline and mobile sales.

ABSTRACT. Complete and accurate survey data are key input for research, policy, and decision making in many disciplines. However, survey respondents do not always fully cooperate, such that they skip some items or overuse the “don’t know” answer option. Such an evasive answer bias reflects different information than overall response rates, and it can cause substantial inaccuracies in survey results. Using longitudinal data from the World Values Survey, spanning 348,430 responses from 100 countries, this article identifies the magnitude of the problem, then relies on individual and country-level cultural values to derive patterns of and reasons for this evasive answer bias.

ABSTRACT. This research posits that the extant framework in country of origin research is too narrow to capture the full influence of country associations on brand attitude. Rather, the product-country images (PCI) of several countries may have an impact on the consumers’ brand evaluations. On this backdrop, marketing managers may attempt to associate their brands with a foreign sounding brand name if they believe this strategy will increase brand equity.

Result from two experimental studies on food and clothing brands reveal that consumers on average associate a brand with more than two countries. Results also suggest that brands to a greater extent are associated with the implied than with the true country of origin, but that this is moderated by brand familiarity. Finally, images of both the true and the implied country influence brand evaluation when consumers actually associated those countries with the brand.

ABSTRACT. Companies are increasingly held accountable for their corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). However, the extent to which a CSI event causes damage to the firm largely depends on the coverage of this event in high-reach news media. Using the theory of news value developed in communications research, the authors explain the amount of media coverage by introducing a set of variables related to the event, the involved brand, and media outlet. The authors apply a latent threshold model of news reporting to a sample of 1,054 CSI events that occurred in the period 2008–2014 in 77 leading media outlets in five countries. Estimation results reveal a significant number of drivers: salient and strong brands face a much higher likelihood of being covered in a negative story. We also show that advertisers have the power to deter media from covering negative stories about their brands. Finally, we document the gatekeeper role of media. The stock market only reacts to the event of unethical firm behavior if 4 or more high-reach media outlets report on the event.

ABSTRACT. Advancements in global and local branding research show that global brands can also be recognized as local players in local markets. Although prior studies have investigated various outcomes of brand globalness and/or localness, there is a paucity of research that integrates existing theories to explain how and under which circumstances global brands can capitalize on localness perceptions. Against this background, using social signaling and social identity theory, we theorize a holistic model that integrates two alternative pathways through which global brand localness increases consumer-based brand equity. The results from an empirical study conducted in France (N = 275) and Germany (N = 296) show that brand credibility and consumer-brand identification fully mediate the relationship between global brand localness and brand equity. The strength of these relationships further depends on a category’s level of purchase risk and consumer involvement. Our findings regarding the relative importance of these two pathways and relevant contingency factors help managers to better understand how global brands can create, enhance, and sustain brand equity in local markets.

ABSTRACT. Building on insights from the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm, we explore the nature, institutional drivers, associated boundary conditions and performance consequences of brand extension strategies in the banking industry in emerging markets. Specifically, we plan to examine how brand extension strategies are conceptualised and operationalised in the banking sector, their institutional drivers, associated boundary conditions and performance consequences. From this perspective, we plan to apply an exploratory/qualitative research method (1st phase of study) to focus on brand extension strategies of banks in a large sub-Saharan African market. In doing so, this study contributes to the global branding and international business literature by advancing knowledge on the nature, institutional drivers, boundary conditions and performance consequences of brand extension strategies among emerging market banks.

ABSTRACT. We investigate the extent to which central customer-based brand equity dimensions (Differentiation, Relevance, Esteem, Knowledge, and Energy) influence a global firm’s systematic risk (i.e., beta) during both market upturns and downturns. The results demonstrate that aggregating upside and downside beta or different dimensions of brand equity masks the true associations that can be seen only in the disaggregate analyses. We find that Relevance and Knowledge play roles as stabilizers, reducing both upside gains and downside risk, while Esteem plays the role of protector, decreasing only downside losses without influencing upside gains; Energy acts as a booster, increasing a firm’s potential gains during market growth without increasing the firm’s expected losses during a bad market. The positive effect of Energy on aggregate risk could be misleading, hiding the beneficial effect of Energy as a booster. We also find that Relevance is the most important consideration when people make choices under bad market situations, while Energy becomes the most crucial decision factor under good market situations. In addition to general brand strategy, we provide tailored brand strategies to firms from different industries or with different financial characteristics.

