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China is the world's second-largest cosmetic market and is dominated by foreign brands. However, little is known about Japanese cosmetic brands marketing communication in China. Consumer culture positioning is deemed a promising framework for understanding international advertising. This study examines six Japanese cosmetic brands' consumer culture positioning (CCP) strategies in their global advertisements to see how they implement CCP strategies in China. 756 video-format ads were collected from their official accounts on Weibo. Content analysis was conducted to analyse how ad executional elements communicate CCP strategies. Results show that these Japanese brands generally implement mixed CCP strategies, but that certain ad executions focus on a specific singular CCP strategy. The results document CCP strategies in international advertising practices, offering essential insights into what advertising executional elements can be employed to communicate different CCPs for cosmetics in China. Important theoretical and practical implications for marketers are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to determine whether it is appropriate to standardize airline communication at the international level. Most previous research on international services advertising has carried out content analyses only, without measuring effectiveness. The contribution of this article lies in measuring the effectiveness of advertising strategies in an international service sector. The reaction of consumers to specific advertisements in France and the United Kingdom (UK) was measured. A sample of 200 consumers from these two countries were exposed to various airline advertising campaigns representing the five main advertising strategies presented in the literature. The effectiveness of each advertising strategy was measured. The results show that there are no major differences in the effectiveness of the different advertising strategies in France and the UK. These findings seem to indicate that when airlines are present in the two countries, they should standardize their advertising communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While accent effects have been studied in Western advertising contexts, there are contradictory findings on accent effects, and the moderating role of country‐of‐origin (COO), in other contexts. Few studies extended such accent effects to non‐English‐speaking cultural settings, particularly in emerging countries. This article fills this knowledge gap by examining accent and language effects on consumers' perceived effectiveness of a spokesperson in Chinese advertising contexts. We explore how Chinese consumers evaluate spokespersons with standard and non‐standard accents, whether these accents are associated with belongingness, sophistication, and modernity, and whether COO moderates such accent and language effects on the perceived effectiveness of spokespersons. Across three studies, the findings demonstrate that compared with a spokesperson with a non‐standard accent (i.e., English‐accented Mandarin), spokespersons with standard accents (i.e., standard Mandarin and standard English) are perceived to be more effective. Furthermore, Chinese consumers associate standard Mandarin with belongingness, and standard English with sophistication and modernity, whereas English‐accented Mandarin has the lowest degree of these associations among the three accents. Although the moderating effect of COO is observed in Study 3, standard English is preferred for both advertised domestic and foreign products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether online video ads in the U.S. and South Korea reflect their cultural values in the same way as traditional advertising has shown. A content analysis was conducted on popular YouTube video ads in both countries. Surprisingly, the results from the current research were somewhat inconsistent with the previous research results in mass media advertising. Most of the frequencies of advertising appeals of popular online video ads on YouTube in South Korea were not significantly different from those in the U.S., despite cultural differences between the two countries. Popular online video advertising might be more likely to reflect the individual and emotional characteristics of online video advertising rather than cultural values. Implications for international research on online video advertising were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative analysis of the quality of titration as a form of foreignization and duplication as a form of domestication of audiovisual materials in the modern television industry is conducted in the paper. The attention is focused on the economic losses and benefits from the adequacy of this type of translation. The relevance of the topic is reasoned with reference to the change in the legal regulation of the film and television industry in Ukraine. The essence of such strategies for translating audiovisual materials as domestication and foreignization is given by author. The most common transformations in the implementation of titration and duplication on national TV channels, in particular on “1 + 1”, “Inter” and “K1” are analyzed, which are carried out during the translating of audiovisual materials to the end user. And also the main mistakes in the translation of the animated series “Masha and the Bear” are given. By the linguistic analysis, the main transformations in the implementation of translation of international advertising and the films at the morphological, lexical and syntactic levels are identified by the author. The examples of such transformations are given. The survey was conducted among the respondents to determine the preferences of the language of translation of audiovisual materials �Masha and the Bear», advertising �Oreo» cookies, chewing gum «Orbit» and chocolate «MaxFun». As a result, it has been found that from 2 episodes of the animated series “Masha and the Bear”, the Ukrainian translation was preferred by 69% and 54% of the respondents, while the international advertising is preferred to perceive, to a greater extent, in the Ukrainian language than in Russian, namely, more than 80% in all episodes. The presence of economic losses or benefits from the perception of advertising is established, taking into account the presence or absence of pleasure from its perception as the appropriate message for the key action of buying a product or service which is advertised. It is established that this type of translation is quite complex and requires high professionalism, because the adequacy of the initial result depends on the level of satisfaction of the quality of such products by viewers, which, in turn, determine the potential profit in future. It has been established that the use of domestication strategy is more acceptable for the Ukrainian viewers than foreignization. The use of domestication by the translator is intended to bring more profit for its business owners, as it provokes the appropriate action to purchase the audiovisual products by their customers

