This study investigates the role of regionalisation in the endeavours of emerging economies to connect successfully to the global world economy. In the first part of the research, it summarizes connecting theories, using a multidisciplinary approach; International Relations, International Economics, Sociology (Granovetter, 1990; Li, 2003; Das, 2005; Yaquing, 2011) to discuss relationship-based versus rule-based governance as major characteristics of the ASEAN business environment. Descriptive statistical analysis is applied to identify the achievements of ASEAN-6 countries within global trade and FDI in 2000-2012. We suggest that the association examined in a broader context as ASEAN+3 (APT) did contribute to the greater integratedness of her member countries; and they have created a regional image with a common market, production base and exporting platform. Such achievements, however, can be in great part attributed to the micro-level activities of international and regional firms. In the second part of the study, marketing strategies of global companies are analysed based on empirical results in the literature to identify how they act in the ASEAN business environment when entering or expanding their presence. Two major manufacturing industries of the region, the household electrical appliances (characterised by fierce competition of Japanese and Korean manufacturers) and the Japanese dominated automobile industries are highlighted including the marketing mix elements of major market players. The Korean success can be attributed more to the relationship element, than the price factor. Upgrading of the maintenance service, sales and distribution network responding to local needs has been in focus. Rebuilding, restructuring of the entire ASEAN production/supply networks of corporations are expected to prepare for the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 environment. Localised products are designed for regional demand to obtain a competitive edge (Kabe, Ushiyama & Yamada, 2012). The first mover advantage of the Japanese car manufacturers has been kept since the 50’s through continuous product innovation with accelerated efforts into designing and manufacturing regional brands with cautious price-setting in recent years. There are important differences in marketing strategy of ASEAN-based companies investing abroad depending on the economic development level of their home country. Singaporean companies rely more on differentiation benefits, technology, product innovation, apply greater ODM/OBM (own design manufacturing, own brand manufacturing) than Malaysian ones (Sim, 2012). Movements in trade and FDI can also be observed in the evolving Asia-Europe interconnectedness with considerable scope for expansion. Our research identified promising examples of internationalizing SMEs beside the global players, which can be a further route to bridge Asia to the world. In order to investigate the role of the cultures (Hofstede, 2005), SMEs have been selected with presence both in the ASEAN and Visegrad four, the so called V4 countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland) for case studies. The still very few investment cases of the V4 countries in Southeast-Asia base their marketing strategy on product or service innovation using strongly relationship elements. The research intends to shed light on the marketing strategies of ASEAN and EU-based start-up and mid-size companies when they invest in each others’ region.

This paper analyses the importance of innovation for 680 EU multinationals subsidiaries involved in international marketing in China, the period of 1998-2009, using unbalanced panel data analysis. To date, the literature on EU subsidiaries has failed to consider product innovation in the strategy interplay in approaching new markets overseas. Building on the resource-based view of the firm, linked with host economic and political institutions, the authors empirically examine the inferential marketing strategy in an EU-China context, by applying econometric techniques to investigate innovation capabilities and to test the presence of agglomeration effect of past innovation activities. We find that EU innovation in China is influenced by both host country institutions and firm capabilities, rendering support to the theory. Our analysis indicates EU subsidiaries’ innovation is positively related to firm advertisement, labour training and host market size. R&D expenditure has a negative bearing on innovation. However, openness has a negative and significant effect on product innovation in China. The study findings have important implications for research on international marketing, new venture decision making, and overseas innovation expansion strategies.

