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This document is an editorial from the Journal of International Marketing, titled "Brands and Branding around the World." It discusses the challenges and opportunities that brands and their managers face in the global market due to various trends and disruptions, such as the climate crisis, the pandemic, and deglobalization. The competitive landscape is also changing, with emerging market firms becoming formidable competitors with their own brands. Consumer attitudes toward brands are evolving, with expectations for brands to act responsibly. The editorial introduces a special issue of the journal that focuses on brands and branding in a global context, featuring six articles that explore different branding topics and perspectives. The articles cover areas such as pricing strategies, brand sponsorship, terroir branding, consumer reactions to product-harm crises, and consumer preferences for masstige brands. The editorial concludes by highlighting the need for further research in areas such as glocal branding, brand purpose and activism, and the use of AI in brand management. [Extracted from the article]

This research demonstrates that under states of certainty, consumers with a relatively stronger global (local) identity prefer global (local) brands, whereas under states of uncertainty, consumers with a relatively stronger global (local) identity prefer local (global) brands. This effect occurs because uncertainty (certainty) activates a divergent (convergent) thinking style, which results in a preference for options that are more distant from (closer to) the identity to which consumers associate more strongly. The effect holds both when individuals' global–local citizenship identity is measured and when it is manipulated. The research further establishes an important boundary condition for the effect. The effect holds in the citizenship identity context because people normally associate themselves with both local and global citizenship identities, and situational or dispositional factors only influence the degree to which they associate with each identity. The effect does not surface when individuals construe their local–global citizenship identities as interfering, meaning they conceive that holding one identity conflicts with holding the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To compare the efficacy of fine-needle non-aspiration cytology (FNNAC) with that of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of thyroid lesions. Materials and Methods: FNAC and FNNAC techniques were studied in 50 cases of thyroid lesions. All the needle-sampling procedures were done by a single operator. The samples were assessed cytologically and evaluated using five parameters, that is, background blood or clot, amount of cellular material, degree of cellular degeneration, and degree of cellular trauma and retention of appropriate architecture. Statistical Analysis: Wilcoxon signed rank test was performed using SPSS14 software. Differences between all the individual parameters as observed in FNAC and FNNAC smears were insignificant. Results and Conclusion: After evaluation of FNAC and FNNAC on the basis of these scores, greater numbers of diagnostically superior samples were obtained by FNNAC; however, by FNAC more number of diagnostically adequate smears were observed. The numbers of unsuitable smears were also more by FNNAC technique.