Resource Advantage Theory

ADVERTISINGThe Quarterly Review of Marketing Communications

International Journal of

Volume 29 Number 1 2010

ContentsEditorial: Towards stronger theory development in international 9 advertising research

Resource-advantage theory: a foundation for new insights into global 15 advertising researchDavid A. Griffith and Goksel Yalcinkaya

Global brand positioning and perceptions: international advertising 37 and global consumer cultureMelissa Archpru Akaka and Dana L. Alden

An integrated theory of global advertising: an application of the 57 GMS theoryShaoming Zou and Yong Z. Volz

The Hofstede model: applications to global branding and advertising 85 strategy and researchMarieke de Mooij and Geert Hofstede

Insights from Project GLOBE: extending global advertising research 111 through a contemporary frameworkRobert J. House, Narda R. Quigley and Mary Sully de Luque

Book reviews 141David M. Boush, Marian Friestad and Peter Wright – Deception in the Marketplace: The Psychology of Deceptive Persuasion and Consumer Self-ProtectionGavin Jack

Ian Leslie – To be President: Quest for the White House 2008Richard Scullion

Ian Chaston – Boomer Marketing: Selling to a Recession Resistant MarketLeon Kreitzman

Ex Libris – Dominic Twose

The Advertising Association is not responsible for the opinions and data contained in the editorial or articles in this journal

© Advertising Association 2010

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INTERNATIONAL JOuRNAL OF ADVERTISING, 2010, 29(1)

Tim Ambler London Business School

Saravudh Anantachart Chulalongkorn university

Bradley Barnes university of Kent

Mickey Belch San Diego State university

Richard Beltramini Wayne State university

Eduordo Brioschi università Cattolica

Steven Burgess university of Cape Town, South Africa

Michael Capella Villanova university

Les Carlson university of Nebraska-Lincoln

Albert Caruana university of Malta

Paulo Catalfomo university of Turin

Chingching Chang National Chengchi university

Dae Ryun Chang Yonsei university

Bettina Cornwell university of Michigan

Samuel Craig New York university

Steve Edwards Southern Methodist university

Richard Elliott university of Bath

Mike Ewing Monash university

Ron Faber university of Minnesota

Paul Farris university of Virginia

Maggie Geuens Ghent university

Louisa Ha Bowling Green State university

Chris Hackley Royal Holloway university of London

Flemming Hansen Copenhagen Business School

Jisu Huh university of Minnesota

Kineta Hung university of Hong Kong

John Philip Jones Syracuse university

Michael Kamins university of Southern California

Kiran Karande Old Dominion university

Jeremy Kees Villanova university

Rachel Kennedy Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, uni SA

Philip Kitchen Hull Business School

Eunju Ko Yonsei university

Rick Kolbe Kent State university

Scott Koslow university of Waikato

Arthur Kover Fordham and Yale universities

Dean Krugman university of Georgia

Hyokjin Kwak Drexel university

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

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CONTENTS

Russ Laczniak Iowa State university

Judie Lannon Market Leader

Doo Hee Lee Korea university

Hairong Li Michigan State university

May Lwin Nanyang Technological university

Edward Malthouse Northwestern university

Colin McDonald McDonald Research

Paul Michell Leeds university Business School

Agnes Nairn E.M. Lyon Business School

Peter Neijens university of Amsterdam

Michelle Nelson university of Illinois at urbana-Champaign

Shintaro Okazaki Autonomous university of Madrid

Hye-Jin Paek Michigan State university

Stan Paliwoda university of Strathclyde

Patrick de Pelsmacker university of Antwerp

Joseph Phelps university of Alabama

Barbara Phillips university of Saskatchewan

Leonard Reid university of Georgia

John Rossiter university of Wollongong

Herbert Rotfeld Auburn university

Julie Ruth Rutgers School of Business–Camden

Marko Sarstedt Ludwig Maximillians university

Sheila Sasser Eastern Michigan university

Don Schultz Northwestern university

Manfred Schwaiger Ludwig Maximillians university

John Scriven South Bank university

Janas Sinclair university of North Carolina

David Stewart university of California, Riverside

Max Sutherland Bond university

Ralf Terlutter university of Klagenfurt

Mike Waterson The Advertising Association

Douglas West Birmingham Business School

Gary Wilcox university of Texas at Austin

Seounmi YounEmerson College

Brian Young university of Exeter

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ABSTRACTS

Resource-advantage theory: a foundation for new 15 insights into global advertising researchDavid A. Griffith and Goksel Yalcinkaya