ABSTRACT. Recent studies manifest that perceptual inaccuracies in marketing exist and are important for the functioning of the relationships. Perceptual inaccuracies in global marketing context can also be noteworthy. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether there are perceptual differences between consumers and MNCs’ subsidiary managers in terms of the standardization level of a global brand in the local subsidiary. Antecedents and consequences of marketing mix standardization gap are analyzed and impact of these gaps in global marketing domain are tested in a developing country context where dyadic data is obtained from local subsidiary managers and consumers. Results reveal that significant perceptual gaps with regard to the product and positioning standardization levels of the brands exist. Geographical and psychic distance to the reference country and advertising standardization level of the brand are identified as factors that influence the perceptions of the consumers about how standardized a brand is. Credibility and quality of the brand also determine the extent of perceptual gaps and finally a negative relationship between perceptual standardization gap and brand equity is shown. The results have critical implications for the management of international brands in developing countries as well as perceptual inaccuracy literature in general.

ABSTRACT. When buying groceries or beverages, consumers in developed countries are confronted with many options. An important task for companies it to catch consumers’ attention and make them buy their products. One approach comprises Double Language Labeling (DLL), defined as parallel usage of the domestic and a foreign language for product descriptions (e.g., ingredients), to possibly get attention, enhance product perceptions, and increase purchase. This labeling strategy was offered as a research topic by a company that solely operates nationally, however deploys DLL. In a first experiment, using one company’s real product, we could not show enhanced perceptions and intentions. One explanation is product-language non-match. For an eyetracking-study, building on COO-related-effects, we selected a matching combination: wine and French. We measured attention allocation, post-hoc recall and tested hypotheses on increased perceptions and purchase, building on signaling theory. Attention was (re)allocated to the area of interest illustrating French descriptions. Post-hoc recall overall increased as our non-student sample was able to list more correctly remembered product information. Furthermore, attractiveness and quality perceptions were enhanced, both serving as an explanation for higher purchase intentions. In our study, DLL did not lead to a trade-off between memory and product perceptions plus intentions.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the relationship between attitudinal brand engagement, brand community identification and behavioural brand engagement. It provides new insight into the role that brand community plays within the development of attitudinal and behavioural brand engagement.

Through the use of customer engagement value measures it is able to differentiate between the effect direct attitudinal engagement with a brand and identification with a brand community has upon engagement behaviour regarding the brand.

It provides evidence supporting the conceptualisation that direct attitudinal engagement with a brand drives lifetime value, however, it does not predicate a consumers' intention to share knowledge with a brand. However, identification with a brand community is a strong driver of knowledge value. Brand community identification is also a stronger driver of referral and influence value than attitudinal brand engagement.

This paper offers practitioners guidance on the most appropriate strategies to deploy based upon the value that is desired by the brand. This research provides the foundations of a future study that will explore the implications of these findings for international consumers.

ABSTRACT. The study explores differences in advertising content across three consumer culture positioning (CCP) strategies in cross-national and cross-product category contexts. We use a content analysis approach to identify and contextualize usage of a wider range of symbols, compared to extant literature, across three CCP strategies, two countries and seven products categories. Three hundred and eighty-one advertisements from Austria and Hungary in low and high involvement product categories are collected and analyzed. The results suggest that consumer culture positioning is communicated via a variety of specific symbols, and that differences exist between countries and across product categories. The study yields implications for advertisers attempting to reach consumers in high/low communication country contexts, developed and less developed countries. In particular the findings suggest that, in print magazine advertising, one size does not fit all, and that usage of symbols and CCP strategies differs across countries and product categories.

