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Two decades of research on nation branding: a review and future research agenda
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the growing interest by scholars, practitioners and public policymakers, there are still divergent and fragmented conceptualizations of nation branding as the field is still developing. In response, the purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize nation branding research and to provide directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical journal articles published during the last two decades – from 1998 to 2018. Selected journal articles on nation branding were subsequently synthesized for further insights.
Findings
The field of nation branding is fragmented and has developed in the course of the last two decades in different directions. This paper identifies key publication outlets and articles, major theoretical and methodological approaches and primary variables of interest that exist in the nation branding literature. The findings also highlight several research themes for future research.
Originality/value
This research fills a need to summaries the current state of the nation branding literature and identifies research issues that need to be addressed in the future.
... O'Shaughnessy and Jackson (2000), in addition, supported that the image of a nation is not only complex but also abstract, and this contradicts the meaning and central idea of the term "nation image", which refers to the picture (image) that stakeholders have about a nation. It is also an area with little existing theory but a heightened real-life international activity (Hao et al., 2021). Therefore, the aim of this research is to contribute to the existent literature and shedding light on the influential role of stakeholders and their respective views and attitudes towards developing a nation brand. ...
... Therefore, the aim of this research is to contribute to the existent literature and shedding light on the influential role of stakeholders and their respective views and attitudes towards developing a nation brand. play a critical role in creating brand images (Hao et al., 2021;Nguyen and Ö zça glar-Toulouse, 2021). ...
... Countries like the UK, Singapore, Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and Malaysia have successfully created positive nation reputation (Koh, 2017;Hao et al., 2021;Nguyen and Ö zça glar-Toulouse, 2021) and launched strong nation branding strategies. For instance, Singapore promotes its national brand as a tourism destination, through government-mandated branding policy (Seol, 2020). ...
Purpose
Literature on nation branding is heterogeneous and varies significantly, not only in terminological terms but also in theoretical approaches and practical application. This paper aims to conduct an extensive exploratory study that empirically develops a comprehensive nation brand framework for Palestine, with international applications as well.
Design/methodology/approach
Initially, a conceptual framework for developing a nation brand is theoretically designed. Subsequently, through a methodologically deductive–inductive approach and qualitative means, it tests, adapts and refines the framework based on empirical data collected from key stakeholders, such as government officials, politicians, business people and academics.
Findings
The theoretical part of the research uncovers the extant key models and core concepts, and it identifies several gaps, with the more prominent one being the lack of an integrated and widely adopted framework for developing a nation brand. The research, thus, conclusively builds a holistic strategic framework towards a distinct nation brand for Palestine, with generic/international application and value, also presenting the practical implications of the findings and identifying avenues for further research.
Originality/value
There are varying extant perspectives on the topic, with these different views often reflecting scholars’ and stakeholders’ methodological approaches, perspectives and even deeper ontological beliefs and convictions. This paper is original consequent to its multi-perspective approach, the strength of its theoretical foundation, the extent and methodological approach of its empirical research, the uniqueness of its focus and the comprehensiveness of the framework developed that can also be used as the conceptual cornerstone for testing in other nations branding studies as well.
... Origin is an extrinsic cue used to assess product value before consumption, so that risks are reduced and consumers are closer to the optimal choice (Artêncio et al., 2022). The communication of the product's origin is a strategy used by food producers to reflect place reputation (Hao et al., 2019), considered by researchers and marketing experts an effective tool for products with little differentiation, such as food commodities (Cassago et al., 2021). ...
... 2. Literature review 2.1 Geographical indications A place's natural conditions and know-how in producing certain goods are sources of product distinctiveness that, when properly communicated, can help producers achieve higher profits (Charters et al., 2017;Fern andez-Ferr ın et al., 2019). Thus, the origin information may act as a signal of quality, credibility and trust, reducing information asymmetries and affecting consumers' responses (Hao et al., 2019). In addition, shared knowledge, integration (vertical and horizontal) and cultural identity may derive from the producer's interaction and affiliated institutions towards GI registration (Quiñones-Ruiz et al., 2016). ...
... premium, gourmet) and knowledge sharing, the primary motivations for GI registration are the added value that the product can achieve, the possibility of higher sales and place reputation enhancement. With time and consistency in marketing and branding strategies, a positive place identity and reputation can be built around the production place, which translates into even higher prices and sales (Hao et al., 2019). ...
Purpose
A region can be registered as a geographical indication (GI) when its human or natural characteristics influence product attributes. However, GI registration is a complex process that can lead applicants to conflicts and resource waste. Since metabolomics can support product typicality, it can be an effective tool to evidence the place-product link, essential for GI registration. With the aim of increasing GI registration efficiency, this research aimed to map the Brazilian GI registration process from end to end, using business process model and notation (BPMN), and evaluate the application of metabolomics techniques as facilitator.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative exploratory study was proposed, with the Brazilian GI registration process as unit of analysis. Primary data was obtained through twelve in-depth interviews with GI producers, members of supporting institutions and metabolomics experts. Based on the collected data, the complete GI registration map was designed with bpmn.io software.
Findings
Results provided a clear view of the GI registration process. Interviewees considered the selection of the appropriate GI category, the establishment of GI common rules, product specification and the confirmation of the place-product link as the most demanding requirements. Since the last two involve specifying the influence of the origin on products, the use of metabolomics was suggested as a powerful tool to complete these stages.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical contribution is provided by the interweave of the three scientific fields mentioned (GI, business process management (BPM) and metabolomics) to contribute to the still small body of literature on GI-related processes. Additionally, other theoretical contributions are the presentation of a GI registration map associated to the use of “omics” techniques as process facilitator.
Practical implications
The practical contribution of this work is the establishment of an end-to-end view of the entire GI registration process, which makes easier for applicants to engage, plan resources and achieve the GI label. Furthermore, metabolomics acts as a facilitator since its data can be used for different purposes on the way to GI registration.
Social implications
Results can be used to facilitate GI registration, reducing resources demanded from applicants. GI labels provide product protection, better selling prices and competitive advantages for producers, which are positive outcomes in countries with a commodity-based economy like Brazil.
Originality/value
The originality of the study lies in the approach used to map the GI registration process, as well as the suggestion of metabolomics as facilitator in some of its stages.
... Thus, this study aims to address this gap in this literature by proposing an integrated model of nation branding. Additionally, this field is still developing and lacks a generally accepted definition of the nation branding concept (Hao et al., 2021). The lack of a standard definition of nation branding is probably because of the complexity of this concept and its confusion with others, such as destination branding, place branding and country branding (Rojas-Méndez, 2013). ...
... The methodological approach used is a systematic literature review, which focuses on the nation and country branding concepts. Although authors such as Hao et al. (2021) conducted a review of the literature, their main focus was on summarizing nation branding research rather than seeking to develop an integrated model of nation branding, including antecedents, components, consequences and moderators, and to suggest a comprehensive definition of this concept to differentiate it from other related constructs. ...
... Nation branding may also restore flawed international credibility, increase international political influence, stimulate stronger international partnerships (Fetscherin, 2010), enhance a country's soft power (Fan, 2008), enable better management and control of the national governments' image projecting to the world and attract investment, tourism, business and talent (Amujo and Otubanjo, 2012;Hao et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an integrated model of nation branding, propose a comprehensive definition of this concept and differentiate between nation branding and other related constructs.
Design/methodology/approach
To analyze nation branding academic literature, this paper used a systematic literature review approach to investigate academic studies related to nation and country branding. All relevant studies on the nation and country branding between 1996 and mid-2021 were extracted from six selected databases, including Elsevier’s Science Direct, Emerald, Sage, Wiley, Springer and Jstor, by using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis process. The reviewed papers were coded and analyzed to extract themes and concepts.
Findings
The results of this paper show that nation branding is influenced by six main factors, namely, business and marketing, political, social and cultural, economic and labor, international and environmental factors; it comprises one key component, that is, nation branding; it results in five major consequences, including social, economic and financial, business, international and political consequences, and is moderated mainly by socio-demographic variables. Additional contributions of this paper are the proposal of a comprehensive definition of nation branding based on the extant literature and identifying nation branding differences with other constructs that sometimes have been previously used interchangeably with nation branding. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research in the field.
Originality/value
This paper uses the themes and concepts uncovered by the analysis to conceptualize nation branding, provides an integrated model of nation branding and distinguishes it from other related branding concepts. This paper also summarizes what nation branding is versus what it is not.
... First, we apply a quality criterion by only including academic papers in journals ranked "A*" or "A" in the 2019 Australian Business Deans' Council (ABDC) journal ranking list since these journals have high impact in academia (Lim et al., 2021). The ABDC list is widely accepted as a benchmark database for business journals of international standard (Hao et al., 2021). Moreover, this list offers an explicit classification of business research, easing us to screen out relevant journals (Hao et al., 2021;Soosay and Hyland, 2015). ...
... The ABDC list is widely accepted as a benchmark database for business journals of international standard (Hao et al., 2021). Moreover, this list offers an explicit classification of business research, easing us to screen out relevant journals (Hao et al., 2021;Soosay and Hyland, 2015). Second, we employ a content criterion by only including papers from journals belonging to the "Management" and "Information Systems" categories in the ABDC list since these two fields are explicitly relevant for our review which is of the innovation management discipline (Lim et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the extant literature on green innovation (GI), and more importantly, to provide future directions for GI research from the innovation ecosystem (IE) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review is conducted to summarize the status of current GI research, followed by content analysis to identify connectivity and crossovers between key concepts in the bodies of GI and IE literature. Then, the authors propose a green innovation ecosystem (GIE) framework and offer recommendations for future research on GI.
Findings
It is evident that the bodies of GI and IE literature overlap on the roles of external actors, and yet, there is scant research investigating GI activities from the IE perspective. Moreover, there are multiple directions worthy of future research applying the proposed GIE framework.
Originality/value
Though the concept of ecosystem has become pervasive in innovation management research, this study is one of the first works to introduce IE concepts and propositions in the GI research context. This paper provides new knowledge on GIEs and sets the basis for further investigation.
... Such a type of investigation facilitates the study of extensive published research at the macro and micro levels [51]. Therefore, bibliometric techniques can be used to conduct analyses concerning any topic in order to uncover unobservable and objective patterns [52][53][54][55][56]. ...
Currently, the wine industry has gained great relevance worldwide. At the same time, the sustainability of the business activity has positioned itself as one of the main challenges to be achieved in the coming years. Due to the great impact that agricultural processes can have on the environment, vine and wine production is particularly susceptible to the application of new technologies and processes that improve its sustainability in the medium and long term, while allowing the improvement of product quality. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the academic literature in the field of wine industry sustainability, to determine the main contributions carried out, as well as the most prominent authors, universities, and countries in this field of study. The methodology used is bibliometric analysis, specifically the Bibliometrix® R package, in its version 4.1.1. The results reveal that research in the field of sustainability in the wine industry has increased considerably in the last three years by several leading researchers, mainly from universities located in wine-producing regions. It is concluded that research shows a trend towards collaboration among stakeholders, especially in terms of innovation, which is postulated as the main tool to improve the sustainability of the sector in the coming years.
... In this paper, we carried out a theme-based systematic literature review to provide a complete and exhaustive summary of intrinsic and extrinsic entities characterizing the consumers' perceived value of food information when she/he is involved in a food information usage process. The theme-based review is a widely adopted approach in managerial studies (e.g., [18][19][20]). ...