The Pentel case study exhibits a success case of a global firm's ability to incorporate cultural-specific values into an advertising campaign. Pentel used superstitious beliefs in the Thai culture to create the Write Your Own Luck campaign. The company launched a limited pen collection designed to be carried as lucky charms. Each pen version represented a unique type of luck it brought to its user. The campaign targeted Thai teens who were heavy users of social media. The campaign was launched through offline and online channels and received significant attention and awareness from the target audience. This case study represents a campaign that incorporates cultural beliefs and values of local consumers into an effective advertising campaign. The company achieved its goal of raising brand awareness and online engagement among the target audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baladna is a dairy company in Qatar. It has thrived despite an ongoing political and economic blockade, helping the country to become self-sufficient in terms of its dairy needs. In a short time and with substantial investment, the brand became a market leader. Baladna's growth plan banks on globalization, but the marketing director and the VP of marketing disagree on the strategy: one argues for standardization and the other for adaptation. The case study discusses brand name issues as well as brand identity approaches in the context of a multicultural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mixed-motive dyad of the headquarters-subsidiary relationship, subsidiaries often request more autonomy than headquarters concede. To shed light on subsidiaries' desire for autonomy, the authors investigate its consequences and determinants by drawing on reactance theory to develop an integrative framework focusing on marketing decision making in subsidiaries. The authors empirically test this framework with 133 international headquarters-subsidiary dyads from 29 countries. The findings show that a subsidiary's desire for autonomy can significantly impair the headquarters-subsidiary relationship. While the centralization and importance of marketing decision making can amplify this harmful desire for autonomy, the headquarters' competence in marketing decision making can reduce this desire. Thus, to minimize subsidiaries' desire for autonomy, headquarters should credibly display high competence while allowing subsidiaries to participate in decision making whenever possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes the product ethnicity perspective to investigate how monolingual Taiwanese consumers respond to products from developed countries when the consumer culture positioning (CCP) is global versus foreign versus local. Our experiment has a 2 (high vs. low fit of product ethnicity) × 3 (global vs. foreign vs. local ad appeal) design. Two mediating mechanisms are introduced to explain how ad fluency and brand information credibility impact ad effectiveness. These findings provide insights regarding the impact of a product's country of origin and have implications for international marketing and advertising strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been observed that some firms succeed in their attempts to achieve business goals in emerging economies, whereas others fail. To understand the reasons for this phenomenon, the authors conduct a qualitative study where they interview 42 managers of multinational companies from the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. From the insights gleaned from these interviews and the available literature, they propose a conceptual framework that identifies the possible factors that would drive the creation of both a profitable and a loyal customer base (termed 'profitable customer loyalty' in this study) in the emerging economies. The influencing factors are categorized as customer-specific variables, marketing-mix variables, and firm-specific variables. From these factors, the authors advance research propositions that discuss the potential relationships with profitable customer loyalty. One of this study's key contributions is the proposal that multinational companies monitor the suggested factors and assess a degree of comfort before formulating strategies in the emerging economies. Further research can focus on the empirical validation of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the prominence of social ties in emerging economies, it remains unclear whether and how social ties matter in cultivating marketing channels for both local and foreign firms in China. Moreover, few studies have explicitly distinguished and examined the roles of business versus political ties. Drawing on the resource-based view and social network theory, the authors propose and test the moderating effects of political ties and business ties on channel capability-performance relationships. The findings from a survey of 342 firms indicate that the value of channel capability is conditional on political and business ties, but in opposite directions: business ties impede and political ties strengthen the effect of channel capability on firm performance. Furthermore, the moderating role of social ties is stronger for local, nonleading firms than for foreign, leading firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to provide accurate scientific perceptions on the nature of the role played by the declaration as a means of globalization implement its entitlements and transmit information to the public. The researcher adopted the survey methodology to study the subject of globalization in the international TV advertising through MBC1 channel. It is concluded that the channel, through broadcasting advertisements that promote foreign goods and commodities, has contributed to the consolidation of ways and lifestyles by