This study presents resource-advantage theory as a theoretical foundation for advancing theory development in global advertising research. Resource-advantage theory argues that the value of a resource to a firm is seen in terms of its potential to yield competitive differentiation and/or customer value delivery that enhances performance outcomes (Hunt 2000). We believe that resource-advantage theory’s underlying focus on resources, and their utilisation by a firm, can provide new insights to many of the challenging issues global advertising research faces. Whether these issues are at the firm/inter-firm level – such as understanding the coordination of the global advertising research process, effectively managing agency relationships, and so on; at the comparative level in understanding cross-national issues; as well as at the individual level – for example, the intangible elements of the firm/agency embedded within the firm’s/agency’s personnel within a structured theoretical frame. Implications for global advertising research are presented.

Global brand positioning and perceptions: international 37 advertising and global consumer cultureMelissa Archpru Akaka and Dana L. Alden

Global consumer culture is recognised as a collection of common signs and symbols (e.g. brands) that are understood by significant numbers of consumers in urban markets around the world. International advertising is a powerful driving force of this evolving phenomenon. However, scholars have suggested that more comprehensive theoretical frameworks are needed to better understand international advertising in the global environment. Global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) and perceived brand globalness (PBG) represent two important constructs for studying international advertising in the context of global consumer culture. This review of GCCP and PBG highlights their past application and future potential for advancing international advertising theory, research and application. It also sheds light on the long-standing standardisation versus adaptation debate.

ABSTRACTS

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An integrated theory of global advertising: an application 57 of the GMS theoryShaoming Zou and Yong Z. Volz

Although there has been an increasing interest in global advertising research, the literature suffers from the lack of a broad theoretical foundation that could guide conceptualisation and theory development in global advertising research. In this paper, the author contends that the GMS theory developed by Zou and Cavusgil (2002) can serve as a broad theoretical foundation for global advertising research. GMS theory is described, and used to develop a new conceptualisation of global advertising and propose a theoretical framework of global advertising. The implications of the framework for future research are also discussed.

The Hofstede model: applications to global branding and 85 advertising strategy and researchMarieke de Mooij and Geert Hofstede

Recent years have seen increasing interest in the consequences of culture for global marketing and advertising. Many recent studies point at the necessity of adapting branding and advertising strategies to the culture of the consumer. In order to understand cultural differences, several models have been developed of which the Hofstede model is the most used. This article describes elements of this model that are most relevant to branding and advertising, and reviews studies that have used the model for aspects of international branding and for advertising research. It provides some cautious remarks about applying the model. Suggestions for more cross-cultural research are added.

Insights from Project GLOBE: extending global 111 advertising research through a contemporary frameworkRobert J. House, Narda R. Quigley and Mary Sully de Luque

Numerous calls have been made for further application of the Project GLOBE cultural framework (cf. House et al. 2004) in the global advertising literature (e.g. Terlutter et al. 2006; Okazaki & Mueller 2007; Diehl et al. 2008b). Similarly, we argue that the present literature could benefit from greater inclusion of the cross-cultural theoretical framework and empirical findings from the GLOBE study to understand societal-level cultural variability between and among consumers across the world. This paper introduces and explores the major findings of the GLOBE study, then reviews the extant advertising literature that has incorporated aspects of GLOBE. Additionally, further application of the GLOBE framework is suggested that may help advance the advertising discipline. Five broad research questions are developed that are intended to guide future global advertising research.

AEJMC Advertising Division Call for Papers2010 AEJMC Convention

Denver, Colorado, USA, August 4–7

The AEJMC Advertising Division invites submissions of original papers that clearly

focus on some aspect of advertising or advertising education. All theoretical orien-

tations and methodological approaches are welcome. Individual paper submissions

should not exceed 30 pages (including references, tables, and figures) and should

be submitted to only one competitive paper category in the Advertising Division:

1) Advertising Research, 2) Advertising Teaching, 3) Professional Freedom &

Responsibility, 4) Special Topics, and 5) Student Papers.