Food communication is the main way for businesses to inform customers and guide purchasing behaviour. However, the value consumers perceive from such information remains unclear, and a complete understanding of the food information behaviour is still missing. For this reason, this paper outlines the results of a systematic literature review to identify, evaluate and synthesize the scientific food information behaviour domain according to the perceived value for consumers. The analysis shows that the current scientific literature is essentially centred on studying consumers and their behaviour in the food consumption process. Still, it lacks studies about the impact of the information on the overall perceived value of consumer food experience. The emergence and diffusion of personalized information services make this kind of study particularly suitable. In light of the fast pace of widespread technological evolution in the food sector, this issue represents a topic to be addressed in the following years.
... Table 6 provides a citation analysis to identify the most influential articles on the subject of patient satisfaction. In addition to the total number of citations, the number of average citations per year is also included in this analysis, given that it provides an unbiased look at the impact of each article without prioritizing the year of publication [99,100]. When analyzing Table 6, it is possible to conclude that the article with the highest number of citations is the most impactful and influential in the collection. ...
Patient satisfaction with healthcare provision services and the factors influencing it are becoming the main focus of many scientific studies. Assuring the quality of the provided services is essential for the fulfillment of patients' expectations and needs. Thus, this systematic review seeks to find the determinants of patient satisfaction in a global setting. We perform an analysis to evaluate the collected literature and to fulfill the literature gap of bibliometric analysis within this theme. This review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) approach. We conducted our database search in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed in June 2022. Studies from 2000-2021 that followed the inclusion and exclusion criteria and that were written in English were included in the sample. We ended up with 157 articles to review. A co-citation and bibliographic coupling analysis were employed to find the most relevant sources, authors, and documents. We divided the factors influencing patient satisfaction into criteria and explanatory variables. Medical care, communication with the patient, and patient's age are among the most critical factors for researchers. The bibliometric analysis revealed the countries, institutions, documents, authors, and sources most productive and significant in patient satisfaction.
... Knoll & Mathew, 2017;Davis et al., 2014); hybrid models; theory and context-based approaches (e.g. Hao, et al., 2019;Paul, 2019); narrative and integrative reviews (Torraco, 2005;Wong et al., 2013) and conceptual framework-based reviews (e.g. Gilal, et al., 2018;Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019). ...
This study aims to propose an integrative framework on data analytics in medium and small enterprise (MSME) with an in-depth systematic review of existing literature evidenced through empirical case studies. An exclusive systematic review on data analytics in MSME was conducted on published literature from 2010 to 2021 and examined 42 relevant research studies. Based on thematic analysis of 42 research articles, four broad themes were identified – drivers, inhibitors, analytics adoptions, and outcomes and consolidated in an integrative framework. The integrative framework was substantiated by evidence of two case studies from IT and manufacturing sector respectively. The unique approach synthesised the existing knowledge, proposed a framework for MSME, evidenced through case study and offered a scope to move forward and reflect backward in the research domain.
... Fetscherin (2010) suggested that a country brand belongs to the public domain; it is complex and includes multiple levels, components and disciplines, and it concerns a country's whole image, covering political, economic, social, environmental, historical and cultural aspects. However, there is no consensus on defining the scope of what is a nation brand (Hao et al., 2019). ...
Purpose-This commentary and conceptual paper is aimed at investigating marketing perceptions of the country-of-origin (COO) perspectives, and emphasis is placed on the "Cool Japan" concept. Design/methodology/approach-A review of research on COO and the concept of "Cool Japan" was conducted, including commentary of previous relevant theoretical frameworks. Findings-The evidence has shown that the brand images of various COOs is dependent on their cultural exports. In the case of Japan, the "Cool Japan" initiative, which initiated the creation and dissemination of Japanese cultural contents such as anime, games and art, has led to tremendous and sustainable economic growth in Japan till date. Research limitations/implications-As previous studies on COO are wide-ranging, they are not exhaustively presented in this paper. However, the importance of considering not only animosity, which has traditionally been taken into account, but also the coolness aspect is suggested. Practical implications-This paper shows that "coolness" is an important concept when nations or regions consider their branding strategies and an integrated approach is needed. Originality/value-This paper extends previous COO research and adds coolness to the traditional animosity. It also considers these in comparison across countries and goes as far as the need to propose a new scale. Conceptual findings from this paper would therefore provide future directions for advancing COO research Cool Japan.
... These indexes are widely accepted for academic progression and excellence across academic communities (Dagenais Brown, 2014). Further, these three popular indexes are frequently referred to and used in recent literature reviews (Hao et al., 2021;Mishra et al., 2021;Ng et al., 2020;Paul & Dhiman, 2021;Sharma et al., 2020;Yadav & Bansal, 2021). It left us with the final list of 50 articles for in-depth review (see Table 1 Table 2). ...
The rise of social media influencers (SMIs) in the recent decade garnered wide interest from academicians and marketers. Academicians try to understand the effect of influencers on consumer behaviour, while marketers use influencers as part of their strategy to achieve marketing objectives. Although, plenty of practical and conceptual research is available in this area, literature reviews in the domain of SMIs and consumer engagement are scarce as it is still developing, and most of the studies have focused on these two concepts separately. In this study, the authors attempted to combine and understand how social media influencers affect consumers engagement. This systematic review of the literature offers a comprehensive view of previous research on social media influencers and consumer engagement. The study reviewed articles published in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), Scopus, and Web of Science indexed journals till June 5, 2021. To understand consumers’ engagement with SMIs, authors identified and theorised the antecedents, decision and outcome of such engagement. It also discusses the influencer‐follower parasocial relationship on different social media platforms. The study proposes an integrated conceptual framework that can be further used to test and validate the impact of social media influencer's marketing efforts on consumer engagement. This framework also may serve as a foundation for marketers to develop effective influencer strategies for brand promotions. The review concludes the discussion by highlighting theories, methodology, and context of studies conducted by past researchers.
... In a broader sense, this research methodology permits the examination of voluminous publishing data at both the macroscopic and microscopic levels [42]. Consequently, bibliometric analysis may be utilized to undertake knowledge analysis on any study subject to identify objective and unobservable trends [43][44][45][46][47]. ...
Sustainable development has positioned itself as a fundamental element of a transversal nature, being linked to the energy transition. In this sense, it must be included as a mainstream objective of all actions and strategies developed at the social, academic, business, and political levels. However, to the best of our knowledge, no bibliometric work has been carried out to date to analyze the main contributions to the literature focused on the concepts of renewable energy and sustainable development. The main aim of this paper is to establish the key trends and academic contributions made in the field of renewable energies and sustainable development. For this purpose, a bibliometric and co-citation analysis has been carried out using the Bibliometrix® tool, an open-source R package. The results show that this is a field of study that has significantly increased its importance in recent years, which is illustrated using different indicators. We conclude that research trends seem to be directed towards managing the transition to a new, more sustainable energy model composed of renewable energy production systems, in addition to the adoption of new technologies to increase the efficiency of products and power transmission systems. In this respect, the transition towards a new, more sustainable energy model seems to be a fundamental step to guarantee the sustainability of human action.
... In addition, it is defined as a methodology that summarizes the process of collecting, arranging, and assessing literature in a review domain (Dabi c et al., 2020;Paul et al., 2021). A systematic review was considered appropriate in this study based on the purpose of this research, which is to identify key findings in current research and to offer suggestions for future research (Eteokleous et al., 2016;Paul and Benito, 2018;Hao et al., 2019). A systematic review can contribute significantly to the understanding of the research area, identifying lacunas and suggesting forthcoming research themes (Khatoon and Rehman, 2021). ...
Administrative and medical processes of the healthcare organizations are rapidly changing because of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This change demonstrates the critical impact of AI at multiple activities, particularly in medical processes related to early detection and diagnosis. Previous studies suggest that AI can raise the quality of services in the healthcare industry. AI-based technologies have reported to improve human life quality, making life easier, safer and more productive. This study presents a systematic review of academic articles on the application of AI in the healthcare sector. The review initially considered 1,988 academic articles from major scholarly databases. After a careful review, the list was filtered down to 180 articles for full analysis to present a classification framework based on four dimensions: AI-enabled healthcare benefits, challenges, methodologies, and functionalities. It was identified that AI continues to significantly outperform humans in terms of accuracy, efficiency and timely execution of medical and related administrative processes. Benefits for patients’ map directly to the relevant AI functionalities in the categories of diagnosis, treatment, consultation and health monitoring for self-management of chronic conditions. Implications for future research directions are identified in the areas of value-added healthcare services for medical decision-making, security and privacy for patient data, health monitoring features, and creative IT service delivery models using AI.
... These were: ( i ) "farms" (farm, farm', farm'', farmed, farming, farming', farms, farms', farms''), appearing 2749 times (70%); (ii) "familiar" (familiar, familiar , familiarity), appearing 1687 times (43%); (iii) "agriculture" (agricultural, agriculture, agriculture', agriculture''), appearing 1541 times (39%); (iv) "rurality" (rural, rurale, rurales, rurality), appearing 1415 times (36%); (v) "foods" (food, foods) appearing 1286 times (33%); (vi) "products" (product, product', production, productions, productive, productively, productivity, productivity, products, products') appearing 1226 times (31%); (vii) "socially" (social, sociale, sociales, socially), appearing 1159 times (30%); (viii) "develops" (develop, developed, developer, developing, development, development', developments, develops), appearing 937 times (24%); (ix) "systems" (system, systemic, systems, systems'), appearing 768 times (20%); (x) "economics" (economic, economical, economically, economics, economics), appearing 645 times (16%). Table 1 shows the distribution of the articles by scientific journals, following the procedure defined by Hao et al. (2021) and Kahiya (2018). This observation reveals that the following scientific journals cover the largest amount of publications in the sample: " Sustainability " (Switzerland) (n=12), "Journal of Rural Economics and Sociology" (n=7), "Development and Environment" (n=5), and "Mundo Agrario, Agriculture" (Switzerland) (n=2). ...
The challenges that managers face in performing their managerial functions during the covid19 pandemic are numerous. The aim of this paper is to investigate the problems that managers face in performing their managerial functions. The three biggest problems are noticeable, the psychological aspect (care for employees who are under stress due to the covid-19 pandemic), rising prices of raw materials needed for business and the inability to plan due to instability in business caused by the covid-19 pandemic. During the covid 19 pandemic, managers are more exposed to stress in performing managerial functions and spend more time caring for employee satisfaction and maintaining the health of the collective. Also, the increase in raw material prices makes the company's current operations more difficult. In the part of the research, an interview is conducted with 35 operational managers in Croatian companies, in January 2022, with pre-prepared questions related to the daily performance of managerial functions in companies during the covid-19 pandemic. The data obtained by the interview are statistically presented in the chapter research results. The scientific contribution of this paper is reflected in the research of the problems that managers face in performing their managerial functions during the covid-19 pandemic. Managers point out that they are more stressed, as are employees. It is more difficult for them to perform all managerial functions, and they have the most problems with the planning function, because there is an unplanned absence of workers in the workplace every day, which directly affects another managerial function, organization. The problems caused by the covid-19 pandemic are visible in the performance of all managerial functions, and least of all in the performance of the control function
... By employing the integrative literature review (ILR) methodology, key theory, context, and methodology will be identified, to comprehend the critical factors influencing consumer behavior in service settings. However, there are many approaches to the literature review, such as theory-based reviews [18,19], theme-based reviews [20,21], framework-based reviews [22,23], theory development reviews [24], hybrid reviews [25], bibliometric analyses [26], and meta-analyses [27]. Moreover, a systematic literature review (SLR) can be approached in a myriad of ways. ...