ABSTRACT. Managers wishing to expand sales of their products abroad increasingly have to fight protectionist tendencies and discrimination against foreign products, with only a limited understanding of how these obstacles might be mitigated. This research sheds light on the process behind two key drivers of domestic country bias, or consumers’ general preference for domestic over imported products. Specifically, we focus on national identification and consumer ethnocentrism, connecting these driving factors to regulatory focus theory. One experimental study with various products and choice situations as well as a correlational study involving actual product possessions provide converging and robust evidence that the two factors are associated with different goals—namely, an approach goal for national identification and an avoidance goal for consumer ethnocentrism. While the former can be attenuated by priming a prevention focus, reducing the effect of the latter requires inducing a promotion focus. The authors conclude with implications for extant marketing theory and practice. They also provide specific tools that marketers can use in ads and point-of-purchase displays to minimize domestic country bias in their global market operations, along with recommendations for the segmentation of international consumer markets.

ABSTRACT. This paper argues that a dependent firm’s power distance orientation (PDO) is not chronic but affected by its dependent position. This paper adopts two different types of dependence: relationship value and switching cost dependence to examine their different impacts on PDO. Relationship value dependence, which implies reward and positive motivation, increases a dependent firm’s PDO. Switching cost dependence, which involves punishment and negative motivation, has a U-shape impact on PDO. This paper also investigates the impacts of a dependent firm’s PDO on its behaviors. A dependent firm’s high PDO will lead to its low levels of conflict with but high levels of compliance with, trust in, and commitment to its powerful partner. Finally, this paper examines the moderating effects of the powerful partner firm’s PDO on the above impacts. This paper argues that the powerful partner firm’s PDO attenuates the above effects. This paper also introduces four new concepts: positive PDO asymmetry, negative PDO asymmetry, high PDO symmetry, and low PDO symmetry to explain the interaction impacts of the dependent firm’s PDO and the powerful partner’s PDO on the dependent firm’s conflict with, compliance with, trust in, and commitment to its powerful partner.

ABSTRACT. Does individualism - collectivism influence an individual’s willingness to trust others? Grounded in social projection theory, we find evidence that collectivism influences an individual’s propensity to trust, mediated by a perceived collectivism consensus. Study 1 establishes correlational evidence between societal-level collectivism and individual-level trust propensity with results from a multi-level analysis of data from over 6,000 respondents in 36 different countries. Study 2 contributes causal evidence at the individual level based on experiments in both the US and China. We prime independent versus interdependent self-construal and isolate the mechanism, perceived collectivism consensus, through which one’s own collectivism value influences trust. Finally, Study 3 identifies a boundary condition and examines the extent to which values are projected onto in-group versus out-group members, and the subsequent effect on trust propensity.

ABSTRACT. Drawing on research on goal laddering, this research addresses an important, yet under-researched, issue concerning the management of hierarchical loyalty programs (LPs) in the hotel industry: how to—through tailor-made progress feedback—motivate LP members to either maintain or upgrade their membership level. Two experimental studies conducted with real hotel LP members (Study 1) and general consumers (Study 2) consistently confirmed that to-date (to-go) progress feedback highlighting the accomplished (unaccomplished) progress is effective in motivating LP members to maintain (upgrade) their current membership level. Our research highlights progress framing as a simple and effective LP communication strategy for motivating hotel LP members to maintain and upgrade their membership level.

ABSTRACT. CX is widely considered the next competitive battleground, stimulating ever-increasing interest among scholars and managers. CX is the number one priority of executives worldwide and is considered a key determinant of long-term success. While CX research had its origins in the B2C context, more recently, researchers are exploring the differences between B2C and B2B CX. Due to the globalization of the markets and the proliferation of the Internet, companies need to apply cultural awareness to every aspect of their CX strategy. Failing to identify and understand cultural differences, and incorporate this knowledge into their CX strategy might impact their international performance in terms of sales and profits. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture on CX in services in B2B relationships. Our study extends the service literature on the role of culture on CX by employing an extensive dataset from four countries (UK, Netherlands, South Africa, and Russia). It takes a comprehensive approach by examining the role of culture throughout the customer journey (pre-, during, after consumption). Moreover, it enriches both the marketing literature and the CX literature by focusing on B2B CX and not on B2C as the majority of the available literature.