All papers must be submitted through the All-Academic Web Site at http://www.

allacademic.com/one/aejmc/aejmc10/ to a paper competition appropriate to the

paper’s topic.

The paper must be uploaded to the server no later than 11:59 P.M. (Central

Daylight Time), Thursday, April 1, 2010. For full instructions visit http://www.

aejmc.org/_10call.php

1) Advertising Research Papers

Submissions should be consistent with the style and format of Journalism & Mass

Communication Quarterly or the Journal of Advertising. A cash award of the division

will be given during the convention to each of the top three papers in this com-

petition. A cash award ($300) sponsored by the International Journal of Advertising

will be also given to the first-place research paper. For questions, please contact

Jay Newell, Research Paper Chair, Iowa State university. E-mail: newelljj@iastate.

edu. Tel: 1-(515)-294-3445.

2) Advertising Teaching Papers

This competition invites research papers on teaching, rather than teaching tips

or personal reflections. The style and format of the paper should conform to those

in the Journal of Advertising Education or Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

For questions, please contact Cynthia Morton, Teaching Paper Chair, university of

Florida. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: 1-(352)-392-8841.

3) Advertising Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) Papers

Often referred to as the conscience of AEJMC, the goal of PF&R papers is to

extend knowledge about gender, race, ethics, social, and cultural influences; val-

ues; and free expression. Submissions may take the form of traditional research

papers, but essays or critical analyses are also welcome. Historical as well as con-

temporary topics are appropriate. For questions, please contact Craig Davis, PF&R

Paper Chair, Ohio university. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: 1-(740)-593-2605.

4) Advertising Special Topics Papers

This competition is the place for pioneering subjects, methods, and presentations.

Approaches such as case histories, ethnographies, critical studies, visual essays, and

methods as yet unknown are all welcome. For questions, please contact Frauke

Hachtmann, Special Topics Paper Chair, university of Nebraska-Lincoln. E-mail:

[email protected]. Tel: 1-(402)-472-9848.

5) Advertising Student Papers

Graduate and undergraduate students are invited to submit original research deal-

ing with any advertising-related topic. All sole- or co-authors of these papers must be students; papers co-authored by students and faculty should be submitted to the Research Paper competition. The style and format of the

paper should conform to those in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly or the

Journal of Advertising. A cash award of the division and a cash award ($200) spon-

sored by the International Journal of Advertising will be given during the convention

to the top student paper. For questions, please contact Scott Hamula, Student

Paper Chair, Ithaca College. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: 1-(607)-274-1034.

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a non-profit, educational association of journalism and mass communication faculty,

administrators, students, and media professionals. For full paper call of the AEJMC

Advertising Division visit http://www.aejmc.org/_events/convention/papercall/divisions.php

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International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), pp. 9–14 © 2010 Advertising Association Published by Warc, www.warc.comDOI: 10.2501/S0265048709201002

Editorial: Towards stronger theory

development in international advertising research

Charles R. TaylorVillanova University

Introduction

Leading scholars with an interest in cross-cultural advertising research have long lamented the application of strong theoretical frameworks in this area. For example, in a review article appearing in Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Miracle (1984) observed that in addition to a lack of programmatic research being conducted, advances in knowledge of global advertising practices were being limited by the studies being conducted being largely descriptive, as opposed to theoretically based. Miracle particularly noted a paucity of studies that built on other studies, and referred to international advertising research as being underdeveloped.

In a subsequent review of progress in global advertising also published in Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Moriarty and Duncan (1991) also concluded that much more progress needed to be made in global advertis-ing research. The authors stressed that too much was being made of a debate between standardisation vs local adaptation as opposed to viewing global vs local advertising as a continuum. They called for more research on cultural con-vergence and its impact, as well as a stronger understanding of global brands. Notably, Moriarty and Duncan did not cite significant theoretical advances that had been made over the previous decade.

In introducing a special issue of the Journal of Advertising in international advertising, Zinkhan (1994) noted that much international advertising research remained descriptive and that content analysis was the single most used meth-odology. In posing research questions to guide further research, Zinkhan did not provide directions for building theory in the future, perhaps because of a lack of

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such applications to this point. He did, however, cite Geert Hofstede’s (1980) work on dimensions of culture as providing a useful framework for studying international advertising.