Ongoing technological disruptions in the service industries have altered modern business practices globally. Due to the unending transference in the overall consumer behavior in online and offline business environments, service providers are forced to rethink their existing business strategies, to understand the disruptive behaviors of consumers and the factors responsible for this. An integrative literature review (ILR) method has been employed to track the ongoing disruption in consumer behaviors in diverse service industries. This study is an attempt to bridge the gap by offering global insights related to the study of consumer behaviors in diverse service settings. The Web of Science and Scopus electronic databases have been mined to extract the existing literary works and 120 articles are selected as the final sample for this study through advanced inclusion and exclusion criteria. The key findings of the study have been categorized using the TCM (Theory, Context, and Methodology) framework as the future research agenda of this study. This study will contribute to enhancing the understandings of marketers, researchers, and academics through the massive collection of the existing literature in the research study of consumer behavior.
... Dos ramas generales del branding, a través de ellos, surgen varias bifurcaciones como destination branding (Ruiz et al,. 2020), place branding, (Ma et al., 2019), donde este último da lugar hacia brandings más específicos, como el Nation Branding (Hao et al., 2019), Regional Branding (Margarisová & Vokáčová, 2016), y City Branding (Bonakdar & Audirac, 2020). ...
El fútbol es uno de los deportes más populares del mundo, genera al año ganancias millonarias a través de sus equipos profesionales, además de crear empleos, cambios sociales e inclusive como generadores de paz. En nuestros días, la marca de lugares y más específicamente de ciudades, ha ganado un impulso extraordinario entre los funcionarios de la ciudad. A diferencia de los mega eventos deportivos como los mundiales de futbol y los juegos olímpicos, los equipos profesionales de balompié han aplicado escasamente la práctica y la investigación las estrategias de city branding o marca ciudad. El propósito de la investigación es identificar la relación entre los equipos profesionales de futbol y la estrategia para transformar y promocionar la imagen de una ciudad a través de una revisión de literatura. Los resultados de la revisión de la literatura permiten visualizar el estatus teórico, evolución y rol de los equipos profesionales de futbol en el desarrollo de una marca ciudad. Los resultados de la revisión literaria dejan ver que los clubes de balompié profesionales influyen en la marca de una ciudad y en varios de sus stakeholders, como turistas, inversores y residentes.
... A systematic review of past studies was conducted in strict accordance with the methods explained in earlier reviews (Rana & Paul & Sánchez-Morcilio, 2019;Banister, 2016;Rosado-Serrano et al.;Rocco & Plakhotnik, 2009;Gilal et al., 2019;Hassan et al., 2016;Hao et al., 2019;Paul et al., 2017;, Paul & Benito, 2018Fan et al., 2022;Mishra et al., 2021). Following scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature review (SPAR-4-SLR), we examined the Scopus database for retrieving relevant literature. ...
The foundation of organizations and knowledge-based economies is widely considered to be human capital and
knowledge workers. This review synthesizes prior research on skilled migration, brain gain, and brain drain,
occurring because of the cross-border migration of skilled professionals. The review comprises 75 studies, synthesizes
findings, and develops a conceptual framework for enablers of skilled migration across the border,
resulting in brain drain and brain gain. We support previous theories on international migration, stating wage
differentials, employment, better earning, and family life as reasons for migration, as well as we provide the basis
of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory to explain the phenomenon of skilled
migration. The conceptual model proposed elucidates the brain drain and brain gain outcomes, thereby surfacing
a formative base for future research agenda.
Keywords:
Brain drain
Brain gain
Systematic literature review (SLR)
Skilled professionals
Migration
Exodus
Mobility
Brain circulation
... 363). In this study, the authors will build on Jin's (2017) (18) proposed marketing and sponsorship research topics categories and contrast the information with Santomier's (2008) (22) publication in new media and sponsorship to develop a research agenda (23,24) aiming to close the gap between academic research and industry practices. ...
Background. The sports industry has been transformed through digitalization processes. One traditional area of sports marketing strategy that has changed significantly is sponsorship.
Objectives. To reveal how digitalization has impacted sports sponsorship strategies according to the findings of academic articles in leading sports management journals. In light of the dramatic transformation of sports sponsorship in recent times, a new research agenda is proposed.
Methods. One hundred eighty-nine articles from five high-impact sports journals were systematically selected and classified according to Jin’s (2017) categorization. An in-depth analysis of 23 articles related to digital media was performed and compared to Santomier’s (2008) literature review to understand the evolving academic discourse on the changing nature of sports sponsorship and propose a research agenda for the near future.
Results. A research agenda is proposed to understand the new sponsorship dynamics in the digital landscape focused on the analysis made of the three studied categories: Sports and the internet, consumer behavior, and sports marketing strategy.
Conclusion. The continuous evolution of digital technologies challenges academics and practitioners to keep pace with the impacts of digitalization in sports sponsorship, which requires a new research agenda to raise questions to be answered in future research.
... The duplicates were excluded and moved 190 papers to the screening stage. Following prior reviews (Hao, Paul, Trott, Guo, & Wu, 2019;Jiang et al., 2020;Paschou et al., 2020), it was decided to include articles published in journals with either Q1 Rank in Web of Science or with a minimum 2-star rank and above in the United Kingdom-CABS ranking list. The titles and abstracts of the remaining 190 research papers were analyzed to identify their relevance to the study. ...
The emergence of various approaches in relationship marketing has transformed business marketing practices in managing strategic clients. In this direction, firms have embraced Key Account Management (KAM) as a relationship marketing tool for profitably managing their strategic customers. The concept of KAM has evolved and gained importance in academic literature as a distinct sub-division of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. However, the current academic understanding is very diverse and disintegrated, posing a threat to domain expansion and challenges for better managerial practice. This study reviews the extant KAM literature with a systematic review approach and tries to address this void in the extant body of knowledge. 104 research papers published between 1990 and 2022 were systematically reviewed. The results suggest a synthesized framework integrating the characteristics of numerous KAM practices and antecedents. In addition, we provide directions for future research based on the synthesis of the extant literature grounded in theory, context, characteristics, and methodology.
... We conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) in the domain of self-regulation in order to obtain an in-depth insight and a critical assessment of the extant research (Barczak, 2017). Our SLR aims to be instrumental for a systematic understanding of the self-regulation domain, consolidating existing findings, advancing theory, practice, method, and policies, and also for identifying research gaps towards future research agendas (Hao et al., 2019;Kumar et al., 2019). ...
The act of self-regulation, also referred to as self-control, is antithesis to profligacy. Self-regulation is central to human behavior and is the core of a well-functioning society. Although self-regulation as a research topic has been well-researched, systematic literature reviews on this domain are rare. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this article is one of the first to present a systematic literature review on self-regulation and goal-directed behavior. The authors compiled a study pool of 78 papers over a period of 1990–2021. This study complements the Theory, Characteristics, Context, and Methodology (TCCM) framework, and presents the TCCMP framework to provide public policy recommendations. Further, the authors extract seminal models in the self-regulation literature to re-integrate them into contemporary marketing research. Through the insights gained from the literature review, this paper presents suggestions for public policies, and develops a detailed research agenda.
... Systematic reviews can be approached in myriad ways (Paul et al., 2021b), including theme-based reviews (e.g. Billore & Anisimova, 2021;Hao et al., 2019;Kahiya, 2018;Khatoon & Rehman, 2021;Rosado--Serrano, Paul, & Dikova, 2018), theory-based reviews (e.g. Gilal, Zhang, Paul, & Gilal, 2019;Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019), framework-based reviews (e.g. ...
Intermediaries such as trading companies, agents and merchants have played a key role in international business for centuries. Despite the growing importance of understanding the phenomenon of intermediaries, there are misperceptions and confusions regarding the concept and value of intermediaries, which result in disconnected and fragmented research findings. This study – based on an analysis of 101 articles published between 1985 and 2021 – aims to synthesise the conceptual developments and provide a more integrated understanding of both sourcing and trading intermediaries whose activities extend across national borders. The findings help to pave the way for further academic research by highlighting what we currently know and do not know about intermediaries, outlining the theoretically grounded research agenda for each of the three identified themes: (1) What are intermediaries? (2) When should intermediaries be used? and (3) How do intermediaries work and develop? The study shows that despite decades of research on this topic, the literature to date has been limited and scattered. Researchers are encouraged to consider the role of intermediaries in a bigger picture where intermediated exchanges exist not only in dyadic relationships, but also in triads or even in broader webs of networks.
... They noted that, while numerous scholarly studies have investigated individual countries' branding attempts, there is a lack of knowledge on how to measure nation brand strength and performance, and how nations' brands have developed over time. Longitudinal studies on nation branding, in particular, have remained scarce, and such studies are necessary for enhancing understanding of how nation brand equity can change over time due to various macroenvironmental factors (Hao et al., 2019). Furthermore, nation brand managers need tools for assessing how to achieve an optimal balance when investing in different strands of the brand so that the country can maximize its resource use, considering the aspects of resource scarcity, while also ensuring that resources are not idle. ...
The purpose of this study is to assess longitudinal nation brand performance by modeling transitions in nation brand equity and to develop a method for nation brand performance assessment. This study has two objectives: (1) to empirically test Steenkamp’s nation equity power grid conceptual framework; its categories (dominant, receding, niche, emerging, and weak nation brands), and their expected development trajectories, and (2) to identify new types of nation brands and development patterns to complement the framework. To do this, this study used objective secondary data and applied the smooth transition technique. We assessed 41 countries’ nation brand performance over the 1995–2017 period to understand the development of their nation brand equity. Particular attention was paid to countries that had significantly improved their performance and countries that had lost their brand strength. Our findings support the categories proposed by Steenkamp, but we provide a more nuanced approach to analyzing countries’ brand strength and the possible development trajectories, and introduce new categories of nation brands called volatile nation brands and booming nation brands. Our approach to using the nonlinear smooth transition demonstrated how countries’ brand strength evolved over time, and also detected the speed of any transitions; in other words, how fast nation brands moved from one level to another. Our findings benefit country brand managers, enabling them to better determine their country’s positioning and the necessary means to improve brand equity. Understanding the mechanisms behind transitions in brand equity can also help researchers link these transitions back to various economic, social, cultural, and political transitions that have occurred in nations. Our method therefore has powerful explanatory value for a wide range of marketing, economics, and other social science studies.
JEL Classification
M31
... Largest sample was of n = 16001, while smallest was of n = 56. Convenience sampling is perhaps the best method of sampling although it reduces the scope of the generalisability of results (Hao et al., 2019). Some authors collected data from some specific organizations, and sampling done from one organization emerged as the preferred choice, however this method can limit the scope of generalizability. ...