ABSTRACT. This study examines how trust incongruence between buyers and suppliers in cross-border outsourcing relationships affects knowledge acquisition in the relationship. We extend the knowledge management literature’s focus on a single party’s trust by proposing that congruence of trust levels between buyers and suppliers is essential to knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, we argue that in the case of trust incongruence, trust of the knowledge giver (e.g. buyer) matters more to knowledge acquisition than trust of the knowledge receiver (e.g. supplier). We also propose that trust congruence is most effective at facilitating knowledge acquisition in the absence of strong knowledge appropriability mechanisms. Using data collected from manufacturing suppliers in China and buyers from 15 OECD countries, we perform a polynomial regression analysis and find support for the propositions. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed.

ABSTRACT. To advance understanding of how Relationship Marketing (RM) and Brand Relationship (BR) strategies can help companies improve their subjective (e.g., loyalty, WOM, WTP) and objective (e.g., sales, share of wallet, revenue) performance, the purpose of this article is to leverage on the strengths of a meta-analytic approach to compare these two substantial bodies of research. Importantly, we are interested to analyze the moderating role of global contingencies and temporal dynamics. The analysis includes upward of 300 publications representing over 15 countries. Through this work, our intent is to provide a comprehensive framework that contributes to theory and practice by establishing temporal as well as culturally driven conditions that enhance or diminish the effectiveness of brand and relationship marketing strategies. Furthermore, we identify common mechanism that channel the simultaneous effects of both strategies.

ABSTRACT. The focus of this research is Western multinationals’ performance in China and how to become successful in this market. Thus far, multinational performance in this market is mixed despite literature providing actionable frameworks to follow. These frameworks highlight the importance of gaining knowledge of local consumers, in an environment characterised by weak institutions. Therefore, building upon current research may provide new insight in how MNEs could improve performance in the Chinese market. This research analyses the capabilities of Chinese social media and how partnerships with these platforms may facilitate improved market performance of multinationals in China, by functioning as market intermediaries and thus filling institutional voids present within this market. To evaluate these functions, analysis of two multinationals is undertaken. The findings of this research suggest that the rise of social media has filled market intermediary voids and to improve their performance in China multinationals should partner with these platforms.

ABSTRACT. Traditionally, U.S.-based studios first released their movies in the U.S., four weeks later in France, eight weeks later in the U.K., and lastly in Australia and other countries. However, in the recent past, Hollywood studios have flipped their strategy. We conjecture that the producers have adopted this strategy to counter the loss in box-office revenue due to piracy. Our research questions thus are: Is the new market-entry strategy (non-U.S.-first) more effective than the old strategy (U.S.-first)? If yes, why?

We collected data of nearly 2,000 Hollywood movies released in the world during 2002-2014. About 600 of these movies were first released outside the U.S., followed by the release in the U.S. We find that, on average, the new global market-entry strategy is significantly more effective than its earlier counterpart. We show that IPR enforcement indeed is the reason behind the flipping of the strategy. The research further demonstrates the conditions under which the new strategy is more effective than the old strategy and which country offers the most effective strategy. Our results provide empirical evidence to support the producers’ and distributors’ new strategy and help them identify the sequence of markets in which they should release the movie.

ABSTRACT. The use of crowds to solve firms’ business problems has become increasingly popular in recent years, yet little is known about the financial outcomes of such activities. Using an event study methodology, the authors examine stock market reactions to a firm’s crowdsourcing contest announcements. Results from a sample of 394 crowdsourcing events suggest that crowdsourcing contests are associated with higher returns and higher risks. Further analyses reveal that such impact is contingent on the crowdsourcing contest’s design (contestant type, judge type, and prize type). Findings reveal that the abnormal returns are more positive when professional (non-professional) contestants are paired with popular (expert) judges, while the risks are lower when professional (non-professional) contestants are paired with expert (popular) judges. We also find that monetary (non-monetary) reward for professional (non-professional) contestants results in higher returns and higher risks. Overall, these findings provide important guidance for firms regarding how to design and implement crowdsourcing contests to achieve higher stock returns and lower risks.