The aim of this study is to examine how knowledge-intensive services firms sustain relationships with their clients in competitive international business environment and propose a framework of customer-relationship management strategy aligned with the entrepreneurial orientation of the firms under consideration. Developing, enhancing and sustaining relationships with customers has been one of the key areas of research in marketing, not least within knowledge-intensive service industries (Kalwani and Narayandas, 1995; Das and Rangan, 2004). Research has shown that retaining customers is a less expensive and less time-consuming process than attracting new customers (Rosenberg and Czepiel, 1984). Furthermore, building intimate relationships with customers is crucial for creating new knowledge, customer loyalty and increasing profitability (Mattila, 2001). Yet, the relationship between customers and service providers is a complex process. Significant efforts have been made by researchers to uncover the dynamics of the relationship, such as probing into such questions as explaining the types and levels of relationship, factors that determine the quality of a relationship, and the service quality and its effects on the relationships (Ruyter, Moorman, and Lemmink, 2001). Of crucial importance for understanding customer relationship is strategies firms deploy in building long-term relationships with customers in international markets (Salter, 2001; Narver et al., 2004; Kocak, and Abimbola, 2009). Furthermore, having customers involved in the production of the service as co-producers (Vargo and Lusch, 2006) creates a special relationship between customers and employees. However, what happens to the relationship when customer requirements changes due the changes in competition or technology. This question is important as little is known about how, in the face of disruptive technological changes and fierce market competition, firms can maintain strong relationships with their clients in international markets. The continuous changes in the technological and competitive landscape are making it harder for service firms to keep their customers satisfied and commend their commitment for long periods of time (Narver et al., 2004). Theoretical background: B2B customer relationship marketing literature (Jaworski and Kohili, 1993; Salter, 2001; Narver et al., 2004) dwells on the benefits of developing long-term partnerships, trust, commitment, and satisfaction, which are the parameters of relationship quality and long-term orientation in customer relationship (Macintosh, 2007; Skarmeas et al., 2008). Customer relationship is a key aspect of the competitive sustenance of knowledge-intensive service firms in international markets, yet, this has not received much attention in the literature. Customer relationships are unique, develop over time and may serve as a resource which will be difficult for competitors to imitate or purchase (Dyer and Singh, 1998). Such resources can be source of competitive advantage in international market (see Barney, 1991) particularly when the service firm is new to the market. To overcome the challenges of newness and foreignness firms need to build a level of cooperation, trust, and long-term relationship with the customers that reveal the quality of relationship (Lahiri and Kedia, 2011). In the context of business-to-business relationships, relationship quality has been suggested to be the binding factor between partnering firms, such that their relationship goes beyond mere exchange of goods, services, or capital. The resulting benefits would then include customer satisfaction, enhanced perception of fairness and justice, customer loyalty, relationship satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth publicity, repeat transactions, and business continuity (Wu et al., 2006; Kale and Singh, 2009). Unlike in the previous studies where the concern is mainly about sustaining ongoing relationships with the customers through understanding and meeting the current requirements, this study stress on anticipating and shaping customers’ future needs, and proactively investing in those relationships, accordingly.Building on these initial theoretical considerations, this paper suggests three important strategies that explain why knowledge-intensive firms in international markets can endure over time after their initial phase of internationalisation. These are: customer relationship quality management (Jaychandran et al., 2005; Payne and Frow, 2005; Kim et al., 2011); customer relationship proactiveness (Sharma, 1994; Slater and Narver, 1998; Johannessen et al., 1999); and customer-focused innovativeness (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Zahra et al., 2000). Research design/methodology – Following Yin (1994), a multiple case studies approach is used. We draw on case study material gleaned from four Indian knowledge-intensive service firms, two are old firms, being in existence for more than 20 years, and two new firms, which we consider as "particularly revelatory" cases (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007: 27), because the old firms have sustained long term relationships with their clients in international market and new ones are trying to develop such relationships (Nasscom, 2010). Data was collected through personal interviews and from company websites and it was analysed abductively.Findings: The findings suggest that it is the entrepreneurial orientation (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996- innovativeness, proactivness, and risk-taking) of knowledge-intensive B2B firms in combination with other capabilities, such as marketing capability, service delivery capability, that explains their continued relationship with clients in international markets. Entrepreneurial orientation focuses on knowing the customers’ present and latent needs so as to cater for them in a proactive, innovative and unique way. Their focus on knowing the customer intimately helps the firms to lock in their customers and to retain them over long periods of time, thereby insuring their sustenance and continued development. Findings reveal that customers also play an active role in developing the intimate relationships and the transfer of intimate knowledge. This is mainly because of the high cost associated with the replacement of the knowledge that the partners have developed of each other and the mutual trust and commitment the partners invest in. Customers understand the risk and cost associate with the replacement of provider and, thus, are careful in the selection of service providers. The relationship normally begins with small projects that do not have serious cost and risk implications. As the relationship solidifies, and as each party learns more about the other party’s systems and processes, trust between the partners increases. Trust between top managers as well as between people on an operative level are equally important, thereby making relationship-building the responsibility and concern of everybody in the company. The intimate knowledge of the customer provides ample opportunity to the service firms to develop the required capabilities for meeting current and future needs of the customers. To the extent that the relationship is a long-term commitment, the cases under consideration witness how, in order to retain clients, they have to proactively anticipate their clients’ needs, as these are always changing. Being proactive helps the firm to keep abreast of their clients’ business thrust. Furthermore, firm has to be innovation-driven, and on the lookout for new technological trends. Leveraging its unique knowledge of its customers, these firms are more able than competitors to identify what future solutions would be relevant to the businesses of the clients. Both sensing and scanning the environment, on the one hand, and watching the customer’s evolving requirements, on the other. In summary, earlier studies have indicated that intimate knowledge of customers and good relationship are critical to market success, but have failed to how such intimacy can be developed and sustained over a period of time. The findings of this study provide insights into the factors underlying customer intimacy, such as customer relationship quality, a proactive approach, and the pursuit of innovativeness. In this sense, the current study fills an important gap in the literature on knowledge-intensive services. The study also has practical relevance relating to firms and managers operating in an knowledge-intensive industry.