Is the psychological well-being (PWB) of employees essential to be considered by organizations? Does it have an impact on an organization in the long-run? This study attempts to provide a holistic view of literature on PWB and how it has become indispensable for employees and the organization. The study also proposes a framework consisting of precedents and outcomes of PWB of employees in organizations. A review of the literature of 142 studies was done using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework along with the main construct PWB and ten related organizational variables. PWB has been analysed from a eudaimonic perspective. Literature review reveals the scarcity of management literature on the eudaimonic sense of well-being of employees, and how well-being is not distinguished on the basis of its philosophical roots. Our research discusses the variables which have been studied comprehensively in juxtaposition with well-being, and also those variables which are yet to be explored with eudaimonia as the focus. The study is a novel attempt to systematize literature on the under-examined eudaimonic perspective of PWB of employees and its relationship with prominent organizational variables. The study intends to give practitioners and the managers value adding insights into the factors that affect the PWB of employees and also how these factors can be honed for better employee mental health leading to higher organizational returns.
... This research thoroughly examined the literature linked to social influence and online retail to develop a roadmap for future researchers. We use the TCCM framework to suggest directions for future studies following the guidelines provided by past researchers (Billore & Anisimova, 2021;Hao, Paul, Trott, Guo, & Wu, 2019;Kalia, 2017;Khatoon & Rehman, 2021;Nanda & Banerjee, 2021;Paul & Benito, 2018;Södergren, 2021). ...
There are numerous factors affecting online retail behavior, which are discovered in the last two decades, but no previous study has compiled the scientific literature on social influence into a systematic literature review. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper evaluated available articles on social influence in online retail and developed a comprehensive model. The article critically examines the theories, contexts, characteristics, and methodologies (TCCM) that have been used to study the role of social influence in online retail. The Web of Science database was used, following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for systematic inclusion and exclusion of articles. From an academic perspective, we offer four strong propositions for future researchers, such as the use of novel or advanced theoretical models, determining social influence variations based on continent versus culture and product versus service, a comprehensive conceptual model, and a higher focus on the validity, robustness, and balance of data, technique, and samples during research. We also recommend qualitative, mixed-method, or experimental approaches for future studies. From a managerial perspective, we offer some useful recommendations based on the conceptual model. This comprehensive assessment not only emphasizes earlier contributions but also creates a research roadmap for the future.
... Systematic literature reviews can be approached in myriad ways based on the purpose of the study (Paul & Criado, 2020). Some of the popular review formats include: theme-based reviews (e.g., Billore & Anisimova, 2021;Canabal & White III, 2008;Hao et al., 2019;Kahiya, 2018;Khatoon & Rehman, 2021;Mishra et al., 2021aMishra et al., , 2021bPaul et al., 2017;Rana & Paul, 2017;Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018), theorybased reviews (e.g., Gilal et al., 2019;Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019), framework-based reviews (e.g., Canabal & White III, 2008;Lim et al., 2021aLim et al., , 2021bPaul & Benito, 2018;Sodergren, 2021), a framework development review (e.g., Pansari & Kumar, 2017;Paul & Mas, 2020), hybrid reviews (e.g., Dabi c et al., 2020;Goyal & Kumar, 2021), bibliometric analyses (e.g., Randhawa et al., 2016;Ruggeri et al., 2019), and metaanalyzes review (e.g., Barari et al., 2021;Rana & Paul, 2020;Turan, 2021). ...
The COVID‐19 pandemic has put online shopping at the forefront of retailing, however, the issue related to shopping cart abandonment remains an eternal nemesis of e‐retailers. To understand extant research on online shopping cart abandonment (OSCA), a framework‐based systematic literature review was conducted with the purpose of gaining more insights into existing studies in this context. Specifically, this review examined the literature related to OSCA in terms of theory, context, characteristics, and methods to provide (i) a comprehensive review of the current state of research, and (ii) constructive future research agenda in the area. Using scientific procedures, a total of 52 research articles were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases published during the period 2003‐2022. The results revealed that most research is founded by the stimulus‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) model and the buyer behavior theory, focused in the context of the United States and China, and appeared to use quantitative methods. As a result, this review is expected to assist researchers in better understanding the OSCA context, thus paving the way for further research and development in the area. In addition, providing practitioners with a better panorama to address the issue by expanding the literature review and highlighting the inhibiting factors of OSCA.
... Following classic reviews (Billore & Anisimova, 2021;Chakma et al., 2021;Gilal et al., 2019;Hao et al., 2019;Khatoon & Rehman, 2021;Mishra et al., 2021;Paul & Benito, 2018;Paul & Mas, 2020;Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019;Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018;Södergren, 2021), the screening of articles was conducted. The screening criteria included studies investigating varied factors that affect consumer GPI and GPB. ...
The worldwide increased consumption of goods and services squeezes natural resources, thus causing severe damage to the environment. In the backdrop of the growing affirmative reaction of people, the inclination to buy green products is on the rise. Therefore, we explore the extant literature to identify the factors established for their role in determining the purchase of products having a less damaging impact on the environment. A systematic literature review was conducted following the Theory‐Context‐Characteristics‐Methodology framework covering 151 empirical studies on green purchase intention and green purchase behavior, published between years 2000 and 2021. This paper identifies factors influencing consumers' green purchase intention and green purchase behavior and provides strategic insights to marketers to create better marketing opportunities for green products.
... Table 3 3.5 Methodological perspectives 3.5.1 Research settings. We then distributed the articles on OSF in terms of research settings, that is, the country where the where the sample is drawn from (Hao et al., 2019). For this analysis, we considered only empirical research because conceptual research does not require the collection of primary data from a sample. ...
Purpose- The purpose of this study is to present a systematic review of the online service failure (OSF) literature and conduct an exhaustive analysis of academic research on this emerging research area.
Design/methodology- The current study has adopted a structured systematic literature review approach to synthesize and assess the OSF literature. Further, the study uses the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework to propose future research directions in the OSF domain.
Findings- This systematic review shows that OSF research is still developing and remains mainly incoherent. Further, the study develops a conceptual framework integrating the frequently reported antecedents, mediators, moderator, and consequences in the extant literature. This review also synthesizes the theoretical perspectives adopted for this domain.
Research limitations- The study followed specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to shortlist articles. Further, articles published only in the English language were considered. Hence, the findings of this review cannot be generalized to all OSF literature.
Practical implications- This systematic review has classified antecedents into customers’ and service providers’ roles which will enable online service providers to understand all sets of factors driving OSF. It also synthesizes and presents service recovery strategies and emphasizes the role of online customer support to fix OSF.
Originality/value- The OSF literature is still developing and remains highly incoherent, suggesting that a synthesized review is needed. This study has systematically reviewed and synthesized the OSF literature to study its development over time and proposes a framework which provides a comprehensive understanding of OSF.
... The branding process or effort includes developing necessary elements of brand such as name, logo, color, theme, graphics, sound or jingle, packaging, and tagline (Moriarty and Franzen 2008). The literature on the branding is one highly developed (Hao et al. 2019). The empirical evidences have shown that branding is a critical factor in issues such as consumer purchase intention (Martín-Consuegra et al. 2018), consumer adoption (Al-Hajla et al. 2018), consumer loyalty (Van der Westhuizen 2018), and firm's financial success (Crass et al. 2019). ...
Sustainable and alternative energy sources of biofuel and solar power panel have been revolutionizing the lives and economy of many countries. However, these changes mainly occur in the urban areas and the rural population section has long been ignored by policy makers and government in the provision of energy. It is only recently that solar and biofuel are finally making in road to provide cheap and clean energy sources to rural population. As a result, literatures on consumer behavior of rural population towards sustainable energy sources are still very scarce. The present research aims to fulfill this gap by developing a conceptual model to investigate the adoption of solar power and biofuel energy resources in the cross-cultural setting of Malaysia and Pakistan. The data was collected from the rural areas of Pakistan and Malaysia. The two-stage data analysis method of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) have been applied to satisfy both linear and non-linear regression assumptions, respectively. The results show that consumer in rural areas of Pakistan are willing and possess intention to adopt both biofuel and solar power for commercial and domestic use. Additionally, the results confirm that branding, economic, and altruistic factors are important in yielding intention to use towards biofuel and solar power panel in Pakistan which are validated by the results obtained in Malaysia. Other factors such as climate change awareness, retailer services quality, and ease of use are also important. The results offer wide-ranging theoretical and managerial implications.
... This research aimed to theorize salient dimensions and identify different approaches to the problem of how to market food and engage with cultural diversity, integrate diverse concepts currently rooted in diffuse literature, and offer a common vocabulary across multiple perspectives. To accomplish this purpose, once the sample of articles had been selected, the analytical approach followed a theme-based framework development procedure (Hao et al., 2019;Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019) to narrative synthesis, whereby analysis continued with a dialectical back-and-forth between the selected articles, the emerging themes, and the evolving interpretive framework. ...
Abstract
Consumer culture scholars have advanced multifaceted insights about how food products are crafted for globalizing and culturally diverse food markets; these insights have yet to be consolidated and synthesized. This paper provides a narrative synthesis of 73 consumer culture articles on food consumption and marketing from the past 30 years to advance an ordering theory that draws connections between extant insights. It introduces the concept of transcultural food marketing to denote how market actors collaboratively develop or transform a food product in culturally diverse markets aiming to facilitate market exchange. This paper conceptualizes transcultural food marketing as an intersection between two fundamental tensions: (1) territorialization and deterritorialization; and (2) familiarity and exploration—that manifest in distinct configurations. The transcultural food marketing framework advances an integrative and generative vocabulary that directs theoretical imagination toward the pluralism and plasticity in how food products are crafted for culturally diverse markets.
... ;Mishra, Singh, & Koles, 2021;Hao, Paul, Trott, Guo, & Wu, 2019;Billore & Anisimova, 2021;Rosado- Serrano, Paul, & Dikova, 2018),Theory based reviews (e.g.,Gilal, Zhang, Paul, & Gilal, 2019;Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019) framework-based reviews (e.g.;Paul & Benito, 2018;Billore & Anisimova, 2021), review aiming for theory development (e.g.Paul & Mas, 2019), hybrid reviews (e.g.,Dabić, Vlačić, Paul, Dana, Sahasranamam, & Glinka, ...
Visual merchandising has gained importance in contemporary retail research and practice. Initially considered as an essential element of retail store atmospherics, the scope of visual merchandising has now extended well beyond the usual reference of a visual stimulus. As research on visual merchandising and store atmospherics continues to converge, this systematic literature review aims to identify the research gaps and overlaps to help researchers with directions on formulating original research ideas in this cross-over domain. A framework-based review using Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methods (TCCM) typology with an integrated analysis of 88 research articles published between 2000 and 2020 was carried out. It was found that visual merchandising as a product-driven display function has been closely related to store atmosphere as a store-wide display function. Hence an integrated framework of research in visual merchandising and store atmospherics becomes imperative to understand their interplay in the evolving scope of traditional and e-tailers' environments. The paper contributes as the first and most comprehensive review of research on visual merchandising with the closely substitutable domain- store atmospherics.
... In fact, there are still fragmented and various conceptualizations of nation branding as a developing field. Thus, a systematic review of publications is needed to map the field of nation branding (Hao et al., 2019). Little research has attempted to aggregate and accumulate the findings of these scattered and contextualized studies into integrated models. ...
This study aims to identify key influential, processual, and output factors of nation branding based on qualitative case studies on primary nation branding by systematically reviewing the nation branding literature. We conducted our study using the meta-synthesis method and reviewed qualitative case studies in the nation branding literature. The results showed that case studies on nation branding examined the influential, processual, and output factors of nation branding. The originality of this study was approved based on indicating key nation branding factors based on systematic review and synthesis of the literature on nation branding.