Indeed, the Hofstede dimensions have proven to represent an important breakthrough and have been employed by many studies, including several very recent ones (e.g. Bu et al. 2009; Kwak et al. 2009; Li et al. 2009) and helped to provide considerable insight. Still, there have been many subsequent discussions of the limitations of applying cultural dimensions alone as a conceptual basis for international advertising research.

In an article in the Journal of Advertising Research, Taylor (2002) cited the need for more theoretical advances in international advertising research, particularly as applied to the issue of standardisation and global marketing. In a broader article reviewing progress in international advertising research, Taylor (2005) pointed out that, while more scholars were studying international advertising than before and using a wider variety of methods and theories than in the past (c.f. Taylor & Johnson 2002), there was still a glaring need for more comprehensive theoretical models to be developed and tested empirically. Indeed, Taylor (2005) explicitly called for the application of stronger theoretical frameworks to a variety of adver-tising issues. Thanks to recent advances, the time is ripe for an acceleration of such issues and it is hoped that this issue will serve as an aid to cross-cultural advertising researchers in developing and applying theory to their work.

The goal of this issue is to examine how recent advances that have occurred in theory development in the marketing realm, as well as the further evolution of work on cultural dimensions, might be applied to research on global advertising. We are fortunate that several original authors of the theories, or those instrumen-tal to the application of the theories to marketing, have made contributions.

Recent advances in international marketing theory

In addition to the continued application and expansion of the use of cultural dimensions in international marketing studies, the past decade has seen signifi-cant advances in the development and application of theories that can be applied to international marketing issues. Key theoretical perspectives that have been evolving include global marketing strategy theory, resource advantage theory, global consumer culture theory and the related idea of global consumer culture positioning.

Resource-advantage (R-A) theory is drawn from the broader perspective of the resource-based view of the firm. R-A theory argues that a firm’s resources can be used to create value by allowing the firm to differentiate itself from competitors and simultaneously improve the value provided to consumers (Hunt 2000). As

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EDITORIAL: THEORY DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL AD RESEARCH

is effectively outlined by Griffith and Yalchinkaya in this issue, this perspective has the potential to provide deeper insights into global advertising practices and effectiveness by focusing on resource utilisation and its relationship to the effectiveness of several aspects of advertising that are ultimately related to the firm’s marketing performance and, in turn, overall performance. Indeed, the R-A perspective has already been applied to the broader domain of marketing (e.g. Griffith & Lusch 2007).

Some theorists argue that the trend towards globalisation has led to the existence of a global consumer culture that is characterised by greater ability to target global segments and consumers who have shared consumption values (Arnould & Thompson 2005). Indeed, global consumer culture theory (GCCT) has become a highly influential theory in the area of cross-cultural marketing in recent years. One important tenet of GCCT is its critique of researchers’ ‘insist-ence on contrasting national cultures’ along with what it characterises as simplis-tic cultural dimensions, such as individualism vs collectivism (Cayla & Arnould 2008, pp. 88). In fact, Cayla and Arnould (2008) suggest that branding is not a universal technique, arguing that it is instead a culturally based way of arranging the world that is complex and rooted in history, geography and societal issues. Building on Arnould and Thompson’s view of global consumer culture theory, Özsomer and Altaras (2008) argue that there are now two views of what consti-tutes a global brand, a traditional view and one rooted in GCCT. According to these authors, the first view is based on the marketing standardisation literature and cost savings, while the second is based on a consumer perceptions perspec-tive in which consumer perceptions of brand ‘globalness’ are paramount.

The idea of the importance of perceived brand globalness has been well developed by those researching global consumer culture positioning (e.g. Alden et al. 1999; Steenkamp et al. 2003). In particular, Alden et al. (1999) posited that, in the context of a global consumer culture, ‘global consumer culture position-ing’ (GCCP) will increasingly appeal to segments of consumers that cut across national boundaries. When a global consumer culture positioning strategy is used, the brand is defined as a symbol of an aspect of global culture.