showing foreign products consumed by foreigners to achieve the desire of the Arab public to reincarnate in foreign life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits the impact of entry timing on the performance of foreign-invested firms. The authors posit that balancing between market share performance and firm survival is critical for foreign firms to capitalize on early-mover advantages. Using a longitudinal data set of 25,513 foreign firms operating in China, the authors find that early entrants enjoy higher market shares but suffer from lower survival rates than late entrants. In addition, foreign firms' entry mode and investment size affect their market shares and survival. The results also provide supporting evidence of the interaction effects among entry timing, entry mode, and investment size on foreign firms' market shares and survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the effect of customer clusters on a firm's innovation. They argue that knowledge leveraged from customer clusters can help the firm develop innovations. The authors specifically concentrate on the effect of a firm's geographical proximity and diversity of customer clusters on innovation outcomes. In addition to showing the importance of customer cluster proximity on firm innovation, they explore the effect of customer cluster heterogeneity on innovation in an international marketing environment. They test the theoretical model using multicountry data (N = 288) drawn from the U.K. innovation survey implemented by the Economic and Social Research Council, which collected the data across five European countries. Theoretical constructs operate largely as hypothesized and explain a substantial proportion of the variation in the different innovation outcomes tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to respond to Taylor's recognition of the dearth of cross-national advertising and globalization studies in emerging markets. To fill this theoretical gap in the literature, we employ semiology to evaluate the plots and stories used in promoting global consumer culture in television advertisements from the two major economic powers in sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria and South Africa. Unlike previous cross-national advertising and globalization studies that suggest that advertising is a reflection of cultural and global consumerism values, our findings suggest that advertisements reflect a romanticized view of middle-ground politics promoted by political establishments both at the national and the international level. We also found that the reflection of middle-ground politics in advertisements may be more prevalent in countries undergoing major ideological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers have increasingly employed positioning strategies to appeal to either global or local consumer cultures. However, little is known about the characteristics of consumers most likely to respond to such positioning. The authors find that the collective identities of global and national identification are strongly related to responsiveness to global and local consumer culture positioning (GCCP and LCCP, respectively). The results also show that personality predisposes people to adopt collective identities. The personality traits of openness to experience and agreeableness are significantly related to global and national identity, respectively. On the basis of these findings, the authors present implications with regard to developing GCCP and LCCP strategies that are congruent with consumers' personality and associated collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price-related consequences of the country-of-origin (COO) cue have received limited attention in extant literature. In this study, the authors draw from equity theory and cue utilization theory and investigate (1) whether a brand's COO affects a consumer's willingness to pay and (2) the extent to which the consumer's familiarity with the brand moderates this relationship. The results of three complementary experimental studies reveal that COO indeed has a positive impact on willingness to pay. Furthermore, the authors find a negative moderating influence of brand familiarity on the COO effect in a high-involvement setting but not in a low-involvement setting. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings, and they identify directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attribute ratings often contain a holistic or global impression of the brand, commonly referred to as 'halo.' A halo response can occur when perceptions of a brand's performance on an attribute are influenced by performance perceptions on another attribute or by a global impression of the brand. Using cross-national survey data from consumers in Argentina, China, Spain, and the United States, the authors examine the extent to which a halo response introduces bias to product quality and corporate social responsibility perceptions of competing brands. The findings show that halo is more pervasive for product quality than for corporate social responsibility associations, varies across brands and markets, and is strongly related to brand recommendations. Examining cross-national brand performance and halo perceptions can help international marketing managers understand key perceptual similarities and differences between and across markets, which can inform strategic considerations such as whether to pursue global, panregional, or national branding, positioning, and advertising strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how international experience shapes managerial judgment in the formation of effective export promotion strategies. Drawing from contingency theory and the organizational learning perspective, the authors develop and test a model of the effects of different forms of international experience-duration, scope, and intensity-on the performance outcomes of promotion adaptation. Using data from 336 export ventures, the authors find that promotion adaptation relates positively to performance when duration is short and intensity is low, but there is a nonsignificant moderating effect for scope. However, the subsequent analysis suggests that scope, together with sociocultural distance and promotion adaptation, exerts a complex three-way effect on export performance, highlighting the need for more research attention in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the extent to which competitive