Textual and visual analyses of nation-branding campaigns are rare but highly needed (Bolin and Ståhlberg, 2010; Hao, Paul, Trott, Guo, and Wu, 2019) as online media have become a popular tool for states to shape people’s perception (Volcic and Andrejevic, 2011). In Anholt’s much applied nation brand hexagon (2007), immigration and investment, society, governance, and culture and heritage are, along with tourism and export, the core aspects that build a country’s reputation. As the 2015 refugee peak situation resulted in a more restrictive approach of the Swedish government towards asylum applicants, the country’s brand was put under pressure. How could Sweden’s values related to openness be highlighted while policymakers chose a deterrent road? In this study, we bridge streams of research on nation branding, framing, and migration studies by presenting a multimodal analysis of the “Portraits of migration” campaign as a strategic response to the refugee situation.
Numerous studies of international student decision-making have confirmed the importance of host country and institution images, but these studies tend to run in parallel with country-of-origin research. In the context of regional student mobility, regional ethnocentrism may also play some role. Nevertheless, the interaction between country image and regional ethnocentrism remains untapped. This study aims to examine the relationship between country image and regional ethnocentrism in students interested in studying within a region. The samples of Indonesian middle- and upper-class high school students were selected using the purposive sampling technique. The 431 valid responses were analysed using PLS-SEM to answer the research questions. This study confirmed the interrelationship between the elements of country image. However, only the country’s cognitive image and personality positively affected the institution image, which determined student intention to study in a neighbouring country. Regional ethnocentrism has partially moderated the relationship between the elements of the country brand and institution image. This research gives practical insights to the host country’s government and institutions to effectively design their marketing strategies to target students from neighbouring countries.
In recent decades, the management and marketing of brands for nations, regions, and cities have garnered much attention from scholars and practitioners alike as tools to create soft power and help attract foreign investment, tourism, and skilled human capital. 1 As Kotler and Gertner argued nearly two decades ago, global competitiveness among countries revolves around attracting investment, business, residents, and visitors, increasing employment opportunities and exports. 2 Hence, the importance of branding for nations to actively manage their image has been widely acknowledged. 3 In a climate of accelerated globalization and dig-italization, nation branding has presented countries with an effective 1.
This chapter presents the theoretical underpinnings for the book. First, soft power is defined and related issues to soft power are discussed. Next, the chapter introduces the notion of nation branding as an important asset in responding to political challenges. Moreover, the chapter presents different theoretical underpinning and empirical findings related to nation branding. Finally, the chapter explains public diplomacy and its relationship with soft power and nation branding.
Contemporary virtual reality is often discussed in terms of popular consumer hardware. Yet the virtual we increasingly experience comes in many forms and is often more complex than wearable signifiers.This three-volume collection of essays examines the virtual beyond the headset. Virtual Interiorities offers multiple, sometimes unexpected entry points to virtuality—theme parks, video games, gyms, pilgrimage sites, theater, art installations, screens, drones, film, and even national identity. What all these virtual interiorities share are compelling cultural perspectives on distinct moments of environmental collision and collusion, liminality, and shifting modes of inhabitation, which challenge more conventional architectural conceptions of space.
The Myth of Total Virtuality sets aside more common real/unreal spatial dichotomies in the literature to reinforce that the virtual is inherently an experience and not a representation. Each chapter examines a distinct experiential mode, whether within the built environment, an interactive digital world, or within film.
purchase the paperback or epub at: https://press.etc.cmu.edu/books/virtual-interiorities/2
Purpose : To create a world ranking of the countries within the pre-determined economic dimensions to compare it with the nation brand ranking, to determine the points influenced from the dimensions, to create a new nation brand ranking by revealing the correlations among the dimensions and to determine the contributions of the nation brand for the countries. Method : Min-Max normalization method and Pearson and Spearman's Rank Correlation tests were conducted to investigate the relationship between the nation brand and the pre-determined economic variables. While the Brand Finance 2020 Nation Brand Ranking is the dependent variable; the independent variables gathered from the secondary data sources are gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, foreign trade, export unit value, tourism receipts and the number of tourists arrivals to the country, the number of country brands in the "World's Most Valuable Global 500 Brands" list and the ranking of the most reputable countries in the world were determined as independent variables. The data of the variables cover the years from 2019 to 2020. Findings: It demonstrate that the nation brand is positively correlated with gross domestic product, foreign direct investments, exports, tourism receipts, the number of tourists arrivals, the number of country brands included in the "World's Most Valuable Global 500 Brands” list while it has a low-positive correlation with the most reputable countries and has any correlation with the export-unit value. Because of the comparison of the newly created nation brand with the Brand Finance Nation Brand 2020 it was determined that, the positive relations between the determined economic indicators and the nation brand affected the ranking. Originality: The concept of nation branding is generally examined within the framework of public diplomacy, country image, country brand personality, tourism, tourism movies and globalization. Thus, the studies carried out with regard to the economic dimensions are limited and this particular feature distinguish this study from the other academic studies
Purpose
This study aims to extend the study of COVID-19 effects by identifying different consumer behaviors beyond panic buying during the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review was based on Herjanto et al. ’s (2020a) thematic analysis and Paul et al. ’s (2021) 5W1H framework, and the authors analyzed 52 related papers.
Findings
The result findings indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers fell into five different consumer behavior categories: health-related behaviors, consumption behaviors, ethical behaviors, behavioral intentions, and other related behaviors, and social connectedness behaviors. Findings show that consumer behaviors were increasingly complex and dynamic during the pandemic.
Originality/value
This systematic review will provide significant contributions to academia by offering general and technical insights and to practitioners by presenting guidelines on dealing with such different behaviors.
Aim/purpose – Olfactory marketing is a phenomenon that is in the current trend of usage by marketing experts to ensure that consumers are more involved in the purchase decision-making process. This paper aims to review the studies involved in consumer purchase intentions influenced by fragrance and develop a framework for modeling consumer responses.
Design/methodology/approach – PRISMA technique was used as a methodological approach. First, the researchers made criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies along with the application of a set of keyword research strings to identify the relevant research articles. Second, prominent scientific search databases like EBSCO Host, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were used to mainly search the relevant literature.
Findings – This article advances knowledge on the topic of fragrance marketing and proposes an integrative framework of consumer purchase responses considering the mutual relationship shared between fragrance, the influence of control variables, and response outcomes focusing on cognitive responses, intentions and behavior. The results of the conducted review also suggest that retail consumers tend to develop a positive attitude and behavior towards the place where the product and service are being sold.
Research implications/limitations – The paper would be particularly helpful for man-agers in designing the right strategy for creating loyalty for their retail outlets and there-by creating a niche for themselves.
Originality/value/contribution – The study assists marketers in understanding the im-pact of olfactory marketing in increasing short-term and long-term retail sales and de-termines future research directions to enrich the existence of these theories to fathom the essence behind consumers’ interpretations of olfaction in retail outlets.
Keywords: olfactory marketing, consumer behavior, retail store, marketing innovation, fragrance, review.
JEL Classification: M00, M31.
States in the context of foreign policy apply specific strategies that relate with strengthening their international position, especially in relation to the promotion of attributes and values that make changing the perceptions of citizens of other states, and consequently of decision makers. Small states find it difficult to impose on the large international system knowing that their power and potential is little measurable.
Kosovo since its proclamation as a state, is facing this dilemma, as crises, political instability and the inability to conclude the problem of recognition have cost it in external perception as a country with unsolvable political problems, while from within as the place where opportunities for work and well-being are seen as difficult to achieve, while interethnic cooperation remains dependent on the fate of the Brussels Talks or reconciliation and forgiveness, which are also linked to political talks. The need to affirm the truth of Kosovo, found it without concrete strategies, while the application of some marketing on foreign television, was not followed by any concrete plan.
Kosovo had launched a campaign entitled “Young Europeans”, while only a few years later, 200,000 young people left the country, producing paradigmatic upheavals, in “young European immigrants”. Applying a series of methods, such as content analysis, statistics and interviews, the paper concludes that Kosovo has not had a national strategy for creating a national brand, while there are some sporadic efforts, which are not accompanied by concrete strategies, while political instability did not allow the functioning of foreign policy and consequently increased impatience of the citizens towards the institutions which was reflected in the efforts for their mass departure from the country.
While social exclusion in the consumption context has gained significant interest recently, its literature remains fragmented and underexplored due to restricted categorization and limited conceptual lenses. This systematic review attempts to broaden social exclusion literature by including multiple possible aspects of social exclusion, and providing a nuanced approach to identifying changes in the consumption response of excluded individuals. Using the “Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Review” (SPAR‐4‐SLR) (Paul et al., 2021) protocol to assemble, arrange, and assess studies published between 2010 and 2021, we selected 83 studies as the basis of this review. With the objective of providing a synthesized view of the existing literature and presenting possible explanations for inconsistencies, this paper (a) undertakes a systematic review of the existing research in the domain, (b) introduces a conceptual framework, and (c) provides a taxonomy to categorize diverse strands of consumption responses. Identifying gaps, this study also provides directions for future research using the TCCM (Theory, Characteristics, Context, and Methodology) framework (Paul and Rosado‐Serrano, 2019; Paul and Criado, 2020). This study can thus enable marketers, advertisers, and public policymakers to understand the needs of socially excluded individuals, and subsequently make more inclusive decisions.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the positive side of employee deviance. Historically, research exploring employee deviance focussed on undesirable organisational and individual outcomes. Thus, previous research has empirically established that employee deviance harms both the organisation and organisation's employees. Recent studies argue that employee deviance also has a positive effect; however, such studies are limited in number. The extant research fails to consider the positive side of employee deviance, and therefore, the present studies bridge the gap through a systematic literature review on positive deviance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examined peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical journal articles related to workplace deviance. An initial search resulted in 2,691 research articles, of which 40 papers were considered relevant for the study given the objective of this paper. Research papers were extracted from the Web of Science, EBSCO and Scopus. The extracted data were then synthesised to formulate the research questions and objectives for this study.
Findings
Basing on the systematic literature review, the study presents six main themes: positive deviance and younger workforce, positive deviant leader and subordinates and positive deviance as a strategic tool for employee engagement, positive deviance and positive organisational scholarship, positive deviance and entrepreneurial orientation. The study also proposes positive deviance as a mediator/moderator of other relationships within an organisation.
Research limitations/implications
Systematic literature is a methodology that relies on the availability and accessibility of research studies based on the research criteria. The study considered three significant databases to identify the relevant papers for the study. Therefore, the research is limited, and the possibility of omitting the papers is not ruled out, although unintentional.
Originality/value
The paper is plausibly the first research to conduct a systematic literature review on positive deviance. The study establishes and reconfirms the encouraging side of employee deviance. The study extends the literature on workplace deviance in two significant ways. First, the paper systematically examines the empirical and review literature related to positive deviance and presents a greater understanding of the predictors, consequences, methodologies, etc. Second, the study highlights the critical research gaps in this area and suggests the course of action for future research.
Our study provides a systematic theoretical review of 304 qualitative-based articles published in seven international business journals from 2010 to 2020. We constructed a typology that provides alternative ways of studying time and is constituted by two dimensions: ontological conceptions of time (objective vs subjective) and theorising style of research (variance vs process). Our analysis and findings illustrate that time is mostly treated as objective and linear, and they highlight some concerning trends: lack of conceptual clarity; lack of diversity within and between paradigms; and lack of methodological clarity. We propose three pathways for advancing future research on time.