ABSTRACT. Within the current global landscape, consumers are increasingly growing concerned with the environmental sustainability of the planet. Recognizing this concern, marketers have employed enviropreneurial marketing strategies to adapt more environmentally conscious processes throughout their supply chains. Many marketers have found success through these strategies; however, research has not investigated the nomological network of constructs which may be affected by these strategies. Employing institutional theory, this paper proposes that the success of enviropreneurial marketing strategies are due to the strategies’ effects on the pragmatic and moral legitimacy of the firm. Also, this paper proposes that these effects differ between developed and developing countries. With samples from the US and Madagascar, experiments are conducted to investigate the proposed effects. Results of the experiments show that (1) enviropreneurial marketing strategies influence pragmatic and moral legitimacy, and (2) the influence of this strategy on legitimacy is stronger in developed than in developing markets. These findings not only provide theoretical contributions in understanding the nomological networks of enviropreneurial marketing strategies, but also practical implications for firms seeking legitimacy.

ABSTRACT. This study examines the effectiveness of adopting a sustainability labeling strategy to enhance brand evaluations. While retailers try to maximize profit by marketing store-owned brands as well as global brands, it remains unclear under what circumstances retailers can benefit from the inclusion of sustainable product labels. Building on Cue Utilization Theory, we take an experimental approach to examining the importance of including sustainability cues in product labeling in the marketing promotional strategies of retailer- and global brands. The results of this study indicate disproportionate outcomes for retailer versus global brands and suggests that this difference is largely influenced by consumer familiarity.

ABSTRACT. We develop an integrated conceptual model of the micro, meso and macro environment antecedents of corporate inward and outward looking eco-strategies along with their environmental and business performance outcomes anchored on the stakeholder and institutional theories. This is meta-analytically tested using data collected from 76 empirical studies of an international nature. The results indicate that, factors clustered under the micro level environment of a company, namely environmental culture/ orientation, consumer pressures and competitive intensity are more likely to facilitate both inward and outward looking eco strategies. On the meso level, factors such as industrial and international management standards are found to be more efficient on the adoption of internal green strategies where on the macro level regulatory pressures positively influence the outward looking green strategy of firms. Those strategies in turn provide the company with a competitive advantage which ultimately leads to superior environmental and business performance. The findings of our meta-analysis offer fruitful managerial, theoretical and public policy implications.

ABSTRACT. This study addresses the question: Which organizational actors within markets––as well as which market features and organizational traits––influence the effectiveness of these actors’ targeting decisions in reducing inequality? We develop and test six hypotheses using panel data on the finance sector within subnational markets in India (2008–2012). The dependent variable of the study is economic inequality measured as Luminosity per capita in within each pixel (2.5x2.5km), to create a Spatial Gini-coefficient in each state in each year. The independent variables are distribution of for-benefit organizations; distribution of informal competitive offerings; distribution of formal competitive offerings; focus on disadvantaged groups; social diversity; and institutional instability. Our analysis shows that the distribution of for-benefits (i.e., microfinance organizations) is more effective at reducing economic inequality at the subnational market level. Regarding organizational traits, we find that the distribution of for-benefits is less effective at reducing economic inequality in markets in which they service more disadvantaged customers. In investigating market features we reveal that the distribution of for-benefits is less effective at reducing economic inequality in markets with a greater history of institutional instability and greater social diversity.

ABSTRACT. We develop an integrated conceptual model of the drivers and outcomes of consumers’ intentions to buy organic goods, anchored on the Theory of Planned Behavior. This is meta-analytically tested using data collected from 70 empirical studies conducted on the subject during the period 2000-2019. The results indicate that, as opposed to consumers who are price conscious, individuals who are environmentally and health conscious are more likely to develop favorable attitudes toward organic goods, have a higher level of subjective norms, and develop stronger personal behavioral control. These, in turn, positively affect consumer intention to buy organic goods, which ultimately leads to the materialization of an actual purchase. The findings of our meta-analysis offer useful theoretical, managerial, and public policy implications, as well as directions for future research.

