country of origin effects on product evaluations this article reviews the literature regarding the effect of country of origin on buyer evaluations of products the issue is important for countries especially resource poor developing countries that need to increase manufactured exports and for firms that source products in countries different from where sold marketing inferences are drawn and implications for future research are developed

breaking the wave the contested legitimation of an alien organizational form organizational forms imbued with values of modernity that is rationality efficiency and equity diffuse rapidly around the world nonetheless when sustained by beliefs norms and regulations contrasting with those prevalent in the receiving country their adoption may be delayed and within country legitimation may not proceed smoothly we study the diffusion of multiplex cinemas a form conceived in the us and attuned to the cinema as commerce logic across europe where the cinema as art logic prevails our findings reveal that the cultural meanings embodied by multiplexes shaped the founding rates of this organizational form in three ways first countries with larger normative and regulative distance from the us retarded the adoption of the first multiplex second camouflaged entries and at increasing density opposition from local interest groups were observed third the embodiment of global cultural scripts of progress and modernity allowed multiplexes to overcome local opposition the normative distance of the country from the us amplified the fluctuating dynamics of within country legitimacy a new specification of density dependent legitimation is presented to model the cultural cognitive legitimacy of rationalized but alien organizational forms

the interrelationships between television viewing values and perceived well being a global perspective do global marketing efforts for example those using television as a medium impact on the values and life satisfaction of people and if so is the process similar or different in various regions of the world we empirically examine the relationship between television viewing core values i e religiosity and materialism and perceived well being factors e g perceived socioeconomic status and relative life satisfaction data collected from the western developed nations e g united states and new zealand and several culturally homogeneous regions including new europe latin america the middle east and the far and southeast support the prevalence of diverse consumptionscapes with multiple global consumer cultures rather than a single global culture globalization and advances in technology have not created global norms and homogenized our identities but behavioral patterns and regional identities that are surprisingly durable specifically materialism was shown to influence perceived socioeconomic status both positively for two regions and negatively for two regions and relative life satisfaction except in new europe while perceived socioeconomic status had a positive influence on relative life satisfaction except in new europe and latin america the quantity of television viewing was positively shown to influence materialism directly in some cases as well as through perceived realism in others providing limited support for the cultivation theory effect finally religiosity was shown to play a countervailing role in negatively influencing materialism only in latin american and middle eastern countries and a positive influence on relative life satisfaction only in latin america the rationale behind the differences across regions was also explored the overall results can perhaps be best explained by postmodern epistemologies in which people worldwide are increasingly implicated and in which new traditions are constantly being invented

cultural industries in international business research progress and prospect cultural industries systems of organizations that produce and distribute cultural goods with substantive symbolic aesthetic or artistic value represent an important exciting and complex context that receives growing scholarly attention as the first review of management research on cultural industries this paper aims to provide a systematic synthesis of current research summarizing distinctive characteristics of cultural industries and highlighting research gaps we also illustrate how the unique nature dynamics and evolution of cultural industries provide opportunities to broaden international business theories in four research themes i e internationalization strategy cross border innovation social inclusion in the global economy and emerging market research

brand popularity country image and market share an empirical study this study examines how brand popularity in conjunction with other marketing variables influences market share directly as well as indirectly by interacting with country related intangible assets or simply country image the results of our empirical analysis show that a competitive analysis without the recognition of country image would be misleading we found that country specific intangible assets exist and that they significantly interact with marketing variables differently for u s and japanese brands in the subcompact car market in the usa brand popularity and advertising were found to be key factors for intangible assets for both the u s and the japanese brands brand popularity was the most significant factor for market share in both the short run and the long run japanese firms direct investment fdi in the target country directly influenced market share only in the short run several important implications for international marketing are presented

firm level effects of asymmetric intervention in foreign exchange markets evidence from the swiss currency floor in january 2015 the swiss national bank snb abandoned the swiss franc s exchange rate floor against the euro this paper is the first to study the firm level effects of this asymmetric type of central bank intervention in foreign exchange markets using weekly stock returns for a sample of swiss non financial firms i find significant reductions in total stock return volatility as well as market risk following the introduction of the currency floor accounting for the asymmetric nature of the intervention i show that the enforcement of this policy solely manifests in a significant reduction of incremental eur chf exchange rate risk exposures of exporting firms while importing firms experience reductions in proportion to the market portfolio only thus the asymmetric policy design is reflected in asymmetric responses of firm level currency exposures all effects however do not depend on the extent of business activity in the eurozone the overall results suggest that the currency floor was successful in supporting the performance of the swiss economy by effectively reducing stock return sensitivities to market fluctuations and eur chf exchange rate volatility