This study examined how fit between marketing capabilities and exporting marketing strategies affects high growth exporting manufacturing firms’ performance. The result indicates that the marketing infrastructure of high growth exporting firms affects marketing capabilities, the selection of exporting marketing strategies, and high performance. High growth exporting firms in this research belong to machinery, steel, vehicles, electronics & electricity industries. High growth firms by the OECD-Eurostat Manual on Business Demography Statistics (2007) achieve annual average sales or employment growth over twenty percent each year, during a three-year period, and to employ ten or more workers from the first observation year. High growth firms can be considered to have more appropriate marketing capabilities fit with efficient exporting marketing strategies. Barbero et al. (2011) indicated that high growth is based on market expansion and innovation, which is highly related to marketing capabilities. Vorhies & Morgan(2003) addressed that marketing organization fit with strategies affects positively marketing performance. Thus the purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between marketing infrastructure and marketing capabilities, to identify the influence of marketing infrastructure on marketing capabilities and the choice of marketing strategies, and to analyze the effect of fit between marketing capabilities and exporting marketing strategies on superior performance. The performance of high growth exporting firms can be obtained in various ways. Marketing capabilities can explain most the selection of strategy for performance (Barbero, Casillas, and Feldman 2011). Morgan, Katsikeas, and Vorhies(2012) addresses that architectural marketing capabilities influence directly export venture financial performance and that specialized marketing capabilities affect directly export venture market performance. The important role of marketing capabilities is positively associated with a more appropriate fit between identifying customers’ needs and implementing marketing strategies to achieve high performance (Barbero, Casillas, and Feldman 2011). Katsikeas et al.(2006) indicate that fit between marketing strategies and marketing infrastructure is a core factor on the performance of exporting firms. Vorhies and Morgan (2003) indicate that marketing capabilities fit with strategy is a vital engine of marketing performance. Although marketing strategy alone is not related to marketing performance (Barbero et al,2011), marketing organization fit with marketing strategy is positively related to marketing performance (Vorhies and Morgan, 2003). Katsikeas, Leonidou, Morgan(2000) analyzed export performance measures based on various primary data and indicated that the interrelation of export performance measures are considered. Vorhies and Morgan (2003) used the concept of ideal marketing organization profile and measured the relationship between fit of marketing capabilities and marketing strategies. Especially Shoham (1998) indicated that sales-related measures can be more reasonable for exporting firms at early stage, while profit-related measures can be more for export-experienced firms. These findings posit that to achieve high performance, high growth exporting firms understand the importance of fit between marketing capabilities and marketing strategies.

This study examines how consumer trust across multiple customer interaction channels, company management policies, and customer previous experience affect service renewal, loyalty. Structural equation modeling of an online survey of 657 US insurance and mobile telecomm consumers confirmed the importance of the three antecedents and that the impact of the three interaction channels differed in the two service contexts.

This study examines an unexplored area in services—namely, the existence of inauthentic retail establishments. These fake establishments, which mimic the service and product offerings of genuine establishments, such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, 7-Eleven, Apple, and others, prevail across Southeast Asia, primarily in China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. By employing grounded theory methodology, this study offers an original framework that illustrates why consumers accept and patronize both authentic and inauthentic retail establishments. The model shows that many consumers are satisfied with inauthentic retail establishments, and that some inauthentic retailers are building a loyal customer following. Thus, service organizations should respond to these inauthentic companies by viewing them as potential partners for innovation and expansion, rather than as future parties for costly litigation. That is, the authors suggests that authentic retail organizations should target their inauthentic competitors as possible joint venture partners, especially because these competitors have the ability to mimic authentic operations by operating counterfeit schemes.

This study provides a dynamic perspective of new service development (NSD) project management by exploring the joint impact of project manager’s behavioural orientation, internal team dynamics and knowledge management strategies on NSD resource optimization and decision-making quality. A hierarchical research design is adopted with evidence drawn from both NSD managers and participants from several service sectors. Results illustrate the importance of internal marketing philosophy, personalization and codification strategy, team climate, role ambiguity and conflict resolution for the specific NSD outcomes.