actions of multinational corporations (MNCs) and local vendors of Internet technology products shape the diffusion of their respective products in emerging markets. Drawing on competitive technology diffusion, the Austrian perspective on firms' market processes, and resource advantage theory, the authors develop a set of hypotheses regarding the characteristics of the competitive actions of MNCs and local vendors. They validate the hypotheses with longitudinal field data from two pairs of competing Internet technology products in search engine and consumer-to-consumer electronic markets. The findings indicate that specific market-oriented actions of local vendors and MNCs influence the diffusion of technology products. In particular, global marketing managers should concentrate on a few key actions and take new actions that differ from those of local vendors in emerging markets. This study provides a wealth of knowledge in high-technology product diffusion and demonstrates how competition between local vendors and MNCs in emerging markets differs from typical within-industry competition. In addition, this study conveys important implications to the theory of international business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing global account management (GAM) studies mostly focus on multinational suppliers' decision on which customers to serve with GAM programs, while paying limited attention to how to formulate mechanisms of global account coordination to best serve a chosen account. The issue of making optimal choices on specific coordination modes is pressing to global account managers because GAM programs are both costly and consequential. First, building on prior research that suggests the existence of two modes of global account coordination-namely, interorganizational coordination (IOC) and intercountry coordination (ICC)-the authors propose a formal framework that delineates their similarities and differences along the domain (internal vs. external), level (horizontal vs. vertical), and foci (strategic execution vs. relationship maintenance). Second, following the resource-based view and power-dependency theory, the authors propose an integrative framework on how various supplier, interorganizational, and customer factors influence global marketing managers' coordination mechanism choices. They further advance several hypotheses on the curvilinear nature of influences of several antecedents on coordination mode choices and examine the impacts of forms of global account coordination modes on suppliers' market and relational performance. They test the conceptual model using data collected from a cross-national sample of more than 200 global account managers. The findings show that the two coordination modes have different sets of antecedents and exert independent, different influences on supplier performance. Therefore, they should be treated separately in research as well as practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of marketing-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications on perceptions of the firm and its brands among consumers in two diverse cultures, economies, and political landscapes. The authors' main hypotheses are based on global brand positioning theory, which posits that consumer perceptions are enhanced if the brand is viewed as global. In general, the results support the notion that multinational firms emphasizing global CSR efforts engender more positive perceptions across multiple dimensions. Yet regarding tactical issues, the results also show the importance of some specific needs according to local tastes and experiences. The authors provide implications for marketing theory and practice as well as future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent marketing literature has shown that an influential marketing department is a driver of an organizationwide market orientation and, in some studies, of firm performance. Recognizing the importance of a strong marketing department, this study develops a theoretical model of the levers of marketing departments' influence and examines the degree to which the effects of the levers are subject to national cultural variations. The authors empirically validate the theoretical model using 740 firms from six Western and Asian countries. The findings reveal both culturally dependent and independent effects. For example, although a great degree of innovativeness in the marketing department has a positive impact on the department's influence across cultures, a high level of accountability and integration with other departments shows cultural dependencies. Global marketing managers learn whether they should advise their local marketing department to use standardized influence tactics or make necessary adaptations to local circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present the results of a study that empirically tests a model connecting national export-promotion programs with export performance through the intervening role of export-related organizational resources and capabilities, export marketing strategy, and export competitive advantage. The study reveals that the adoption of specific national export-promotion programs positively strengthens the firm's export-related resources and capabilities, which in turn are instrumental in developing a sound export marketing strategy. By realizing this strategy, the firm enjoys competitive advantages related to costs, products, or services, which in turn help it achieve superior export performance in both market and financial dimensions. In addition, the firm's export market performance has a positive impact on export financial performance. This study also shows that the effect of national export-promotion programs on export-related resources and capabilities is stronger among smaller firms and, for some programs, among firms with less export experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retail e-commerce (e-tail) continues to grow as an important channel of distribution in the global business environment. In this article, the authors present and test a conceptual model of the relationships among firm orientations, strategic resources, and international e-tail performance. Specifically, they investigate the ability of important e-tail firm resources—brand strength and supplier relations—to mediate the effects of market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and foreign market orientation on revenue growth and firm