gradual catch up and enduring leadership in the global wine industry the wine industry is an extremely interesting sector from a catch up point of view because the latecomers in the international market have changed how wine is produced sold and consumed and in doing so they have challenged the positions of incumbents until the end of the 1980s the european countries and particularly france and italy dominated the international market for wine subsequently significant changes in the market namely decreases in consumption by traditional consuming countries the entry of new inexperienced consumers and the increasing importance of large distribution have threatened this supremacy initially the usa and australia and later emerging countries such as chile and south africa gained increasing market shares in both exported volumes and value at the expense of incumbents however some of these newcomers e g australia have shown slower growth opening opportunities for newer entrants such as argentina and new zealand at the same time some of the incumbents especially italy have innovated challenging the leadership of france in key markets such as the usa in this article we investigate the different catch up cycles in the global wine sector that occurred between the 1960s and 2010 through a detailed analysis of export volumes values and unit prices we address issues related to the increasing share in the global market of latecomer countries and the relative decline of the incumbents as well as possible changes in the market leadership within these two groups

glocal understandings female readers perceptions of the new woman in chinese advertising research in international advertising has often taken a dichotomized approach as exemplified by the global standardization vs localization debate it is assumed under the standardization approach that the globalization process will absorb different national cultures into a global commercial culture such that standardized advertising should be preferred the current research argues that the dichotomization approach may have oversimplified the way consumers read and interpret ad images we postulate that consumers in a transitional economy apply a variety of reading approaches including different cultural interpretive strategies and self referencing to absorb global images into their cultural and consumption schemas this is commonly referred to as glocalization we developed a typology of modern women images in chinese magazine advertising potential interpretive strategies and self referencing responses in this research results of a content analysis and a reader response study support our postulations implications are discussed

optimal cartel trigger price strategies abstract a dynamical model of industry equilibrium is described in which a cartel deters deviations from collusive output levels by threatening to produce at cournot quantities for a period of fixed duration whenever the market price falls below some trigger price in this model firms can observe only their own production level and a common market price the market demand curve is assumed to have a stochastic component so that an unexpectedly low price may signal either deviations from collusive output levels or a downward demand shock

country of origin and choice of food imports an in depth study of european distribution channel gatekeepers country of origin preferences of distribution channel gatekeepers when sourcing food imports were investigated using in depth interviews in five european markets channel member perceptions of product country image related more to specific issues of confidence and trust in integrity of production certification and regulatory systems than to country image stereotypes this study integrates these trust determining factors with price perceived value constructs in order to build a comprehensive model applicable to food channel gatekeepers

the eclectic paradigm of international production a restatement and some possible extensions this article reviews some of the criticisms directed towards the eclectic paradigm of international production over the past decade and restates its main tenets the second part of the article considers a number of possible extensions of the paradigm and concludes by asserting that it remains a robust general framework for explaining and analysing not only the economic rationale of economic production but many organisational and impact issues in relation to mne activity as well

when market information constitutes fields sensemaking of markets in the commercial music industry in this paper we outline a key mechanism through which organizational fields are constituted we suggest that in competitive fields the market serves as a magnet around which groups of actors consolidate and that cognition of markets occurs through the creation distribution and interpretation of a web of information about the market to illustrate our theory we present a case study of thebillboard music chart from the commercial music industry to show that changes in either scope methodology or political tone with which market information is presented can provide a major jolt to the participants understanding of their field

the production and consumption of the arts a view of cultural economics by most criteria the arts comprise a significant area of economic activity in 1990 american consumers spent 5 billion on admissions to theater opera galleries and other nonprofit arts events more than on admissions to spectator sports 4 1 billion on movie admissions and 17 6 billion on books because of difficulties in defining boundaries around the arts industry statistics on its contribution to gdp are problematical but available data suggest that the arts theater music opera dance visual arts crafts literature community and folk arts account for a little under one percent of the united states gdp and a little over one percent of the civilian labor force if the net is cast somewhat wider defining the cultural industries as including the arts motion pictures radio and television and printing and publishing an aggregate value of output can be measured for 1988 of about 130 billion or 2 5 percent of gdp national endowment for the arts 1992 likewise support for the arts and culture in the u s through government and voluntary contributions amounts to a significant annual commitment of funds combined federal state and local government expenditure on the arts and museums in 1987 amounted to about 0 8 billion and in 1990 6 4 percent of charitable giving was channeled to arts culture and the humanities yielding a total level of voluntary contributions in these areas of 7 9 billion in that year private markets in the arts too are of significant size looking at the international art trade for example we can note that the worldwide net sales of the two major art auction houses christie s and sotheby s amounted to 6 6 billion in 1989 90 1 yet despite the fact that production and consumption of art have been elements of human activity for longer than most of the phenomena that have en