Ethical consumption, including ethical tourist behavior, is of growing importance to governments, companies and consumers and consumers increasingly act accordingly (Sheth, Sethia, & Srinivas, 2010). Most ethical tourist behaviors conform to service industry characteristics, being intangible, heterogeneous and fusing production and consumption. Adopting ethical tourist behaviors (ETBs) requires activities, practices or ideas that consumers perceive as new, components that are key characteristics of innovations (Goldsmith, d’Hauteville, & Flynn, 1998; Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971). Studies frequently explore environmentally friendly behavior of a specific tourist segment - existing eco-tourists (Dolnicar, Laesser, & Matus, 2010) and limit their focus to environmental issues. In line with the World Tourism Organization’s conceptualization that highlights the importance of environmental, cultural and sociological aspects (http://ethics.unwto.org/en/content/global-code-ethics-tourism), this research uses the term ethical tourist behavior and investigates the concept using a sample of ordinary tourists. Consumer innovativeness has been defined as the “degree to which an individual is relatively earlier in adopting an innovation than other members of his system” (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971, p. 27). Innovativeness, the propensity to adopt, is focusing on an individual’s behavior relative to other people in a population (Goldsmith & Hofacker, 1991; Im, Bayus, & Mason, 2003). Diffusion of innovation, investigating the spread of an innovation through the population, is frequently modeled using an S-curve (Rogers, 1995). ETB includes a wide range of activities with the behavior expected to be cumulative; for example somebody who chooses to stay in tourist accommodations with environmental certification is also likely to recycle. Cumulative patterns fit the Rasch Model (RM) (Rasch 1960/80). Well established in education and psychology, the model gains increasing attention in marketing (for example Ewing, Salzberger, & Sinkovics, 2005; Ganglmair-Wooliscroft & Wooliscroft, 2013; Salzberger & Koller, 2013; Wooliscroft, Ganglmair-Wooliscroft, & Noone, 2014). The probabilistic RM is based on a mathematically elegant equation (Bond & Fox, 2007), specifying that people who undertake more extreme ethical tourist behavior will also have a higher probability of engaging in (and subsequently agreeing to or endorsing a) comparably easier ethical tourist behavior. Item Characteristic Curves (Bond & Fox, 2007) embody the theoretical curve for an item’s endorsability. If empirical answer patterns follow the theoretical curve (and a number of other fit statistics are satisfactory) the item fits requirements of the Rasch Model. This study develops an ETB hierarchy and explores parallels between characteristics of Rasch Modelling (Rasch, 1960/80) and the Adoption of Innovation (Rogers, 1995). Additionally, the study explores variables influencing the level of ETB, representing actualized ethical tourist innovativeness. The final ETB hierarchy contains of 27 ethical tourist behaviors that relate to a wide range of holidays. Using a cross-sectional sample of 322 respondents, representative of the population, the research finds that ethical tourist behavior diffuses through the population in a structured, ordered sequence, providing support for parallels between the Diffusion of Innovation Model (Rogers, 1995) and Rasch Model’s ICC characteristics. Most respondents undertake only a small range of ethical tourist behaviors, indicating that many ethical issues are at a very early stage of the diffusion process. The level of ethical tourist behavior adaption – operationalized through respondent’s position on the ETB hierarchy is influenced by high importance of universalism, age and gender.