Simon Anholt’s concept of national branding in modern Russia is analyzed. The main attention is focused on reflecting the significant methodological problems that impede the theoretical development of the concept. Difficulties of forming a strategy for the national brand of Russia, which would make it possible to create the positive image of our country more stable.
Social media influencers (SMIs) and influencer marketing (IM) have been widely incorporated in China's marketing and advertising practices. The abundant academic literature is available in this area, featuring novel research based on American patterns. However, there is no systematic review to summarize these results, and scholarly work is inconsistent, incomplete, and fragmented. Moreover, due to differences in social culture and language, research results from China tend to be excluded from mainstream international discussion and are developing as an independent system, thus restricting research on SMIs/IM. In response, this study is the first systematic review of SMIs/IM research in China. Based on 91 studies from core Chinese journals, this study provides an overview of the current research and identifies five key themes. Using this analysis, the study synthesizes the findings, builds an integrative framework. Finally, future research directions and practical implications are presented.
Halal food research has witnessed a distinct proliferation during the past decade. In this article we examine the intellectual structure of the field based on 302 PubMed documents written by 686 authors representing 45 nations and spanning thirty years (1990‐2019). The study applies bibliometric network techniques to explore the halal food impactful authors, influential journals, collaboration networks and emerging trends. Social network analysis (SNA) techniques are also used to unearth and mine the intellectual structure of the field. Additionally, we use keyword co‐occurrence techniques to scrutinize the field’s major schools of thought. Results show that the most impactful PubMed outlets publishing halal food research include Food Chemistry, Meat Science and the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Results also show that the authors’ collaboration network in halal food is sparse. Furthermore, results reveal a global “North‐South” schism between nations within the domain. Finally, the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) applied to obtain the halal food research conceptual map and its intellectual structure reflects the depth and breadth of the field.
Social media influencers (SMIs) and influencer marketing (IM) have been widely incorporated in China’s marketing and advertising practices. The abundant academic literature is available in this area, featuring novel research based on American patterns. However, there is no systematic review to summarize these results, and scholarly work is inconsistent, incomplete, and fragmented. Moreover, due to differences in social culture and language, research results from China tend to be excluded from mainstream international discussion and are developing as an independent system, thus restricting research on SMIs/IM. In response, this study is the first systematic review of SMIs/IM research in China. Based on 91 studies from core Chinese journals, this study provides an overview of the current research and identifies five key themes. Using this analysis, the study synthesizes the findings, builds an integrative framework. Finally, future research directions and practical implications are presented.
Existing country image (CI) literature tends to focus on consumer behaviour. In contrast, this paper approaches CI from the point of view of the firm. In doing so, it seeks to identify the means by which international companies associate a brand with a specific country of origin in order to build brand values. In particular, it looks at the use of CI cues in brand strategies. The paper is based on exploratory research comprising a case study of two contrasting companies from the cosmetics industry, Natura, a domestic company, and the French-owned L’Occitane, both of which draw on images of Brazil to build their brands. Specific elements of CI used in branding are identified, and the extent to which the use of these differs depending on the origin of the owning company is explored. The cases suggest that CI can be exploited in different contexts. Through analysis of the elements used by both companies to build strong brands associated with the Brazilian CI—Natura Cosméticos and L’Occitane au Brésil—six tools are identified that can be combined by firms to deliver brand values, derived from any country, through the use of CI.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and critically examine marketing research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and articulates its importance and relevance in consideration of the growing influence of the M&A phenomenon in the global economy.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-stage systematic review of the extant literature was conducted focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles published during a 28 year period – from 1987 to 2014.
Findings
A systematic analysis of 32 journal articles reveals that M&A research is a vibrant and rapidly growing stream of the broader marketing domain, and that it is contextually, methodologically and thematically diverse. The findings also highlight several literature trends and shortcomings, as well as the complex nature of the relationship between marketing and M&As.
Originality/value
On the basis of the critique, we develop an ambitious research agenda that raises exciting new research questions for the scholar community and helps promote future theory development in marketing, strategy, and other related disciplines.
Purpose
Country image (CI) has been one of the most studied topics in international business, marketing, and consumer behaviour of the past five decades. Nevertheless, there has been no critical assessment of this field of research. The purpose of this paper is to understand the status and evolution of CI research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review 554 articles published in academic journals over 35 years. The authors examine publication, authorship, and research procedure trends in these articles as an empirical and quantitative assessment of the field. The authors identify weaknesses and strengths, and the authors address disconcerting and encouraging trends.
Findings
The authors find a number of laudatory trends: CI research is becoming less US-centric, more theory driven, more sophisticated in methodology, evaluating more diverse product categories, and making use of multiple cue studies. There are, however, two major methodological concerns: poor replication and questionable generalizability of findings. The authors also noted the influence of CI articles has been decreasing, as well as their rate of publication in top tier journals.
Originality/value
Since the authors present data that reflect actual practices in the field and how such practices have changed across time, the authors believe the study is of substantial value to CI researchers, journal editors, and instructors whose curriculum includes CI. The critical assessment and subsequent recommendations are accordingly empirically justified.
Purpose
Recent research has shown that the country-of-origin (COO) effect - the influence on consumers’ attitudes and purchase behavior derived from a brand’s perceived association with a country - is inextricably linked to consumer perception. The present research examines this shift by considering origin as a characteristic derived from perceived association and also by proposing that this association varies by degree, rather than simply acting as a binary attribute in its effect on consumer attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a test-series in which respondents (n=100) rated 38 brand-country pairs were put to split-half multi-group analysis tests to capture the moderating influence of association strength on several facets of country image simultaneously.
Findings
Association strength is a variable that exerts a moderating influence on how different dimensions of country image influence consumers’ evaluation of brands.
Research limitations/implications
The findings indicate that origin, as a characteristic, should be considered an association that is variable by degree and not as dichotomous. The implications of such a shift are broad, not only for the theoretical understanding of the COO effect but also for marketing and brand management practice. Accounting for association strength allows for more accurate prediction of how consumers will react to COO.
Originality/value
The paper explicitly demonstrates that the strength of country-brand association moderates COO’s influence on brand equity. Such a relationship had previously only been theoretically implied but had not been empirically tested across multiple categories of products on multiple levels of country image.
A country's economic, political, and socio-cultural institutions have always been regarded as important determinants of a company's exports and international marketing strategies. With the recent thinking about countries becoming more like a brand, these factors should impact a country's marketing and branding strategies. There has been a call for more research on how countries can use their institutions and resources to enhance their globalization efforts. This study intends to fill this gap by examining the relationships between country institutions and resources, country image, and exports based on institution theory and resource advantage theory. Both archival and primary data for 24 countries over 12 years (1995–2006) were used to assess a random-effects panel data model. The results reveal the significance of economic development and communication infrastructure on exports. In addition, country image was found to indirectly affect exports. The theoretical and practical implications on country branding and international marketing conclude the article.
The country-of-origin (COO) of products has been shown to affect consumer choice, especially in situations where the origin has a stereotypical association with particular products and depending on certain consumer traits (e.g., national identity, consumer ethnocentrism). However, little is known about how these phenomena are related. Two controlled experiments conducted in two different countries and product categories reveal that product ethnicity moderates the impact of national identity but not of consumer ethnocentrism. National identity is found to influence consumer preference only if the foreign product ethnicity is higher but not lower than that of comparable domestic products. Furthermore, while consumers with a low national identity are positively affected by a high product ethnicity of foreign products, this effect vanishes with increasing levels of national identity. This research has implications for academics and practitioners alike, as it examines important boundary conditions of country-of-origin effects that have been undiscovered so far.
Traditional country-of-origin strategy in international marketing uses a country-image halo to cue beliefs about the country's products. With expansive trade globalization, domestic consumers are likely to have experience with foreign products but know little of the products' origin country. Thus, equally important as traditional theory is the question of whether product beliefs can imbue country image, but little is known of this reverse influence. If product beliefs can generalize into a favorable country image, a chain effect will then enable traditional country-of-origin effects to benefit the country's other products. In this study, the results of three surveys across two countries show that product beliefs can indeed influence country image. However, the influence weakens with increasing country familiarity and exists only when the product and country are congruent. Furthermore, the influence can operate outside of conscious awareness. The authors draw on the associative network theory of memory to explain their findings. This research improves the theoretical understanding of country- and product-image halo and provides the grounds for product and brand managers to work with government and tourist organizations for increasing mutual effectiveness.
The country-of-origin effect is a topic central to the field of international marketing. Country of origin has been found to exert a particularly potent effect on consumer evaluation in situations where there is a strong link between a country and a particular product category. The present study provides further insight into how this particular effect can be understood. Drawing on a novel conceptualization of how country image and product categories interact, this study tested the relative evaluative relevance of product category with respect to estimates of brand equity across a variety of product categories. The findings suggest that facets of a country's image that are more closely related to the evaluation situation exert a greater influence on the evaluation of brands. This result encourages scholars as well as practitioners to re-evaluate which situations might cause the country of origin effect to hold managerial relevance and paves the way for new paths toward a more comprehensive understanding of the effect. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Purpose
– This paper aims to show how the relative global status of a country influences its internal country reputation and resulting social cognitions of citizens.
Design/methodology/approach
– The theories of social identity and collective self-esteem were employed to explain how self-assessment and evaluations of a country’s reputation are regulated by social concepts and vice versa. The structural equation modeling technique was employed to estimate the conjectural relations.
Findings
– The groups which people belong to are their primary source of pride and self-esteem. But if a country is negatively stereotyped on the global stage, it weakens the ability of people to live their nation’s brand. A formidable nation’s brand can only be constructed if people are deeply involved and committed to it.
Practical implications
– The results of this study have implications for policymakers, nation’s branding experts and researchers to focus on internal branding of nations. The academicians and researchers should focus more on the internal audiences in their role as a “communication medium” to external audiences. A more purposeful internal branding will promote community strengthening and enable people to act as a mouth piece in communicating a desired experience to external audiences.
Originality/value
– The existing nations branding literature does not show how relative global status of a country influences self-assessment and evaluations of people’s associations with that country. The present study aims to fill this gap by drawing on the theories of social identity, self-categorization and collective self-esteem to show how people’s self-perception in negatively perceived countries is regulated in relation to their country’s relative global status and its influence on resulting social cognitions.
Purpose
– The purpose of this research is to differentiate and examine how country image (cognitive and affective image) has different impacts on product judgment and purchase intention in rational versus experiential purchases.
Design/methodology/approach
– A large-scale survey involving over 1,200 consumers was conducted in China. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test hypotheses.
Findings
– Empirical results show that the impact of country image on consumer purchase intention is mediated by general and category product image. In particular, the impact of cognitive country image on category product image is fully mediated by general product image in both rational and experiential purchases, whereas the affective country image has a direct impact on category product image in experiential but not in rational purchases.
Research limitations/implications
– This research extends the extant country-of-origin literature and shows that the product image dimension of the country-of-origin construct mediates the effect of the country image dimension of the country-of-origin construct on consumer purchase intention, and demonstrates the different effect of affective country image on product image in rational versus experiential purchases.
Practical implications
– The findings of this research can help multinational marketers, exporters and retailers to better decide when to benefit from their positive country image and avoid the potential pitfalls associated with negative country image.