matching product catgeory and country image perceptions a framework for managing country of origin effects the study of country of origin coo effects examines how consumers perceive products emanating from a particular country this study examines coo in terms of the fit between countries and product categories a framework is suggested which matches the importance of product category dimensions with the perceived image of the country of origin along the same dimensions such matches or mismatches can be either favorable or unfavorable managers can use product country match information to assess consumers purchase intentions and assist them in managing their product s coo data collected from consumers in ireland mexico and the united states demonstrate the product country match framework and its strategic implications

extending the theory of the multinational enterprise internalization and strategic management perspectives this paper assesses the continued relevance of buckley and casson s 1976 book on the future of the multinational enterprise mne against a background of increasing criticism of transaction cost related scholarly work we demonstrate that the schism that can currently be observed in the field between international business and international management is misguided as the transaction cost internalization school may offer useful insights to both management scholars and managers for this to occur however it is necessary first to extend the empirical scope of transaction cost based reasoning to include the functioning of differentiated network mnes the paper suggests that buckley and casson s book still represents a beacon of clarity and a superb starting point for the study of the mne even if the complexity of this governance structure has grown far beyond what any international business scholar or even international management scholar could have predicted 25 years ago

consumer ethnocentrism reconceptualization and cross cultural validation consumer ethnocentrism ce is a popular construct in international marketing research and is generally measured using the cetscale a reliable scale with proven predictive validity but with limited evidence about its construct validity dimensionality and cross cultural measurement invariance this note addresses these gaps by reconceptualizing ce as an attitude construct consisting of three dimensions 1 affective reaction 2 cognitive bias and 3 behavioral preference a revised ce scale ces is developed and tested using two empirical studies with adult consumers from four different countries china india uk and usa showing that ces is a reliable valid and cross culturally invariant scale and it explains greater variance than the cetscale and other similar scales in customer evaluations and behavioral intentions for a wide range of products and services

brand origin recognition accuracy its antecedents and consumers cognitive limitations an ever growing literature has reported consumer bias toward national origins of products and has explored factors that moderate such bias researchers have assumed if only tacitly that consumers are knowledgeable of brand origins and that this knowledge is a significant influence that drives judgments of product quality brand attitudes and choice behavior in the marketplace using categorization theory and attribute diagnosticity as the theoretical foundation our research reveals that consumers actually have only modest knowledge of the national origins of brands and that american consumers proficiency at recognizing foreign brand origins is predicted by variables such as socioeconomic status past international travel foreign language skills and gender in the second of two studies we determined that brand origin recognition is based largely on consumers associations of brand names with languages that suggest country origins these studies ultimately lead us to conclude that past research has inflated the influence that country of origin information has on consumers product judgments and behavior and its importance in managerial and public policy decisions

from servicescape to consumptionscape a photo elicitation study of starbucks in the new china a servicescape can be viewed as the frozen potential of a consumptionscape which is unleashed when consumers twist the resources of its built environment for their own purposes in this paper we explore how young urban chinese consumers transform the iconic global brand starbucks into a consumptionscape through their enactment of personally meaningful experiences roles and identities in the setting we employ the qualitative research methodology of photo elicitation by having consumers record their experience in a starbucks in beijing through photography and later using these images as probes in a depth interview the implications for new global servicescapes in local markets are discussed