Advertising signaling theory predicts that the amount that a company invests in advertising impacts on consumers’ perception about the quality of a product (Anand & Shachar, 2009). For this signaling to occur, some specific conditions are necessary, for example, the product must be a repetitive purchasing product and its quality must not be observable at the time of purchase, but only during the consumption of the product (Kirmani & Rao, 2000). Advertising signaling is based on the assumption of a rational consumer, who is expected to perform an objective and deliberate evaluation of the advertising actions, taking into account the amount invested by the company in the advertisement production and media and the level of investments applied by competitors in the same market to perceive the quality signals. However, this strictly rational perspective has been questioned since Simon (1947, 1955) demonstrated that humans’ rationality is limited by several factors, such as cognitive resources and selective memory, which may influence judgments and decision making. More recently, researchers have argued that affect is also a source of bounded rationality, playing an important role in the way people think and make decisions (e.g., Hanoch, 2002; Kaufman, 1999; Muramatsu & Hanoch, 2005). The objective of the present research is to examine advertising signaling theory through the consumer information processing perspective, exploring the influence of the following three variables on these processes: the individual’s mood, the level of information asymmetry about the product’s attributes and the individual’s gender. The study was applied to 390 undergraduate students in France. Three factors were manipulated in the study: the advertising investment, which was manipulated in three levels (below, the average and above the market average advertising investments for similar campaigns), the subject’s mood (two levels, positive and negative) and the level of information asymmetry about the product’s attributes (two levels, high information asymmetry and low information asymmetry). Thus, the research had a 3 x 2 x 2 experimental design. Respondents were asked to declare their gender, which was considered in a subsequent analysis. Students were approached in the university and invited to participate in the study. Twelve booklet models (each booklet contained the activities and scales related to one experimental group) were randomly distributed among the respondents who accepted to participate of the study. The results of an ANOVA analysis showed main effects of mood (F (1, 376) = 13.31, p < .001), level of information asymmetry (F (1, 376) = 135.00, p < .001) and advertising investment (F (2, 376) = 31.06, p< .001) on the respondents’ quality perception. These main effects were obtained in a context of two significant interactions, between the advertising investment and mood (F (2, 376) = 3.68, p < .050) and mood and information asymmetry about the product (F (1, 376) = 19.05, p < .001). Regarding the first significant interaction, the results showed that subjects who were informed that the advertising investment was below the market average showed similar means of product evaluation whether they were in a positive (M = 5.47) or negative (M = 5.46) mood (F (1, 364) = .000, p > .10). Those who were informed that the advertising investment was at the market average evaluated the product as significantly better when in a positive (M = 6.40) than a negative (M = 5.91) mood (F (1, 364) = 6.29, p < .05). In the same way, respondents who were informed that the advertising investment was above the market level evaluated the product as significantly better when they were in a positive (MPA = 6.94) than a negative (MNA = 6.19) mood (F (1, 364) = 14.32, p < .001). The interaction between the individual’s mood and the level of information asymmetry about the product demonstrated that subjects who were exposed to a slight level of information asymmetry, receiving some information about the product’s attributes, showed similar means of product evaluation whether they were in a positive (M = 6.71) or a negative (M = 6.74) mood (F (1, 364) = .04, p > .10). By contrast, those who were not given any information about the product characteristics, being exposed to a severe level of information asymmetry, evaluated the product as significantly better when in a positive (M = 5.83) than a negative (M = 4.96) mood (F (1, 364) = 27.63, p < .001). A second ANOVA model was conducted to examine the influence of the advertising investment and the individual’s gender on the perceived product quality. The results showed main effects of the advertising investment (F (2, 376) = 31.56, p < .001) and gender (F (1, 376) = 9.77, p < .005) on the subjects’ quality perception. These main effects were qualified by a significant interaction between the advertising investment and the subjects’ gender (F (2, 376) = 5.28, p < .010). Women evaluated the product quality as better (MW = 5.81) than men (MM = 4.71) in the context of advertising investments below the market average (F (1, 370) = 19.05, p < .001). This difference disappeared in the contexts of advertising investment at the market average (MW = 6.19, MM = 6.14, F (1, 370) = .04, p > .10) and above the market average (MW = 6.70, MM = 6.52, F (1, 370) = .55, p > .10), in which men and women showed similar means of perceived product quality. The results show that positive mood influences in the individuals’ perceived product quality specifically in situations of advertising investment at the market average and above the market average. When individuals were informed that a level of advertising below the market average was invested, they demonstrated similar means of product evaluation irrespective of their mood. By contrast, in situations in which they were informed that the company invested approximately the same as competitors in similar advertising campaigns, or even above this amount, respondents who were in a positive mood evaluated the product as significantly better than those who were in a negative mood. The fact that the advertising investment interacts with the individual’s mood suggests that both variables are likely processed by the same information processing route, namely, the peripheral route (Elaboration Likelihood Model, Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983). That is, although individuals are expected to compute the information related to the advertising investment through the central route, the signal emitted through the advertising investment is more likely processed by the peripheral route. Thus, this signal is also a heuristic element on which individuals based their product evaluations. Our findings also demonstrate gender differences in the processing of the information signaled through the advertising investment only in situations of advertising investment below the market average. In the contexts in which the advertising investment was manipulated below the market average, women evaluated the product as better than men. Nevertheless, in situations in which the advertising investments were manipulated at the market average and above the market average, men and women showed similar levels of perceived product quality. An explanation for this effect is that women are better able than men to process the information sent through the advertising investment and, thus, to perceive the advertising signal only at a specific level of advertising investment. Above a certain level of advertising investment, men are as motivated as women to process this information, causing the gender differences to disappear. This finding is consistent with the Selectivity Model (Meyers-Levy, 1989), which predicts that some situational elements may stimulate men and women to engage in an effortful and detailed processing of the information that can eliminate the differences between the genders. Thus, in situations in which the investment in advertising is sufficient to encourage both women and men to process it, the genders become equally sensitive to the advertising signaling.

The importance of recycling and environmental preservation has continued to receive increasing attention from governments, enterprises, and consumers. However, little research examines the factors that influence individuals’ commitment to recycling and environmental preservation, and even less explores how that commitment can lead to preferential behavior, word-of-mouth and willingness to sacrifice for recycling and environmental preservation. This study examines the roles of need for self-expression and arousal to explain commitment and whether commitment leads to those behaviors. The study is duplicated in three countries, each representing different cultural dimensions. Data collected from respondents in South Korea, the United States and Portugal inform a model that supports the majority of the hypotheses and points out some interesting differences in the ways that recycling and environmental preservation should be presented in various cultures to achieve buy-in.