Originality/value
– This study differentiates between cognitive and affective country image and between general and category product image. Thus, it provides insight to further understand how country image can influence consumer product judgment and purchase intention differently in rational and experiential purchases.
Country-of-origin research has primarily held the view that country-level beliefs influence product-level beliefs. In this study, the authors investigate whether the relationship may also move in the opposite direction. Grounded in prototype theory and schema change theory, this study examines shifts in consumer attitudes toward a country as a result of a brand transgression. The authors confirm the conceptual framework using experimental methods. The results offer evidence of a relationship in which product-level beliefs affect country-level beliefs, a finding that contrasts with the majority of country-of-origin research. The effects of brand transgressions are moderated by the degree of prototypicality of the transgressing brand and the level of development of the transgressing brand's home country.
This research explores the extent to which personality traits can be used to identify, differentiate and position a nation. Specifically, the personality metaphor was used to examine differences in the nation brand personalities of the United States and Canada in China. Extensive exploratory and descriptive studies were carried out to identify a relevant set of personality traits that are directly applicable to nations. Results indicate that, compared with the United States, Canada enjoys a more approachable and a less arrogant image in China, while, in turn, the United States projects a much more vibrant personality than that of Canada. The paper contributes to the nation branding literature, which has so far been limited mostly to conceptual and qualitative studies, by putting forth an empirically derived and tested quantitative approach to measuring nation brand personality for use in positioning nation brands.
Purpose ‐ The paper's aim is to determine, by means of an extensive exploratory study and the metaphorical use of a molecule, the set of dimensions and facets that exist in people's minds in regards to a country brand, and at the same time to compare the results with the dimensions used by practitioner-led sources to measure the same construct. Design/methodology/approach ‐ A total of 532 graduate students living in 20 different countries freely reported the concepts they associate with different country names. The construction of the nation brand molecule was carried out in three steps: generating the inventory of all the associations made by participants in relation to country names; classifying the inventory; and mapping the molecule. Findings ‐ The nation brand molecule (NBM) which encompasses all the associated concepts that give shape to the overall molecule was developed. Seven dimensions, with their corresponding facets, were identified: economy, tourism, geography and nature, culture and heritage, society, science and technology, and government. Research limitations/implications ‐ First, the sample was significantly biased towards graduate students. Second, the free elicitation process was requested mainly focused on nation brand personality, so there still may be some country facets not included in the NBM. Finally, this study does not have a hierarchy or relative weight of each of the molecule's dimensions. Practical implications ‐ The seven dimensions identified here match some of those used by private sources to measure country brand. However, this study uncovers two dimensions that are not considered by either of the private sources: geography and nature, and science and technology. This may demonstrate that what should be measured is not exactly what has been measured, and therefore indicates a potential content validity problem of the private measures currently in use. Originality/value ‐ This paper is the first to explore the dimensions comprising the nation brand construct at a multinational scope. Although practitioner-led indexes have been widely used for many country-branding projects, they only show what is being measured but not what should be measured in regards to the country brands, and therefore this paper fills the gap that exists in the current state-of-the-art.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the country image of Finland among potential travellers and potential consumers of Finnish products. Three research questions are addressed, each of which contributes to the overall aim: What is the level of awareness about Finland among the respondents? How is the awareness constructed in terms of dimensions? Where does the image stem from (the source)?
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted among US, French and Swiss university students. Given the high number of respondents who had not visited Finland, the analysis focused on non‐visitors. Six hypotheses were formulated based on existing theory.
Findings
Awareness is a key indicator of people's knowledge about the existence of a country. Branding may be an elementary tool in enhancing awareness as well as altering or reinforcing stereotypical views. The results of this study bring out the cross‐cultural aspects.
Research limitations/implications
Including the respondents’ sources of information enhances the results of previous studies on country image. The findings contribute to the theoretical discussion on the source of the image and the factors that affect it.
Practical implications
Knowledge of the information sources and their role in image building will help destination marketers to influence potential travellers, including non‐visitors, and thereby increase the likelihood of a first or repeat visit.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on awareness of a country among non‐visitors.
India is a vast, diverse country, which attracts much attention as a political and economic entity as well as a major tourism destination. This commentary explores the Incredible India Campaign, a Nation Branding campaign which has been running in India for approximately ten years. In doing so, we consider nation branding as a mechanism for communicating between a nation and the rest of the world. We draw on a published account of the campaign by one of its architects, a series of images utilized in the campaign as well as a series of interviews with members of the pubic regarding their reaction to the images used. We argue that national branding campaigns can tell us much about imagined identities of those “being branded.” In doing so, we illustrate the difficultly of representing a vast and diverse population within a fast developing economy as well as the benefits of placing the target of the campaign among “the other” rather than orientalizing the citizen at the heart of the nation branding campaign.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a robust scale for country image. Based on a review of marketing and nonmarketing literature, we identified seven dimensions for country image and generated items to measure each of them. We purified the scales by eliminating weak items in Study 1, and in Study 2 we evaluated the dimensional structure using a number of tests of validity. The resulting multidimensional scale operationalizes country image as a second-order factor with seven dimensions. These dimensions are economic conditions, conflict, political structure, vocational training, work culture, environment, and labor.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the views of residents and foreigners of the Olympics and the host country before and after the mega‐event within the context of marketing theory on country image effects and psychology theories attribution.
Design/methodology/approach
This is achieved by studying the views of American and Chinese respondents of China and the Olympics before and after the Beijing Olympics. Samples of Chinese and Americans were surveyed before and after the Beijing Summer Olympics concerning their images of the Olympics, China and its people, and China as a vacation destination. Cross‐national and pre‐post comparisons are made and interaction effects are noted using MANOVA.
Findings
Significant cross‐national and time differences and several interaction effects are found across all three focal objects of image measurements. Large country differences are found. Despite how technically successful the Games might have looked, post‐event assessments are overwhelmingly lower. Additional differences in views and interaction effects are discussed in terms of the intended and unintended impacts of the event on local and foreign respondents.
Research limitations/implications
Only one location in China and one foreign country are surveyed.
Practical implications
The paper has important implications for both the effects of mega‐events on country images and the effects of the host country on the event brand image. These issues have relevance for countries seeking to host mega‐events and those who manage these events and make decision about where they will be held.
Originality/value
This is the first cross‐national study of the Olympics and their effects using before‐and‐after event measures. It also combines analyses of both the event and the place images from the perspectives of both those who live in the country and residents of other countries. Attribution theory is a useful reference theory for mega‐event assessments.
Purpose
This research study aims to examine the practicality and application of a customer‐based brand equity model, based on Aaker's well‐known conceptual framework of brand equity.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed structural equation modelling to investigate the causal relationships between the dimensions of brand equity and brand equity itself. It specifically measured the way in which consumers’ perceptions of the dimensions of brand equity affected the overall brand equity evaluations. Data were collected from a sample of university students in Turkey.
Findings
The study concludes that brand loyalty is the most influential dimension of brand equity. Weak support is found for the brand awareness and perceived quality dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
While it is acknowledged that student samples are normally an unreliable basis for conclusions and predictions to be applied to consumers in general, it is considered that they were an appropriate group for this study, given that the subject was beverages.
Practical implications
Implications for brand managers and marketing planners are discussed. Marketing managers should consider the relative importance of brand equity dimensions in their overall brand equity evaluations.
Originality/value
Branding plays an important role in contemporary marketing, and is the focus of much literature, both academic and professional. This study contributes to the body of knowledge.
Purpose
During the last two decades, studies on the theoretical models in the area of international business (IB), such as gradual internationalization and the born-global firms, have gained the attention of researchers. The purpose of this paper is to critically review the studies on the process of internationalization (Gradual Internationalization vs Born-Global/International new venture models) to identify the research gaps in this area and to prepare a future research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
Systematic literature review method was employed for this review. The authors highlight the findings from prior studies, compare and contrast salient characteristics and features, based on the articles published in journals with an impact factor score of at least 1.0, and provide directions for research.
Findings
The authors find that there are several areas that were under-explored in prior research. There is a great potential for theoretical extension and theory development in this field as it covers the tenets of four subjects: IB, marketing, strategic management and entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
There is no comprehensive/integrated review exploring the methods/variables and constructs used in prior studies integrating gradual internationalization/born-global models based on all the articles published in well-regarded academic journals. This review seeks to provide deeper insights, which help us to contribute toward the development of this research field.
Although a considerable amount of research in personality psychology has been done to conceptualize human personality, identify the “Big Five” dimensions, and explore the meaning of each dimension, no parallel research has been conducted in consumer behavior on brand personality. Consequently, an understanding of the symbolic use of brands has been limited in the consumer behavior literature. In this research, the author develops a theoretical framework of the brand personality construct by determining the number and nature of dimensions of brand personality (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness). To measure the five brand personality dimensions, a reliable, valid, and generalizable measurement scale is created. Finally, theoretical and practical implications regarding the symbolic use of brands are discussed.
The term 'Masstige' stands for mass prestige. Masstige marketing is a strategic phenomenon with the goal of market penetration and brand management in the era of globalisation. The main purpose of this paper is to contribute towards the development of the masstige marketing theory to explain the brand management phenomenon of high value/premium/moderately highly priced (but attainable) brands with a new theoretical model - focused on product, promotion and place strategies, keeping prices constant. Besides, we assess and contrast the effectiveness of marketing strategy of foreign and domestic car brands in the USA using Masstige Mean Index (MMI) developed by Paul (2015). This study is based on the survey data of owners of Japanese and American car brands. It was found that brands can create higher mass prestige value in a foreign country if they follow masstige marketing strategy. The study shows how MMI may facilitate masstige score estimates, allowing comparisons and aiding brands in devising strategies.
Purpose
While country image consists of two hierarchical images – macro country image at the country level and micro country image at the specific product level – previous studies have largely failed to detail its varying effects by product category and by the level of a country’s economic development. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the macro and micro country images of four countries (USA, Italy, Korea, and Malaysia) on Saudi consumers’ purchase intentions in two product categories (symbolic and functional product).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from shoppers older than 20 years of age at several shopping malls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia via mall intercept method.
Findings
Analyses of 496 data revealed that the effects of macro and micro country images differ by product category. In particular, both macro and micro country images were equally relevant to the purchase intention of symbolic goods (i.e. handbags), while micro country image played a greater role in the purchase intention of functional goods (i.e. cell phones). A partial country moderating effect was found. The effects of micro country image on the purchase intention of handbags were valid only in Italy, where product-country match is high.
Originality/value
This study advances country image research by highlighting how the effects of macro and micro country images on purchase intention differ by product category and by country. The findings suggest which aspect of country image (i.e. macro vs micro) should be actively communicated in the marketing of symbolic and functional goods.
In recent years, competition between brands have been linked to mass prestige associated with the brands. Mass Prestige (Masstige) is very important to study, and yet it is a relatively less investigated construct in the literature. This study is an attempt to contribute to the literature grounded in masstige theoretical approach by examining the prestige associated with the four best-selling laptop brands: 1) two American brands (HP, Dell); and 2) two Asian brands (Lenovo and Acer). We analyzed the competition between these brands in the second fastest growing emerging market, India. In order to measure Masstige, we used the Masstige Mean scale. The results show that American brands have the potential to be seen as prestige brands while Asian brands are trailing behind in masstige value and competition. Finally, but not less important, this paper discusses the potential reasons for different masstige value of four laptop brands.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by the visual arts in expressing and shaping the nation brand. In doing so, it establishes the centrality of visual discourse in nation branding; illustrating that discursive strategies can directly alter the nation brand’s perception.
