Determinants of the international performance of services: a conceptual model

Countless determinants of export success that are supposed to help managers reduce the failure rates of export ventures have been identified. Despite this abundance of studies, however, little is known about the determinants of the internationalization success of services. In this paper, based on prior studies focusing primarily on manufactured goods and the key characteristics distinguishing services from goods, a comprehensive conceptual model for the successful internationalization of services is developed. --Services,export performance,internationalization,success factors

Determinants of the international performance of services a conceptual model

Countless determinants of export success that are supposed to help managers reduce the failure rates of export ventures have been identified. Despite this abundance of studies, however, little is known about the determinants of the internationalization success of services. In this paper, based on prior studies focusing primarily on manufactured goods and the key characteristics distinguishing services from goods, a comprehensive conceptual model for the successful internationalization of services is developed

The Relational Value of Perceived Brand Globalness and Localness

Despite the well-documented importance of consumer-brand relationships, international branding research has not yet investigated whether a brand's perceived globalness and localness influence consumers' identification with the brand. Drawing on brand relationship theory and global/local branding literature, the present research theorizes on how perceived brand globalness and localness influence consumer-brand relationship building and discusses how these influences vary for brands of domestic versus foreign origin. Two studies in mature and emerging markets, using several brands across multiple product categories, reveal that both perceived brand globalness and localness have positive effects on consumer-brand identification. These effects (1) hold in both mature and emerging market settings, (2) are independent of brand quality assessments, (3) interact in a mutually-reinforcing way, and (4) are moderated by brand origin in a substitutional manner indicating that the relational effects of brand localness (globalness) are stronger for foreign (domestic) than for domestic (foreign) brands

The Global/Local Product Attribute: Decomposition, Trivialization and Price Tradeoffs in Emerging and Developed Markets

Accelerating anti-globalization challenges previously undisputed assumptions about the importance of a product’s globalness/localness in purchase decisions. Putting these assumptions to test, we conceptualize globalness/localness as a distinct product attribute and decompose its utility into weight and preference components. Subsequently, we offer an equity-theory-based prediction of the attribute’s declining relevance and quantify its tradeoffs with other attributes by calculating global/local price premiums. Conjoint experiments in two countries (Austria-India) reveal that (1) emerging (developed) market consumers exhibit relative preference for global (local) products, (2) emerging market consumers perceive higher preference inequity between global and local products than developed market consumers, and (3) the corresponding inequity triggers consumers’ cognitive inequity regulation (manifested through attribute trivialization in developed markets) and behavioral inequity regulation (manifested through asymmetrical willingness to pay for global/local products across developed/emerging markets). We also find that attribute trivialization and price premium tolerance are moderated by consumers’ spatial identities and price segment. The findings contribute to the theoretical debate on the relevance of product globalness/localness in de-globalizing times and inform competitive strategy, segmentation-targeting-positioning, and international pricing decisions

Exploring the impact of social axioms on firm reputation: a stakeholder perspective

This study proposes a model of how deeply held beliefs, known as ‘social axioms, moderate the interaction between reputation, its causes and consequences with stakeholders. It contributes to the stakeholder relational field of reputation theory by explaining why the same organizational stimuli lead to different individual stakeholder responses. The study provides a shift in reputation research from organizational-level stimuli as the root causes of stakeholder responses to exploring the interaction between individual beliefs and organizational stimuli in determining reputational consequences. Building on a conceptual model that incorporates product/service quality and social responsibility as key reputational dimensions, the authors test empirically for moderating influences, in the form of social axioms, between reputation-related antecedents and consequences, using component-based structural equation modelling (n = 204). In several model paths, significant differences are found between responses of individuals identified as either high or low on social cynicism, fate control and religiosity. The results suggest that stakeholder responses to reputation-related stimuli can be systematically predicted as a function of the interactions between the deeply held beliefs of individuals and these stimuli. The authors offer recommendations on how strategic reputation management can be approached within and across stakeholder groups at a time when firms grapple with effective management of diverse stakeholder expectations

International new ventures as "small multinationals": The importance of marketing capabilities

This paper explores how marketing capabilities contribute to the international expansion of international new ventures, and influence their choice of entry mode. The study examines how marketing capabilities help international new ventures to use entry modes involving higher resource commitment in international markets. The proposed model was tested on country-level data from Spain. The results show that marketing capabilities contribute to a firm's decision to choose entry modes involving higher resource commitment in foreign markets. The paper also includes insights on antecedents of international new ventures’ choice of entry modes in foreign markets

The Global/Local Product Attribute: Decomposition, Trivialization and Price Tradeoffs in Emerging and Developed Markets

Accelerating anti-globalization challenges previously undisputed assumptions about the importance of a product’s globalness/localness in purchase decisions. Putting these assumptions to test, we conceptualize globalness/localness as a distinct product attribute and decompose its utility into weight and preference components. Subsequently, we offer an equity-theory-based prediction of the attribute’s declining relevance and quantify its tradeoffs with other attributes by calculating global/local price premiums. Conjoint experiments in two countries (Austria-India) reveal that (1) emerging (developed) market consumers exhibit relative preference for global (local) products, (2) emerging market consumers perceive higher preference inequity between global and local products than developed market consumers, and (3) the corresponding inequity triggers consumers’ cognitive inequity regulation (manifested through attribute trivialization in developed markets) and behavioral inequity regulation (manifested through asymmetrical willingness to pay for global/local products across developed/emerging markets). We also find that attribute trivialization and price premium tolerance are moderated by consumers’ spatial identities and price segment. The findings contribute to the theoretical debate on the relevance of product globalness/localness in de-globalizing times and inform competitive strategy, segmentation-targeting-positioning, and international pricing decisions

Examining Trust in Consumers as New Food Co-Creators: Does the communicator matter?

Consumers increasingly fulfil the role of co-creators by collaborating with producers in new product development. Communicating that the product has been co-developed with consumers tends to positively influence consumer perceptions. However, research remains limited regarding who should communicate this information, particularly in the case of food products where consumer perceptions largely depend on the trust in the producer and product information. This paper examines the influence of co-creation information communicated by a company vs. by co-creators (i.e. co-creating consumers) on two dimensions of trust in consumers acting as new food co-creators: perceived honesty and perceived competence. Furthermore, it investigates how this effect is moderated by respondents’ familiarity with co-creation as an innovation process. Respondents were presented with the same new food product concept in an online experimental survey with consumers (n=697) divided into three experimental groups. One group served as the control group with no co-creation information provided. The other two groups were informed that the product was the result of a co-creation activity between the company and consumers, using two types of information communicator. In one group, the company communicated the information, whereas in the other group, it was communicated by the co-creators. Our findings suggest that who communicates the co-creation information matters if consumers are not familiar with co-creation. In this case, co-creators are more likely to facilitate general consumer trust in peer consumers as new food co-creators. This study provides valuable insights for food companies wanting to leverage the value of co-creation for innovation by selecting the information communicator depending on the level of co-creation familiarity in the target market