Many authors and practitioners have suggested that scarcity increases a product’s perceived value, because scarcity affects availability of a product and people assume that what is less common is more valuable (Cialdini, 1987). Communicating such restrictions on product availability is a common advertising tactic intended to motivate consumer purchasing behavior by arousing product scarcity perceptions. To further our knowledge on scarcity effects researchers indicate the need to examine contextual or individual factors which are related to demand-caused scarcity and/or supply-caused scarcity. Corresponding to the call for further research this study empirically examines seller credibility, product type, and consumer orientation as moderators on the relationship between scarcity and purchase intention. Extant research have found that both excess demand and limited supply lead to increased product choice, but engender distinct inference processes (Hsuan, Chien & Tzu, 2012). Scarcity can be based on changes in demand or supply. Demand scarcity arises when supply cannot meet market demand. Advertisers may emphasize this limited availability in positive terms by claiming “only while stocks last”. Demand scarcity messages, either “in popular demand” or “over sold” indicates consumers that a product’s popularity is creating demand that exceeds the product’s available supply (Herpen, Pieters, & Zeelenberg 2009; Verhallen, 1982). Supply scarcity suggests that the product is exclusive, and affects consumer preferences through perceptions of the symbolic benefits the product can provide, including uniqueness (Snyder, 1992) and social status (Lynn, 1992). Advertisements convey supply scarcity when marketers produce quantities of a new product less than enough to meet initial demand and distribute a competitive number of units to individual retail store. Researchers have indicated the need to examine contextual or individual influences on the distinct type of scarcity to gain further insight into these two scarcity effects. This research examines the moderating effect of seller credibility, product type, and consumer orientation on the relationship between scarcity and purchase intention. The first research objective is to examine if scarcity effect is stronger when a seller is more credible than not. The second research objective is to examine if demand scarcity produces a stronger purchase intention for utilitarian products as opposed to symbolic products. In contrast, supply scarcity will be valued more highly for symbolic products, because the product’s limited availability can deliver consumers symbolic benefits such as uniqueness (Snyder, 1992) and social status (Lynn, 1992). The third research objective is to examine if demand scarcity produces a stronger purchase intention for consumers with prevention-focus than those with promotion-focus. Similarly, the research also examines if supply scarcity produces a stronger purchase intention for consumers with promotion-focus than those with prevention-focus. This research employs a laboratory experiment to empirically test the research hypotheses. The experiment manipulates scarcity, seller credibility, and product type and it measures consumer orientation as either promotion-focus or prevention-focus. Thus it employs a 3 (scarcity: demand scarcity, supply scarcity, no scarcity) x 2 (high credibility, low credibility) x 2 (utilitarian product, symbolic product) between-subjects design. Results of hypothesis tests and implications will be discussed.

Online shopping is significantly increasing worldwide and is showing a continuous potential in terms of growth, security, price and shopping convenience. It was noticed that 65% of online shoppers browse for products online every day and this activity has become customer’s part of their everyday life, which is an advantage for second hand online retailers (Wares, 2012). The trend emerging for purchasing second hand goods from online retailers has also shown an increase recently (Sharman, 2012). Second hand online shopping is one of the industries that everlastingly remain unaffected even if it undergoes any economic circumstances (Heller, 2011). USA and UK are the leading countries of second hand online shopping with most sales being incurred from early years. Considering the newly advanced BRIC countries, both China and Brazil are famous for second hand online shopping and are expecting to undergo a constant increase in the near future. Russia and India had a very slow growth of second hand online shopping from the year 2004 and remained slow, but increased during recession and will incure higher sales by early 2014 (Rueter, 2013). Thus, the question arises - what makes second hand goods sold online from unknown online retailers valuable? The answer might be found in the notion of perceived value that has become an important construct within the e-business framework because of such an easy access to online retailers. If customers perceive the value of second hand goods sold by the unknown online seller as high, they are more likely to enter into the transaction with that retailer. The company’s reputation also plays an important role here as it represents an asset to the owner and customers would trust the seller because of that asset (Kirmani and Rao, 2000). This asset turns out to be even more important when it becomes hard to evaluate the seller in cases of purchasing services or when shopping online. This study examines effects of antecedents on perceived value of second-hand goods sold online. Specifically, the study uses the data from an online survey collected across various countries. The data suggests significant effects of antecedents on perceived value of goods sold by second-hand online retailers.

Motivated by an illustrative case study which assesses the strength of the New Zealand wine brand, we develop a framework that provides a contemporary perspective on Country of Origin (COO) branding. The New Zealand wine industry’s COO branding was initially built around the country image of “green” production with the logo “riches of a clean green land”. This has been superseded by a branding strategy that focuses on developing the collective meaning of the COO brand with the logo “pure discovery”. A collective approach to branding involves broader considerations, where the brand is used to facilitate processes that co-create experience and meaning that reflects collective interest. This entails the alignment of a complex set of industry relationships where value is co-created within a network of stakeholders that contribute to the heritage of New Zealand Wine and its quality positioning as the country-of-origin. Our contribution comes from a wider conceptual understanding of COO to show that “COO matters” when a shared identity and image are integrated to form a collective meaning which co-creates value to fulfil the expectations of a brand’s promises of innovation, authenticity and quality.