Design/methodology/approach
This single case study drawing on in-depth interviews, field observation and secondary/historical material, applies mediated discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis to capture a transitional period in the cultural policies and nation branding rhetoric across a time frame of 60 years.
Findings
This study establishes the visual arts as a significant carrier of meaning, thus reflecting changes in the national discourse. This analysis illustrates that publicly supported visual arts can articulate policy aspirations and provide insight into the power of competing national discourse which co-exists, thereby shaping the internal and external nation brand.
Research limitations/implications
The study focuses on the visual arts and the context of Venezuela. Future research could expand this to look at the visual arts in other national or regional contexts.
Practical implications
The paper establishes visual art as central to expressing national identity and policy, and a tool for examination of national identity and policy. More broadly, the paper establishes public support for the (visual) arts as central to nation-branding projects providing insight for those engaged in such campaigns to prioritize arts funding.
Originality/value
The authors’ study indicates the marketing relevance of visualization of the nation through the arts and establishes the visual arts as a central tenant of the nation brand.
Albeit scholars have conducted international franchising research for over two decades, our understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of this particular type of internationalization is still limited. In this article, we systematically review the literature related to international franchising and create a road map of extant knowledge. Through this review, we seek to provide a greater understanding of the use of theories, methodologies, and the emergent phenomenon of international franchise partnerships in multiple industries. Additionally, we detected inconsistencies in paradigms that allowed us to offer suggestions for future research. Among the opportunities for future research in the area of international franchising, constructs such as cultural sensitivity, institutional distance, management motivation, network complexity and financial performance need further attention.
Using the Antecedents, Decisions and Outcomes (ADO) format as an organizing framework, this article gives an overview of the literature on different dimensions and characteristics of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by firms from emerging countries. Based on an extensive coverage of studies published over a period of nearly 25 years between 1993 and 2017, we review extant research on this phenomenon from mainly China, as well as other emerging countries. We identify advances and analytical areas of OFDI research and pinpoint the key theories, methodologies, observed characteristics and the variables that have been examined in this growing research literature. Many areas of the above research themes remain underexplored, despite recent significant advancements, and may provide directions for future research.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to facilitate and clarify the perceptions of Spanish consumers towards China, its people, and its products, while outlining the overall contemporary Chinese product-country image (PCI) within the Spanish market.
Design/methodology/approach
A 52-item construct was adapted from former PCI scales from cross-cultural equivalence, including “country image”, “personal image”, “product image”, “general knowledge about China”, and “personal data”. Overall, 215 valid structured questionnaires were gathered.
Findings
The current study provides: a PCI literature review; hypotheses results concerning Spanish citizens’ views of Chinese products’ price, quality, technicality, inventiveness, and known brands concepts; descriptive statistics and results graphs for each of the PCI sections; and correlations of other variables with the five product image variables within the construct.
Research limitations/implications
Implementing standardized, longitudinal consumer studies that facilitate better comprehension of PCI evolution within a specific market emerged as a future research agenda.
Originality/value
The data informed both the Chinese public and private organizations’ managers of the importance of adapting to the market and non-market environments within Spain to avoid the liability of country of origin effect.
Purpose
This study aims to address a heretofore neglected area in research, nation branding, for the purpose of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). It compares and contrasts the well-established literature on decision-making and location choice in FDI with studies in the nascent field of nation branding, with a view to developing directions for future research that result from the identification of research gaps at the intersection point between the two areas.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a systematic and integrative review of several streams within the relevant literatures, from the theory of decision-making in FDI to the similarities and differences between advertising, promotion, branding and marketing for investment on the part of nations and sub- or supra-national places.
Findings
Each of the two areas is characterized by lack of consensus as to the principal factors that affect investor and nation decisions and actions, resulting in several knowledge gaps that need to be addressed by new research along the lines suggested in the study.
Research limitations/implications
A large number of avenues for potential future research are identified, from assessing the importance of target country image in location choice to the adverse effects arising from the emphasis on “promotion” rather than “marketing” on the part of places engaged in nation branding efforts.
Practical implications
The study examines several problems that affect the practice of nation branding for FDI and points to alternative approaches that may enhance place marketers’ effectiveness in their efforts to attract foreign capital.
Originality/value
Notwithstanding the global growth of FDI in volume and importance, and the omnipresence of nation branding campaigns to promote exports or attract tourism and investment, there has been virtually no research to date on the core issue, nation branding for FDI. The study uses a strategic perspective that highlights key nation branding issues related to FDI, and FDI issues related to nation branding, and suggests a comprehensive agenda for research in the future.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how country image affects the dimensions of country brand equity (CBE) (i.e. awareness, image, perceived quality and loyalty) in the higher education sector, as well as the interrelationships between these dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research with 208 international students who were starting the academic year at a Spanish university was performed to test the hypotheses. In accordance with the characteristics of the target population, the subjects interviewed were mainly from Europe and the Americas.
Findings
The results indicate that the country image affects the perceived quality and awareness of the universities in the country. Additionally, a hierarchy of effects between the dimensions of CBE was found. In particular, loyalty toward the universities of a country is positively influenced by their perceived quality, which is affected by image and awareness of these universities. For its part, the image of universities is positively influenced by the awareness attributed to them by international students.
Practical implications
These results have implications for marketing activities aimed at the internationalization of higher education institutions and, therefore, their appeal to international students.
Originality/value
The paper’s findings represent an important step in the advancement of knowledge about CBE by taking as a basis a complex model that involves the different dimensions of this construct together with a relevant variable in international marketing, that is, country image.
Purpose
– Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been an issue of major concern for marketers for more than half a century, only recently has it attracted the attention of international marketing researchers. During the last two decades, this body of research has experienced an increasing trend, which, however, is very fragmented and diverse. In response, the purpose of this paper is to review, assess, and synthesize extant research on the role of CSR activities in international marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
– The review and assessment covered the period from 1993 to 2013 and all relevant articles were traced, using both electronic and manual search methods. Altogether, the authors identified 132 studies published in 106 articles that appeared in 63 journals. Each article was content analyzed by two coders who worked independently from each other, using a structured coding protocol. Due to the nominal nature of the finalized codes, these were statistically analyzed taking the form of percentage frequencies.
Findings
– The results were organized in terms of theoretical, methodological, and empirical considerations. Theoretically, a third of the articles were not anchored on any theory, while the remainder employed various theoretical platforms, with stakeholder theory having a predominant role. Methodologically, this specific body of research is characterized by growing sophistication and rigor, with some room for improvement, especially as regards the use of longitudinal research, better sampling methods, wider geographic scope, and advanced statistical analysis. Empirically, a broad range of issues was covered, with the most widely studied being those focussing on the elements of international marketing strategy, external environmental influences, and CSR practices.
Originality/value
– The authors review and assess 21 years of research conducted on a crucial and contemporary dimension of international marketing, namely CSR. The findings provide useful insights for public policymakers, business managers, academic scholars, and marketing educators. The authors also provide detailed directions for future research, extracted from the articles reviewed.
Conflicting evidence on the issue of psychic distance (PD) in international business relationships suggests the existence of misunderstood boundary conditions to its effect. This article argues that country image (CI) is a contingent factor to the effect of PD. Expectancy–value theory provides the theoretical foundations for this argument. Based on structural equation modeling, analyses for a sample of 358 exporter–importer relationships in the global wine industry provide empirical support. Product-related CI mitigates the negative impact of PD on the relational exchange orientation (REO) between firms. Specifically, a high level of PD dampens REO when product-related CI is poor, whereas a strong product-related CI helps firms facing such PD conditions to build REO irrespective. People-related CI has an indirect effect on REO through product-related CI. Our study contributes to explaining the paradox of distance and offers a fresh perspective on how to handle the issue of PD when relevant.
Despite recognition that places have images, and that images influence consumers (Rojas-Mendez, 2013), place image research has been challenged by a lack of breadth. Studies are generally limited to the perspective of one field of study, mainly Product-Country Image (PCI) or Tourism Destination Image (TDI), measure the images of individual places without reference to a comparative perspective, and rarely consider the influence of a broader gestalt perception of place (Zeugner-Roth & Zabkar, 2015). To explore the multi-dimensional nature of place image and its influence on buyer behavior, this study adopts an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating product, country, and tourism variables simultaneously. An integrated model is empirically tested in two countries using four target countries in each case, resulting in eight model tests. Results reveal how the subcomponents of place image are related: cognitive country image has the greatest influence on product evaluations; affective country image has the greatest influence on destination evaluations; and notably, product beliefs influence tourism receptivity, supporting the hypothesized cross-over effect from PCI to TDI.
Purpose
– The overall aim of the present study is to advance research by drawing from this body of work and applying the brand personality construct, which has so far been considered mostly in connection with commercial product brands, in the context of nation branding. More specifically, and also more importantly, the study aims to contribute to research both in nation branding, as well as, indirectly, in the broader domain of brand personality in general, by being one of the first to examine the relationship between individual personality (IP) and nation brand personality (NBP) traits.
Design/methodology/approach
– The study was conducted via a Web-based questionnaire in Arabic language to Saudi citizens living in Saudi Arabia. The study object was defined as the brand personality of the USA. To make possible the comparison between respondents’ personality and the US brand personality, the Big Five factors typology was used as a proxy (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism).
Findings
– Results revealed a significant negative impact of the gaps between Saudi’s IP and the US brand personality (i.e. independent variables) upon their attitudes and intentions to behave toward the USA (dependent variables). Results also show that there are no moderating effects of previous visits paid to the USA and having relatives living there.
Research limitations/implications
– First, data were collected in only one country about perceptions of NBP traits of one other country. Thus, the results should not be generalized to other contexts until further research is done for a mix of both sample and target countries. This must include not only culturally dissimilar countries (as, in this case, Saudi views of the USA), but also countries that are classified as very close in their cultural distance index (i.e. view of the USA by Canadians or of Kuwaitis by Saudis). A second limitation is the proxy used to measure NBP. Future research may alternatively use an NBP scale developed explicitly for countries. Finally, the somewhat higher proportion of female respondents may be an issue to consider in future studies. In this study, the concern, if any, is largely ameliorated by the results, which showed virtually no significant differences between male and female average responses in relation to the Big Five (the only exception was observed with regards to conscientiousness, where males scored slightly lower than females). As was noted above, one may speculate as to potential reasons for the gender distribution in this study – but differences between samples and populations, not only in gender but in any sample characteristics, are quite common in research; therefore, any effort to achieve more balanced sample distributions will be well placed and received.
Practical implications
– These results should encourage nation brand marketers to closely consider the predominant personality of their target markets, as well as the perceived personality of their own countries (image) when developing international marketing strategies. Such strategic focus should start by deciding what messages to send to the target audience to create in their minds the intended country’s identity by using the appropriate personality traits in communication applications. As this paper has demonstrated, international audiences holding similar personality types, especially in agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness, would feel attracted to perform positively towards the country’s offerings (i.e. tourism, investment, job opportunities, immigration, etc.).
Originality/value
– In this first ever study to explore the relationship between an IP and NBP, a key finding is the confirmation of self-congruity theory.