Alden et al. (1999) contrasted GCCP with two other positioning techniques, namely local consumer culture positioning (LCCP) and foreign consumer culture positioning (FCCP). An LCCP makes efforts to link the brand to local consumer culture, and appeals to those who identify with local values and lifestyles, while FCCP, which to date has been used less frequently, intentionally associates the brand with a specific culture that is foreign to local residents. It is emphasised by Alden et al. (1999) that any of the three strategies could be standardised across the world. Still, the authors noted that as a global consumer culture evolves, GCCP may become more appealing. In this issue, Alden and Archpru provide an

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analysis of how GCCP and the idea of perceived brand globalness can be applied by future advertising researchers.

Global marketing strategy (GMS) theory (Zou & Cavusgil 2002) is another perspective that would appear to hold considerable promise in terms of its applicability to understanding cross-national advertising and promotion issues. Zou and Cavusgil (2002) outline eight dimensions of global marketing strategy: product standardisation, promotion standardisation, distribution standardisation, pricing standardisation, concentration of marketing activities, coordination of marketing activities, global market participation, and integration of competitive moves.

Of interest to advertising and promotion scholars is the degree to which using the same promotional approach effectively enhances company reputation. Conducting promotional programmes in multiple nations also involves two other GMS dimensions: global market participation and coordination of marketing ideas. Consistent with GMS theory, coordination of marketing activities refers to the degree to which a firm’s marketing practices across countries and cultures, such as promotions, are conducted in an interdependent manner. Thus, the theory predicts that firms coordinating their actions will achieve better perform-ance across important outcome measures, as will those who engage in global mar-ket participation. This perspective can be particularly useful in studying global advertising practices.

Okazaki et al. (2006) used GMS theory to examine the impact of standardised advertising strategy on the financial and strategic performance of Japanese and uS subsidiaries operating in the European union, and found the use of such a strategy to increase performance. In this issue, Zou and Volz provide several additional suggestions for the application of GMS theory to advertising.

Dimensions of culture

As alluded to earlier, while the application of frameworks for outlining key cul-tural differences and dimensions has faced some criticism, the application of this framework has, no doubt, provided some insight for managers as to some of the factors leading to differences in consumer response across cultures. To date, the Hofstede framework has been the most widely used framework and has been applied to a wide range of topics, including everything from website visuals in advertising to the use of nudity in advertising to the evolution of localised adver-tising appeals in Japanese vs uS advertising (Kirande et al. 2006; Nelson & Paek 2008; Okazaki & Mueller 2008).

A more recently developed framework for measuring cultural dimensions is the GLOBE study (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness

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EDITORIAL: THEORY DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL AD RESEARCH

Research Program) conducted by House et al. (2004). This study developed a set of nine cultural dimensions based on a survey of a very large number of subjects across more than 60 countries (Terlutter et al. 2006). It also made a dis-tinction between societal practices and societal values (House et al. 2004). Some researchers have already begun to apply the GLOBE dimensions in international advertising (e.g. Terlutter et al. 2006) and it is likely that we will see this for some time to come.

As the pros and cons of these methods of measuring cultural dimensions have been critiqued and debated elsewhere, the focus here is instead on the appropriate application of these dimensions to advertising issues. To this end, de Mooij and Hofstede, and House, Quigley and Sully de Luque, have contributed articles to this issue that discuss the appropriate application of these frameworks to advertising issues. Without doubt, these frameworks will remain influential and, over time, may make key contributions to the development of a generalised theory of the impact of culture on advertising.

References

Alden, D.L., Steenkamp, J. & Batra, R. (1999) Brand positioning through advertising in Asia, North America, and Europe: the role of global consumer culture. Journal of Marketing, 63(1), pp. 75–87.

Arnould, E.J. & Thompson, C.J. (2005) Consumer culture theory (CCT): twenty years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), pp. 868–892.

Bu, K., Kim, D. & Kim, S. (2009) Determinants of visual forms used in print advertising: a cross-cultural comparison. International Journal of Advertising, 28(1), pp. 13–47.

Cayla, J. & Arnould, E. (2008) Cultural approach to branding in the global market. Journal of International Marketing, 16(4), pp. 86–112.

Griffith, D.A. & Lusch, R.F. (2007) Getting marketers to invest in firm-specific capital. Journal of Marketing, 71(1), pp. 129–145.

Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W. & Gupta, V. (2004) Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Hunt, S.D. (2000) A General Theory of Competition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Kirande, K., Almurshidee, K.A. & Al-Olayan, F. (2006) Advertising standardisation in

culturally similar markets. Can we standardize all components? International Journal of Advertising, 25(4), pp. 489–512.

Kwak, H., Larsen Andras, T. & Zinkhan, G.M. (2009) Advertising to active viewers. Consumer attitudes in the uS and South Korea. International Journal of Advertising, 28(1), pp. 49–75.

Li, H., Li, A. & Zhao, S. (2009) Internet advertising strategy of multinationals in China. A cross-cultural analysis. International Journal of Advertising, 28(1), pp. 125–146.

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Miracle, G.E. (1984) An assessment of progress in research in international advertising. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 6(2), pp. 135–166.

Moriarty, S.E. & Duncan, T.R. (1991) Global advertising: issues and practices. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 13(1/2), pp. 313–341.

Nelson, M.R. & Paek, H. (2008) Nudity of female and male models in primetime TV advertising across seven countries. International Journal of Advertising, 27(5), pp. 715–744.

Okazaki, S. & Mueller, B. (2008) Evolution in the usage of localised appeals in Japanese and American print advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 27(5), pp. 771–798.

Okazaki, S., Taylor, C.R. & Zou, S. (2006) Advertising standardization’s positive impact on the bottom line: a model of when and how standardization improves financial and strategic performance. Journal of Advertising, 35 (Fall), pp. 17–33.

Özsomer, A. & Altaras, S. (2008) Global brand purchase likelihood: a critical synthesis and an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of International Marketing, 16(4), pp. 1–28.

Steenkamp, J., Batra, R. & Alden, D.A. (2003) How perceived brand globalness creates brand value. Journal of International Business Studies, 34(1), pp. 53–65.

Taylor, C.R. (2002) What is wrong with international advertising research? Journal of Advertising Research, 42(6), pp. 48–54.

Taylor, C.R. (2005) Moving international advertising research forward: a new research agenda. Journal of Advertising, 34(1), pp. 7–16.

Taylor, C.R. & Johnson, C. (2002) Standardized vs specialized international advertising campaigns: what we have learned from academic research in the 1990s. Advances in International Marketing, 12, pp. 45–66.

Terlutter, R., Diehl, S. & Mueller, B. (2006) The GLOBE study: applicability of a new typology of cultural dimensions for cross-cultural marketing and advertising research, in Diehl, S. & Terlutter, R. (eds) International Advertising and Communication: Current Insights and Empirical Findings. Wissenschaft, Wiesbaden, Germany: Galber Edition, pp. 419–438.

Zinkhan, G.M. (1994) International advertising: a research agenda. Journal of Advertising, 23(1), pp. 11–15.

Zou, S. & Cavusgil, S.T. (2002) The GMS: a broad conceptualization of global marketing strategy and its effect on firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 66(4), pp. 40–56.

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Resource-advantage theoryA foundation for new insights into global

advertising research

David A. GriffithMichigan State University

Goksel YalcinkayaUniversity of New Hampshire

This study presents resource-advantage theory as a theoretical foundation for advancing theory development in global advertising research. Resource-advantage theory argues that the value of a resource to a firm is seen in terms of its potential to yield competitive differentiation and/or cus-tomer value delivery that enhances performance outcomes (Hunt 2000). We believe that resource-advantage theory’s underlying focus on resources, and their utilisation by a firm, can provide new insights to many of the challenging issues global advertising research faces. Whether these issues are at the firm/inter-firm level – such as understanding the coordination of the global advertising research process, effectively managing agency relationships, and so on; at the comparative level in understanding cross-national issues; as well as at the individual level – for example, the intangible elements of the firm/agency embedded within the firm’s/agency’s personnel within a structured theoretical frame. Implications for global advertising research are presented.