ABSTRACT. This paper analyzes the evolution of corporate social responsibility and the recent involvement of business organizations in controversial corporate speech related to politically charged social causes and their micro and macro level effects on consumers. Analysis of recent polarizing events show a trend in which corporations are not only using digital platforms more, but are also taking on more controversial topics in corporate speech and are championing polarizing political causes. Furthermore, the analysis shows not only a micro-level impact on consumers and their desire to support the brand, but also a social and societal level in increasing support for the cause and the brand at the same time.

ABSTRACT. The goal of the special session is to identify critical managerial and theoretical issues that lie at the intersection of a globalized, and digitalized, world and to make sense of the myriad of individual empirical results that appear in the literature.

We propose a panel format in which each panelists discusses a specific area of international digital marketing for five minutes. After that, a more open and interactive session will begin to work towards a “big picture” view of that which lies at the intersection of the global and the digital.

ABSTRACT. We investigate an implicit assumption of recent research on the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which considers that uncertainty leads to the adoption of non-predictive strategy in foreign activities. Non-predictive strategy receives this name for deemphasizing prediction efforts and other attitudes that take the environment as given. We test effects of regulatory, cultural, and business network uncertainties on non-predictive strategy adoption using data from 755 SMEs from Brazil, China, Poland, Italy, and Sweden. Our regression analysis confirms positive effects of business network uncertainty but finds negative effects for regulatory uncertainty and no influence from cultural uncertainty. It also supports home country effects affecting how these firms relate to the uncertainties in focus. Our study develops a fine-grained understanding of the role of the uncertainties in SMEs’ internationalization strategy, besides drawing theoretical and empirical distinctions between the behavior of SMEs from emerging and developed economies in their entrepreneurial internationalization.

ABSTRACT. More and more firms are exiting their foreign markets. However, while this phenomenon is increasingly important in today’s globalized business environment, there has been little empirical research to explore the reasons for firms’ exit decisions. To address this gap in the literature we develop a model to examine the moderating impact of marketing capability and market uncertainty on the relationship between international performance and exit decision. Our results, based on data collected from multiple informants in 180 Chinese outward foreign direct investment firms, generate new insights for academics and practitioners.

ABSTRACT. To enter a foreign market implies having to deal with varying degrees of uncertainties and risks. Traditionally, a process of slowly increased involvement, and thereby risk, in the foreign market has been presented. This view was later challenged by the identification of international new ventures and born global firms addressing multiple markets from inception. There is however also a third option. In order to gain faster access to experiential knowledge of a foreign market, firms may graft knowledge from localised professionals who have come to the foreign country on their own initiative, and then lived and worked there for a period of time. It is therefore surprising that the number of studies focusing on this alternative is still limited. Addressing this gap, this case study explores potential contributions of such localised professionals to market entry processes.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, there appears to have been a resurgence in terms of the popularity and incidence of nationalism, both in terms of the political debate and discussions in the popular press. However, we find it intriguing that there appears to be relatively little international business research concerning the economic implications of nationalism. Using a cross-national survey of attitudes by the International Social Survey Programme, we explore to what extent and under what circumstances nationalism appears to influence international trade. As one might expect, nationalism appears to have a significant negative impact on imports; however, it does not have a significant impact on exports (at the level of trade dyads between countries). Based on our results, if a nation’s nationalism were to rise one standard deviation, this would correspond to roughly a 12% reduction in imports. This impact is also moderated by the religious distance between the countries. When one shifts from a pair of countries that share a common religion to a pair of countries with different religions, the impact of the importing nation’s nationalism increases more than twofold.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to provide additional insights into the fundamental question of how SME managers perceive and evaluate their firms’ export performance, and to capture the complexity and equivocal nature of their practices. Furthermore, we explore some of the underlying reasons for variations in export performance assessment practices. This study uses in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 exporting SMEs in New Zealand. We found that, despite similarities between the studied firms, the definition and scope of export performance is idiosyncratic to the type of firm and its setting. We observed that firms exhibit distinctive behavior in their export performance assessment depending on their type of ownership, stage of internationalization, and perceived psychic distance towards target markets. This study challenges the assumption that a single, universal export performance evaluation model can be used for SMEs and suggests that the appropriate conceptualization of export performance should be dictated by each firm’s strategic orientations.