the coevolution of new organizational forms in the fashion industry a historical and comparative study of france italy and the united states in many industries the contemporary context of acute environmental dislocation shows the limits of traditional organizational recipes in direct response to environmental challenges companies are experimenting with new organizational solutions while flexibility or the capacity to redefine organizational form to follow changing purposes is undeniably a common trend these experiments otherwise differ greatly diversity is such in fact that it is difficult to clearly identify and define a unique organizational paradigm for the future to explore the connection between environmental dislocation and organizational transformations we adopt a historical and comparative perspective our empirical base of evidence is the luxury fashion industry in three countries france italy and the united states for many years this industry was defined by stable environmental conditions and a craft model of organization remained dominant we show that over a more recent period increasing environmental turbulence has brought about a redefinition of the rules of the game a common response has been for organizations to move towards greater flexibility or modularity and to experiment with network forms however we also show that the paths or trajectories leading to organizational flexibility have varied significantly across countries reflecting historical legacies and institutional constraints we identify in fact three different network forms in that industry which represent national ideal types the umbrella holding company in france the flexible embedded network in italy and the virtual organization in the united states we argue that the process of change in the luxury fashion industry has been one of coevolution where environmental transformation and organizational change have fed upon each other through time pioneer firms in the luxury fashion industry originally devised organizational solutions within the bounds set by nationally defined constraints and opportunities becoming institutionalized these early solutions in turn shaped the environment for individual organizations and organizational populations creating new sets of opportunities and constraints in a path dependent manner different models of organization and national competitiveness thus emerged in conclusion we are brought to question the likelihood of full and stable convergence towards a unique organizational form or paradigm there appears to be in each national context a process of construction of new organizational solutions that starts from local foundations embedded as they are in powerful historical and institutional legacies organizational differences are there to stay we believe beyond the period of transition and acute environmental dislocation

task attributes and process integration in business process offshoring a perspective of service providers from india and china this study addresses an important issue in designing and managing business process offshoring bpo process integration between an offshore service provider and its global bpo client we applied the information processing lens in global bpo and developed the logic that internationally disaggregated process integration requires a fit between process integration and bpo s task characteristics i e task complexity and security and task interdependence task connectivity stickiness and dependency this alignment is further moderated by the task context such as the geographic dispersion of the global client s end customers and the type of offshore provider independent vendor vs captive and joint venture finally we suggest that process integration has a positive but curvilinear relationship with the economic returns achieved by offshore providers our analysis of 308 bpo companies in india and china supports our propositions we conclude that international managers monitoring and integrating globally disaggregated activities in bpo should establish a proper alignment with the bpo project s task traits and task interdependence and look closely at the conditioning effect of external complexity by redressing the paucity of research on governing global bpo this study offers some insights into the integration externalization dynamics for growing business knowledge process offshoring

multiculturalism from a cognitive perspective patterns and implications multiculturalism the internal representation of multiple cultural meaning systems has critical implications for global managers and multinational corporations mncs understanding multiculturalism is becoming increasingly important given that the locations within which mnc activity resides and the composition of the workforce even within a given location are more diverse building on the connectionism perspective we offer a novel cognitive conceptualization of multiculturalism that incorporates the individual s multicultural cognitive content and structure based on that we explain how specific sociocultural experiences interact with existing individual cognitions to form different patterns of multiculturalism specifically we propose five stylized patterns compartmentalization integration inclusion convergence and generalization and explain how they are developed through specific sociocultural experiences we discuss how different patterns of multiculturalism influence specific capabilities of multicultural mnc managers and their effectiveness in a variety of critical mnc tasks we believe the cognitive connectionist perspective which has not been brought before into international business discussions of culture and cultural capabilities holds great promise for better understanding global managers capabilities and development

the born global firm an entrepreneurial and capabilities perspective on early and rapid internationalization our 2004 journal of international business studies article innovation organizational capabilities and the born global firm provided a framework for the phenomenon of early and rapid internationalization among young entrepreneurial firms this work can be characterized as an integration of marketing entrepreneurial and capability based thinking around exporting positioned as the born global exporter the article also reported findings from a national study of start up firms that expanded abroad early in their evolution in the present commentary we reflect on the contributions of the 2004 article review the scholarship on the topic over the past decade and offer suggestions for future inquiry while the incidence of early internationalization by firms was a novel concept two decades ago today such firms are found in abundance in many countries yet many unresolved research questions remain including the crucial topic of what happens to born global firms as they grow and mature over time similarly the issue of why some firms internationalize early others late in their evolution and still others choose to remain local is a fundamental question for international business scholarship

the uppsala internationalization process model revisited from liability of foreignness to liability of outsidership the uppsala internationalization process model is revisited in the light of changes in business practices and theoretical advances that have been made since 1977 now the business environment is viewed as a web of relationships a network rather than as a neoclassical market with many independent suppliers and customers outsidership in relation to the relevant network more than psychic distance is the root of uncertainty the change mechanisms in the revised model are essentially the same as those in the original version although we add trust building and knowledge creation the latter to recognize the fact that new knowledge is developed in relationships