performance relative to objectives. Using survey responses from a cross-national sample of 174 marketing and e-commerce decision makers, the authors find support for the role of brand strength and supplier relations as mediators between market and foreign market orientations and firm performance. The study provides managerial insights into the types of orientations and resources that can help drive e-tail performance and contributions regarding the indirect effects of orientations on international marketing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A relatively recent trend in international marketing is the rising number of firms from nontriad countries seeking growth and profits from foreign markets. Yet no study has examined the international performance of these firms. How successful have their efforts been? What factors drive their success? The authors examine these questions by building a theory-based conceptual framework that links firm international performance to its antecedents. They test the framework using a sample of 110 Taiwanese firms. The key findings are as follows: (1) The internationalization–performance relationship is characterized by a joint U + N shape, (2) learning capacity is positively associated with international performance, and (3) research and development intensity is not a key driver of performance. Though based on a sample of Taiwanese firms only, these results imply that nontriad firms embarking on internationalization must persist despite early setbacks, must develop their learning capacity, and should not develop extensive research and development capabilities while internationalizing. The authors conclude with a discussion of the reasons for these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses another article in the issue which examines the acquisition of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-driven companies such as Tom's of Maine, Stonyfield Farm, and Body Shop by large multinational companies (MNCs). The small companies found opportunities in the growing markets of consumers who wanted all-natural ingredients, eco-friendly products, and sustainable consumption, the article states. Also discussed are "ethical" consumerism, cause-related products and marketing, and a brand's connection to social responsibility.

How should an exporter manage its relationship with its intermediaries given different levels of performance ambiguity? The author addresses this question by exploring four different settings of performance ambiguity that involve cultural distance (external uncertainty) and product complexity (internal uncertainty). Using a sample of 173 Norwegian exporting companies, the author analyzes relational drivers' effect on relationship quality between trading partners—namely, exporters and their distributors. The results suggest that cultural distance and product complexity are two key contingency factors that moderate the role of relational mechanisms used by exporters in creating relationship quality with their foreign sales intermediaries. The author concludes by discussing implications for research and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine (1) the extent to which cross-national marketing scholars report measurement invariance (MI) assessment results and (2) what cross-national marketing scholars think about MI assessment in general. In Study 1, the authors analyze all cross-national empirical articles (243) published in 15 well-respected and peer-reviewed marketing journals from 2000 to 2005. Although the results indicate a steady growth of published cross-national empirical marketing research and assessment of MI, only 28% of the studies undertook the procedure. In Study 2, the authors analyze responses from 86 cross-national empirical marketing scholars regarding their knowledge about, attitudes toward, and use of MI assessment. The results indicate that the relatively low utilization of MI assessment is due to low MI knowledge and the sophistication of the techniques. The authors conclude with suggested implications for the field of international marketing and a discussion of future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose a conceptual model of the psychic distance–organizational performance relationship that incorporates organizational factors (international experience and centralization of decision making), entry strategy, and retail strategy implications. The findings suggest that when entering psychically distant markets, retailers should adopt low-cost/low-control entry strategies and adapt their retail strategy to a greater extent than in psychically close markets. However, the authors find that such strategic responses have an adverse effect on performance. They find that international experience, psychic distance, entry strategy, and retail strategy adaptation are significant drivers of organizational performance and factors that determine critical success in international retailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multinational corporations' (MNCs') control over their foreign operations plays an important role in implementing their global marketing strategy. In the past, transaction cost analysis and bargaining power theory have been widely cited to explain the degree of control MNCs exert over their foreign operations. However, research explicitly combining these two perspectives has been limited. To address the gap in the literature, the authors present a joint model that combines the two alternative theories to explain MNCs' control, and they compare their relative explanatory power. Using primary survey data, they perform an empirical test of the relative explanatory power of these two theories. The results suggest that three factors, two drawn from bargaining power theory and one from transaction cost analysis, are key factors in explaining MNCs' degree of control over their foreign operations. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the influence of cultural distance, geographic distance, and three market size variables in the target country preference of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the software industry. In addition, the authors examine the shift of SMEs' priorities in country selection by analyzing how these factors affect the selection of the first, second, and third target countries. The empirical findings suggest that approximately 70% of country choices can be explained by software market size and geographic distance alone. The findings also show that SMEs' entry priorities shift quickly from countries within a short geographic distance to countries with high purchasing power and at a greater geographic distance. The authors discuss relationships of these macrolevel factors and compare them with prior qualitative and conceptual studies in this field. They also note implications for managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploratory and Exploitative Learning in new Product Development: A Social Capital Perspective on New Technology Ventures in China (Kwaku Atuahene-Gima and Janet Y. Murray) The Effects of E-Commerce Drivers on Export Marketing Strategy (Gary Gregory, Munib Karavdic, and Shaoming Zou) What Drives Performance in Globally Focused Marketing Organizations? A Threecountry Study (G. Tomas M. Hult, S. Tamer Cavusgil, Seyda Deligonul, Tunga Kiyak, and Katarina Lagerström) The Role of Moral Intensity and Personal Moral Philosophies in the Ethical Decision Making of Marketers: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China and the United States (Jatinder J. Singh, Scott J. Vitell, Jamal Al-Khatib, and Irvine Clark III) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International entries into transition economies occur infrequently and involve considerable uncertainty. This raises the question whether managers, who have limited own experience, take their competitors' prior decisions into account when deciding on their own entry timing and size and whether there is value in doing so. To address these questions, the authors estimate a sequential hazard/Poisson regression model on the top 75 European grocery retailers' decisions to enter the Eastern European market. Indeed, firms pay close attention to prevailing practices in their industry. Prior entries first serve as legitimation but eventually become a deterring factor. Moreover, rather than just imitating the most popular or modal decision when determining the own entry timing and size, managers pay closer attention to the actions of their home competitors, react to prior entries of same-format competitors differently from those of different-format competitors, and adjust the observed industry practice for the specificity of their own resources. The authors show that managers are justified in taking the combined industry wisdom into account; deviations from prevailing industry practice, in terms of both timing and size, hurt the efficiency of their operations in subsequent years. Thus, attempts to develop own, distinct entry rules tend to be dysfunctional. Moreover, corrective actions are easier to implement along the size than along the time dimension; the detrimental effects of entering at a different time from the industry norm persist and even become amplified over time, whereas the negative impact of size deviations is temporary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing importance of service exports in the world economy, there is limited research into the unique success factors in this sector. This article reports the key lessons from 17 Australian exporters of knowledge-based services (e.g., market research, legal, advertising, engineering) that conduct business in Southeast Asia. The authors selected the cases in accordance with Patterson and Cicic's (1995) classification scheme, which recognizes key differences across service types. Analysis of the data shows that though there are some common success factors across service types, services characterized by high tangibility on the one hand and low tangibility on the other hand derived additional success factors on the basis of their tangible and intangible assets, respectively. Furthermore, the performance of firms with high face-to-face contact during service manufacturing and delivery was enhanced by personnel-related factors. This suggests a "contingency guide" to knowledge-based service exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in the field of international advertising has produced a large volume of literature. Although some attempts have been made in the past to review this stream of research, there has been no attempt to assess the contributions to this literature by individuals and institutions. This study assesses the contributions of individual researchers and institutions from 1990 to 2002, based on their publications in major advertising, marketing, and international business journals, and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The findings of this study offer researchers a unique view of this field and some directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differences between services and goods are generally well understood. These differences, however, suggest that advertising strategies for goods cannot be automatically applied to services. Yet services are the fastest-growing segment of the expanding global market, and to compete effectively across cultural boundaries, these businesses need to understand appropriate marketing and advertising strategies designed especially for services. This paper evaluates the existing literature on international services advertising (ISA) to provide an assessment of the current state of the research on the topic, with a goal of determining specific areas of research inquiry. A comprehensive review of the international services advertising literature from 1970 to 2002 is provided, and directions for future research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In introducing the special issue on international advertising, this paper assesses progress made in international research. It begins with an examination of the content of international advertising papers published in the Journal of Advertising during the past ten years. The content of these more recent research articles is then compared to those that appeared earlier in the Journal's history. This paper also surveys four earlier reviews of the international advertising literature and assesses whether issues posed in the reviews have been adequately addressed. A new agenda for international advertising researchers is offered, consisting of eight research questions and some admonitions relating to data collection and collaboration among researchers. The contributions of papers in this issue are then detailed in the context of the proposed research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees are a critically important constituent of the service brand and being ultimately responsible for delivering its promise. As