Introduction

Theory has been a critical aspect of marketing, propelling the field forward (Alderson & Cox 1948; Bartels 1965; Hunt 2002; Wilkie & Moore 2003). Alderson (1965, p. 2) notes ‘The development of theory is the inevitable outcome of any concerted effort to improve practice.’ As such, it reasons that it is through the development and application of theory that practice can be improved. While many advances have been made in understand-ing the complexities involved in global advertising research (e.g. Green et al. 1975; Domzal & Kernan 1993; Greg 1994; Taylor et al. 1994; Chandra et al. 2002; Griffith et al. 2003; Reardon et al. 2006; Taylor & Okazaki 2006; Teng & Laroche 2006; Magnusson et al. 2009), concerns exist pertaining to the underlying employment of theory in these studies (e.g. Miracle

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1984; Taylor 2007). Specifically, Taylor (2007, p. 559) notes, ‘Perhaps the greatest obstacle to international advertising work appearing in the most prestigious journals is the perception that much work in the area has not been theoretically sophisticated.’ This study works to contribute to the literature by presenting resource-advantage theory as a potential theoreti-cal foundation for the investigation of specified areas of global advertising research. Thus, the current study works to address calls by Taylor (2007) and others (e.g. Miracle 1984) for the incorporation of stronger theoretical foundations for global advertising research.

Resource-advantage theory (R-A theory) views firms as combiners of heterogeneous and imperfectly mobile resources (Hunt & Morgan 1995; Hunt 2000). R-A theory argues that a firm’s portfolio of resources can mean ‘comparative advantage in resources’ leading to production at higher profits (Hunt 2000). Superior value is achieved when resources are deployed to provide a distinctive competency and relative sustained advantage (Day 1994; Hunt 2000; Grewal & Tansuhaj 2001). R-A theory posits that, through the process of competition, firms accumulate, develop and create resources that constitute an economy’s private-sector capital. In addition, R-A theory is conceptualised as firm operations within a larger societal system, therefore incorporating institutional elements (e.g., societal resources, societal institutions, actions of competitors and suppliers, behav-iours of consumers, and public policy decisions), and broadens the focus to national comparative systems, thus providing a theoretical framework for cross-national study. Furthermore, recent work (e.g., Griffith & Lusch 2007) employing R-A theory has extended the fundamental elements of R-A theory to the individual level (conceptualizing intangible resources as embedded within firm personnel). As such, the extension of R-A theory to the individual level may allow for a more fine-grained understanding of issues of advertising managers and their effectiveness. Drawing on R-A theory and its extensions, this article works to contribute to the global advertising research agenda by offering a series of examples of how R-A theory can provide a stronger theoretical foundation for the investigation of advertising issues at the firm, cross-national and individual levels.

To more fully examine the potential contribution R-A theory may present for global advertising research, we begin this work with a review of resource-advantage theory. Next, we demonstrate the application of the concepts of R-A theory to research areas in global advertising research,

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RESOuRCE-ADVANTAGE THEORY

providing a foundation for a research agenda at the firm, the comparative and individual levels. We conclude by discussing theory advancement in the field of global advertising research.

Theoretical background

Resource-advantage theory

Resource-advantage theory is a theory of competition advanced and applied within the marketing strategy literature (cf. Hunt & Morgan 1995; Hunt 2000; Hooley et al. 2005; Magnusson et al. 2009; Seggie & Griffith 2008), drawn from developed research traditions, e.g. Austrian econom-ics, transaction cost economics, industrial-organisational economics and the resource-based view of the firm. Specific to R-A theory are the ten-ets that: (1) demand is heterogeneous across industries, heterogeneous within industries and is dynamic; (2) consumer information is imperfect and costly; (3) human motivation is constrained self-interest seeking; (4) the firm’s objective is superior financial performance; (5) the firm’s information is imperfect and costly; (6) the firm’s resources are financial, physical, legal, human, organisational, informational and relational; (7) the firm’s resources are heterogeneous and imperfectly mobile; (8) the role of management is to recognise, understand, create, select, implement and modify strategies (which consist of allocations among resources); and (9) competitive dynamics are disequilibrium-provoking, with innovation being endogenous (cf. Hunt & Morgan 1995, 1996, 1997; Hunt 1999, 2000, 2002). under R-A theory, competitive advantage of the firm is derived from resource heterogeneity, deriving superior financial performance, ex post limits to competition – necessary to sustain superior financial per-formance – imperfect resource mobility, ensuring that superior financial performance is bound to the firm and shared by it, and ex ante limits to competition, preventing costs from offsetting superior financial perform-ance (Amit & Schoemaker 1993; Peteraf 1993).