ABSTRACT. Although both formal institutions and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) are reported to contribute separately and positively to export performance, however, the interplay between these two has not received much attention. We examine the role of international EO in achieving the performance benefits of government and non-government export assistance in the first survey on 705 Bangladeshi apparel exporting firms. Results show that while non-government assistance influences performance directly as well as via EO, the effects of (quasi-) government assistance is only direct. Further, the negative influence of (quasi-) government assistance on EO reduces and makes total effects non-significant. In the second survey on a sample of 198 Bangladeshi multi-industry exporters, the results show that government and non-government assistance influence market performance directly and indirectly by EO. However, quasi-government assistance has negative significant effects on EO, thus reducing the significant total effects. Therefore, given the performance advantage of export assistance, this study highlights the contribution of the private sector in promoting export entrepreneurship while shedding light on the dark side of (quasi-) government export promotion by its detrimental role in promoting entrepreneurship.

ABSTRACT. The Olive Oil Supply Chain (OOSC) is comprised of all the partners starting from the farmer until the retailer that puts the Olive Oil (OO) bottles on her shelves. The oil is priced according to the quality. This supply chain imperatively needs to ensure the level of quality as it is subject to fraud and manipulation. Blockchain Technology (BT), as a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has the potential to add value to the OOSC solving the problem of trust along the whole chain. In this paper, we (i) depict the current structure of an OOSC; (ii) describe the imperfect quality systems applied in the OOSC; (iii) propose to implement BT in the OOSC to provide all members of the chain the expected trust and transparency; and (iv) present a mathematical model which describes the gain from adopting BT in the OO industry. This paper proposes a new design of the OOSC underpinned by the private BT model and augmented by a mathematical validation. Our work helps practitioners who aim to adopt BT to bring new value to their supply chains and as a framework for researchers to build upon in other industries.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates the effect of managerial perception of internationalization barriers on propensity for emerging market SMEs to internationalize. Drawing from a risk management perspective and the resource based view the study proposes and tests a model predicting internationalization intention on a sample of 150 entrepreneurial SMEs based in Thailand. The model specifically predicts the effects of managers’ perceived internationalization barriers, negative customer bias, and international market knowledge on the dependent variable. The results indicate that perceived customer bias negatively relates to internationalization intentions as expected. Surprisingly, the effect of perceived internationalization is insignificant while perceived international market knowledge is negatively related to internationalization contrary to what was originally hypothesized. Interestingly the moderation analysis further revealed that the effect of perceived barriers on intention to internationalize turns positive when perceived international market knowledge is higher. By clarifying the role of perceived entry barriers which are specifically pertinent in the context of smaller, emerging firms, the study adds critical understanding to this less researched segment. Thus, providing specific, relevant recommendations for internationalizing managers in emerging markets.

ABSTRACT. By exploring the practices of 20 French and Ukrainian exporting SMEs, our research highlights the role played by collaborative innovation and the domestic institutional environment in shaping product innovation. Based on the institutional profile approach, our results suggest that the regulatory, normative and cognitive dimensions of the domestic institutional environment impact exporters’ innovative and exporting practices.

ABSTRACT. After the success of last year’s teaching and learning session on ‘Learning in the Global Classroom: Differentiating the Business Education Offer of a Global Business School’, we are proposing another education focussed session entitled ‘Global Classroom: supporting and enhancing 21st century student experiences’. The theme draws on the expertise of speakers within LUBS, as well as colleagues in other institutions. The aim of the session is to foster dialogue on international student experiences within the global classroom through resilience and inclusive curriculum design, as well as action learning through simulations and digital pedagogy. It is hoped that the ensuing debate will enhance both delegates’ and participants’ understanding of how students cope in today’s environment and what strategies could be deployed to help students acquire essential life skills and practical knowledge during their time in higher education.