This study examined the impact on a firm’s product innovation success when it expands internationally into a host country with political, economic and cultural institutions different from those it is accustomed to at home. Data on 917 Chinese manufacturing firms’ international activities were analyzed to demonstrate that expansion to countries with political institutions better developed than those of a firm’s home country promotes innovation success, as does expansion to countries characterized by greater individualism than the home country. A more advanced economy in the host country strengthens these relationships. This study was designed to contribute to the extant literature in three areas. First, it was designed to enrich the theory explaining how the institutional environment affects firm performance in an emerging economy. Most previous studies have examined the relationship between the institutional environment and the probability of organizational survival or financial performance (e.g., Xu & Shenkar, 2002; Gaur & Lu, 2007), but this study instead examined the institutional environment and product innovation. Product innovation is, after all, a primary way in which many firms compete and grow (Eisenhardt & Tabrizi, 1995; Wu, 2012). Second, previous research has not clearly identified how different components of the institutional environment individually relate to product innovation success, nor have previous studies sufficiently explored their interactions. This study was designed to fill that gap by integrating the literature on new institutional economics, product innovation and the international expansion of emerging market firms. It sought to derive and test propositions explaining how political institutions and cultural norms relate to product innovation success, and to what extent the relationships depend on economic development. Then, this study extended previous research on the institutional environment to an emerging market context. Evidence clarifying the relationships between different components of the institutional environment and the innovation performance of emerging market firms would be relevant for designing effective and efficient international expansion strategies for emerging market firms. These findings therefore enrich our understanding of the impact of the institutional environment by showing its multifaceted influence on product innovation. Previous research has highlighted the important role of institutional differences between the home and foreign countries in strategic decision making and performance (e.g., Kostova & Zaheer, 1999; Xu & Shenkar, 2002). This study has extended that by clearly demonstrating the importance of differences in political institutions and individualism with respect to innovation performance. This is consistent with the idea that expanding to foreign countries with better-developed political institutions helps a firm avoid the institutional void and political hazards at home and gain access to better-functioning institutions in the host country, which can promote successful product innovation. Individualism in a host country drives a firm to experiment with new technologies and develop new products to satisfy diverse customer needs.

Research on country-of-origin (COO) effects, or the impact that stereotyped perceptions about nations have on product evaluations and purchase intentions (Nebenzahl, Jaffe, and Lampert 1997), has been heralded as one of the most widely researched topics in international marketing. Whereas the vast majority of studies focused on the general image of a country that triggers the COO effect (Roth and Diamantopoulos 2009; Usunier and Cestre 2007), in light of recent criticisms (e.g., Samiee 2010; 2011; Usunier 2006; 2011), latest literature takes on a narrower perspective by arguing that a company can primarily benefit from the COO effect if consumers believe that the country is a prototypical origin of products in that category (e.g., Switzerland for watches, France for fashion, Germany for engineering). This concept is also referred to as product ethnicity, or the extent of product-country matches (Roth and Romeo 1992; Tseng and Balabanis 2011; Usunier and Cestre 2007). Apart from country characteristics, recent research suggests to consider consumer characteristics at the same time (Josiassen 2011; Riefler, Diamantopoulos, and Siguaw 2012). Indeed, some scholars even argue that COO only matters for certain consumer segments such as ethnocentric consumers (Samiee 2010; 2011). For ethnocentric consumers, knowing the origin of the products they purchase is important because not buying domestic is considered as inappropriate because it causes harm to the domestic economy (Shimp and Sharma 1987). This research aims to clarify how product ethnicity as a form of typicality influences and interacts with consumer ethnocentrism on preferences for domestic products. A controlled experiment with data drawn from a representative US household panel indicates that COO does matter, but, as expected, is contingent on both product typicality and consumer ethnocentrism. Based on realistic choices among several rental car options with varying degrees of typicality, we find that product typicality moderates the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on preferences towards domestic such that domestic country bias will be particularly strong when foreign products have a higher typicality. Furthermore, consumers prefer foreign products with a high typicality over foreign products with a low typicality if they are not ethnocentric. While such behaviour is rational, consumer ethnocentrism eventually neutralizes and even reverses the influence of foreign typicality on consumers’ preferences in that highly ethnocentric consumers rather choose foreign products of lower typicality than foreign products of higher typicality. The main contribution of our paper is three-fold. On the theoretical front, our paper extends research on home country bias and product ethnicity by offering insights related to the boundary conditions of COO effects, in light of special consumer segments such as ethnocentric consumers. On the methodological front, we offer an innovative way of analyzing COO effects that can overcome many criticisms raised on extant COO research. We thus offer a solution to Samiee’s (2009) call for more research using ecologically appropriate designs when analyzing COO effects. Finally, our paper has clear managerial implications. More concretely, our findings imply that also firms originating from countries with a favorable origin have to be careful when actively marketing their origin abroad, as they might be rejected by certain consumer segments.