such they need a shared understanding of their service brand's values, along with strong commitment and identification, to encourage brand supporting behaviour. This internal brand building process becomes more challenging as services brands expand internationally, employing staff from different global zones. From research findings about the role of leadership, we argue that the success of internal brand building depends on the ability to leverage cognitive, affective, and communicative differences amongst culturally-diverse employees. For this, two behavioural competencies are crucial: a) defining a clear brand vision, and b) facilitating verbal and non-verbal social interaction patterns (showing commitment, trusting employees, and living brand values). This helps build passion, commitment and organisational identification amongst employees, ultimately responsible for successful services brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An implicit assumption in advertising content analysis, as well as in studies of advertiser intent, is that what an ad says, or what its creator intends for it to convey, is also what it means to consumers. The presence of global images and foreign appeals in advertising is thus often incorrectly taken as evidence that local culture is becoming globalized, and that consumer values are changing accordingly. Using a reader-response approach to analyze upscale Chinese consumers' understandings of global and local television and print advertising, we find that this is not the case. Instead, we find two dialectic reactions by Chinese consumers. One side is largely driven by the desire for global cosmopolitanism and status goods for the sake of mianzi (prestige face), whereas the other side is motivated by a more nationalistic desire to invoke Chinese values that are seen as local in origin. These opposing advertising meanings and preferences have important implications for understanding how international advertising affects local cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examines consumers' perception towards sexual imagery in alcohol advertising across national cultures and among men and women with different demographic and psychographic make-up in those cultures. This study addresses a very important gap found in the literature, namely the influence of consumers' psychographic characteristics as values and lifestyles on their overall perception towards sexual imagery in advertising. The study was conducted among consumers aged between 18 and 35 in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Results indicate that Italians overall have higher acceptance levels towards sexual imagery portrayed in advertisements as compared to German and British consumers. Furthermore, varying levels of sexual imagery are much more appealing to men than women in all three countries. Consumers' values and lifestyles also played an important role in their overall perception. Moral values in particular are an indicator of acceptance levels of sexual content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author investigates the standardization/adaptation issue in international advertising from an organizational perspective, introducing two variables: knowledge of local market conditions at the center (exporter/headquarters level) and headquarters' influence on local marketing decisions. The author interviewed 150 Norwegian exporters by mail on their experience in this respect. The results reveal that the two dimensions indeed have some impact on how firms develop their international marketing strategies. Knowledge of local market conditions seems to play an overriding role, leading to a more standardized approach by firms. Not surprisingly, centralized decision power seems to lead to more negative reactions at the intermediary level. In contrast, firms that have a more relaxed stance on the standardization issue and leave the marketing decisions to the local representatives seem to have better relations with these representatives than do other firms. The author discusses implications for global brand management and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An issue debated frequently in the international marketing literature centers on whether a business should pursue a strategy that is standardized across national markets or adapted to individual national markets. Of the two aspects relating to standardization of marketing strategy across national markets--(1) standardization of the pattern of resource allocation across marketing mix variables integral to a business's marketing strategy and (2) standardization of the strategy content with respect to individual marketing mix variables--the latter has been the subject of numerous conceptual articles. However, there is a relative dearth of empirical studies on both issues. To partially fill this void, this study addresses empirically the question of the standardization of the pattern of resource allocation among marketing mix variables across national markets. The question is addressed by examining whether competitive strategy and industry structure variables affect market share and business profits similarly or dissimilarly across Western markets, that is, the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Western Europe. The results reveal that with few exceptions, the effects of competitive strategy and market structure variables generalize across these markets. The study findings provide insights into both the merits of standardizing the strategic resource mix across Western markets and the competitive strategy and market structure variables that are major explanations of business performance across Western markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors address a key controversy in the marketing literature about the suitability of global standardization. An empirical investigation of the differences between firms that emphasize global standardization and others that use less standardization was conducted within the global industry context. The results indicate that market coverage and capacity utilization are important considerations for firms emphasizing global standardization. Emphasis on specialty products and the development of high priced products for market niches are also of some importance to these firms. However, in the critical area of performance, no difference is observed between firms stressing global standardization and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]