The effectiveness of global brands is traditionally measured by its ability to turn the brand’s target audience into consumers. Yet the focus on consumption overlooks the significance of customer equity within non-target audiences. Studying this phenomenon has become increasingly important with the advent of the internet and cross-border mass-communications which expose brands to global non-target audiences. Yet, little is known about how consumers who have no experience with the brand anticipate such experience purely based on brand popularity? Also, little is known how are components of the global brand personality particularly active in shaping the anticipated brand/customer experience? Thus, this study examines customer anticipated experience of a global brand - Hard Rock Café, in Ukraine. The conceptual model focuses on the relationship between brand popularity with brand excitement and competence and their influence on customer perceived value of the anticipated brand experience and the impact of the perceived value on customer liking of the experience and intention to engage with the brand. Using 214 Ukrainian respondents, the conceptual module was supported with significant implications for global brand engagement in target and non-target audiences.

The manuscript examines Guanxi’s direct influence on reducing opportunism and conflicts, and its indirect influence on increasing buyers’ satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The findings based on data collected from 273 Chinese firms reveal that Chinese buyers’ guanxi with US suppliers could significantly reduce buyers’ perception in suppliers’ opportunistic behaviour and the perceived levels of conflicts in Sino-US relationships, hence increasing their satisfaction, relationship performance and long-term orientation. The results broaden existing understanding of guanxi literature by empirically examining Guanxi’s influence on supplier opportunism and conflicts. The research implications suggest guanxi could be employed as a management mechanism in reducing supplier opportunism and conflicts, hence positively increasing satisfaction, performance and long-term orientation.

With much of the literature on business-to-business (B2B) from Eastern countries largely focused on the Chinese Guanxi and its role in developing and maintaining B2B, the expansion of B2B literature to other parts of the world has been limited. One important area of massive economic growth and influence is the Gulf region. Studies on B2B within the Gulf region are scarce. Thus this paper builds up on recent exploratory studies on Et-Moone relationships. The paper examines the antecedents (interpersonal liking, trust and commitment) and consequence (cooperation) of Et-Moone relationships. Survey data were collected from over 180 senior managers in Saudi Arabia. The findings confirm the importance of Et-Moone in B2B relationships and its impact on cooperation. Implications for managers are discussed, and a guide for future research is provided.