This study was to observe how globalization has transformed the attitudes and behaviors of consumers especially in the emerging economy environment such as Malaysia. The aim of this article is to identify the differences in consumers’ product preference for products made in 4 different countries – Japan, Korea, Malaysia and China. Further, this article also aims to analyze how consumers’ ethnocentrism affects product preference as well as how the effect of ethnocentrism varies across products from different countries of origin and product involvement levels. Information for consumers’ product preference was collected through a structured questionnaire from the Malaysian consumers. Concentrating on 2 product categories from 4 different countries, the questions in the questionnaire particularly focused on three different levels of analysis; in addition, CETSCALE was used to measure consumer ethnocentrism. Finally, the hypotheses were tested using ANOVA and t-test statistics, etc. The results provided support for all of the hypotheses, thereby revealing the presence of significant differences in consumer product preference, which is engendered by country of origin, consumer ethnocentrism and product involvement level effect. The research results here have implications for future studies on the effects of country of origin and consumers’ ethnocentrism in developing countries. Moreover, the results also contributed to the validation of CETSCALE in a culturally diversified environment.

While the relationship between market orientation and new product performance has been extensively investigated, the mechanism by which market orientation contributes to new product performance was further studied in a business-to-business context. We developed a set of alternative research models to examine the roles of timing of entry and positional advantage in the market orientation—new product performance relationship. The results showed that industrial firms’ positional advantage is a key step in the process. Market orientation does not directly influence new product performance. Instead, market orientation helps to establish a firms’ positional advantage, which, in turn, positively influences new product performance in the marketplace. Timing of entry, shown to be an outcome of positional advantage, is not a determinant of new product performance in the business-to-business context. The findings revealed that market-oriented firms achieve superior new product performance through thoughtfulness indicated by a well-defined positioning strategy, not rapidity of action.

Vertical alliances for collaborative new product development in interfirm relationship have been an ongoing theme of strategy and marketing research to cope with fast changing environments, and to continuously innovate in the marketplace. However, no study has yet examind both direct and indirect effects of vertical alliances on new product performance under high technology turbulence. As alliance partners seek to enhance their collaboration and performance, the relational nature of business relationships and structural network positions can influence firm innovativeness and subsequent new product performance. Using survey data of 146 firms collected in Turkey, this study shows that while firms form stronger cooperation under conditions of high technology turbulence, the impact on firm innovativeness and new product performance is contingent upon network positions and information exchange. The findings indicate that indirect effects of vertical alliance portfolio and information exchange enhance new product performance through firm innovativeness. Vertical relationship structures facilitate firm innovativeness with enhanced exploration but may not have a positive direct effect on new product performance. Furthermore, the effect of information exchange on new product performance is contingent upon information exchange which enhances firm innovativeness.

Product launch is perhaps the most important but risky phase in new product development process (Calantone & Montoya-Weiss, 1993). Product management at the launch phase aims to gain market acceptance, which, in turn, may maximize the chances of profitability (Guiltinan, 1999). One of the hidden, but real, threats for the vast majority of new product launches into a market is cannibalization, which refers to the process by which a new product gains a portion of its sales by diverting sales from an existing product (Harvey & Kerin, 1979;Lomax, Hammond, East, and Clemente, 1997; Traylor, 1986). High-technology markets are characterized by uncertainties that derive from market, technology, and competitive factors (Moriarty & Kosnik, 1989). Different information processing patterns among buyers are likely to emerge in high-technology markets (Capon and Glazer, 1987; Glazer, 1991). Accordingly, marketing strategies and tools are required to adapt to market environments. In response to environmental complexity and turbulence, marketers of high-tech products usually resort to marketing communications to assuage customers’ fear and doubt involved in product adoption (Lee and O’Connor, 2003). Such high-tech marketing practices, in a sense, illuminate signaling theory logic to mitigate uncertainty (Gulati and Higgins, 2003). Drawing on signaling theory, this research is to explore the circumstances under which launch tactics may result in salient product cannibalization. It is proposed that the cannibalization of product launch varies with the interactions between launch tactics and organizational/market factors. The findings of this research indicate that the cannibalization effect of price similarity will be greater for a launching firm possessing great product category strength. The cannibalization effects of preannouncing timing and price similarity tend to be greater in a highly competitive market context, as opposed to a low competitive context. Nevertheless, relative communication effort in support of product launch results in smaller cannibalization under a highly competitive condition. Product cannibalization derived by earlier preannouncements will become greater in a highly technologically turbulent market. This research contributes to the marketing and product management literature in two main respects. First, it represents an initial effort to empirically test the link between tactics in support of product launch and product cannibalization under different firm and market conditions. Second, we advance understanding of the cannibalization effects incurred by launch tactics by adopting a signaling approach. The fit between marketing strategy and its context has significant implications for new product performance, which should be captured in terms of the potential cannibalization between a new product and other products within the same firm, in addition to its sales and profitability. The findings may also offer guidelines for managing launch tactics. To make right decisions on developing appropriate tactics, the firms must accurately evaluate the firm and market characteristics and, simultaneously, take into account the amount of cannibalization caused by different tactics.