R-A theory argues that firm resources are leveraged to provide for com-petitive advantage resulting in superior financial performance (Hunt & Morgan 1995; Hunt 2000; Hughes & Morgan 2007).1 R-A theory draws

1 This approach is consistent with Day (1994), who argues that business assets provide the foundation for capabilities of the business that ultimately influence performance outcomes.

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on the resource-based view of the firm (cf. Wernerfelt 1984; Barney 1991; Peteraf 1993), and indicates that resources are the ‘tangible and intangible entities available to the firm that enable it to produce efficiently and/or effectively a market offering that has value for market segment(s)’ (Hunt 2000, p. 11). More of note to theory advancement, is that, unlike the resource-based view of the firm, R-A theory categorises and specifically identifies seven specific resource categories, i.e., financial, human, organi-sational, physical, relational, informational, and legal. These resources can be further decomposed into tangible and intangible.

Tangible resources include financial, physical and legal resources. Financial resources are defined as the current and potential cash resources of the firm, inclusive of access to the financial markets, cost of capital, etc. (Hunt 2000). Financial resources play a key role in the firm’s ability to expand into new markets and develop new product or service initiatives (Johanson & Vahlne 1977; Aaby & Slater 1989; Bonaccorsi 1992; Li & Li 2008). Therefore, financial resources allow a firm to capitalise on market opportunities and thus enhance its overall strategic position. Further, financial resources allow a firm a strong competitive posture against threats, such as heightened price competition or negative economic cycles, thus allowing the firm continued performance success (Hunt 2000). Physical resources refer to the buildings, the raw materials and any equipment that the firm owns or can access, etc. (Hunt 2000). Physical resources play a key role in interactions with customers/clients as they provide the context of the interaction. Legal resources available to a firm include trademarks, licences, etc. Through these resources firms are parameterised as to some aspects of their behaviour (Hunt 2000). By definition these legal resources determine the ability of the firm to protect competitive aspects of the firm’s offering. Legal resources may vary for the firm as it moves from market to market, as the legal protections afforded or established in one market may not be legally binding in all countries in the world.

Intangible resources include human, organisational, informational and relational resources. Human resources refer to the skills and knowledge of the firm’s employees (Hunt 2000; Hitt et al. 2001). Human resources are often referred to as the most important, as these resources are action orientated in that they stimulate the use of other resources (Magnusson et al. 2009; Roth, Jayachandran, Dakhli & Colton 2009). Relational resources include the firm’s stock of relationships with such entities as customers,

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suppliers, competitors, unions, governments, etc. (Hunt 2000). A relation-ship can be a resource only when it makes some sort of contribution to the value offering to a segment the firm is targeting (Berry 1995; Griffith et al. 2006; Palmatier et al. 2006; Lee, Chen & Lu 2009). Organisational resources include the firm’s policies, cultural routines and competences (Hunt 2000). These resources include marketing competency, learning capabilities, research and development capabilities (e.g. Teece et al. 1997; Kropp et al. 2006; Johnson, Yin & Tsai 2009). Informational resources include a firm’s information regarding its own products, production proc-esses and customers, and those of its competitors (Hunt 2000). The firm will invest in market research, technical research and development, and competitor intelligence to improve its stock of informational capital resources (Kropp et al. 2006).

Hunt and Morgan (1995, p. 7) indicate that ‘a comparative advantage in resources exists when a firm’s resource assortment (e.g. its competencies) enables it to produce a market offering that, relative to extant offerings by competitors, (1) is perceived by some market segments to have superior value and/or (2) can be produced at lower costs’. Through the develop-ment and leveraging of heterogeneous and imperfectly mobile resources, firms are argued to be able to achieve competitive advantage through greater effectiveness and efficiency. Thus, the value of a resource is seen not in its possession, but in terms of its potential to yield competitive dif-ferentiation and/or customer value delivery.

Value is maximised for the firm when resource deployment provides a distinctive competency and relative sustained advantage (Day 1994; Hunt 2000; Hughes & Morgan 2007). Hunt and Morgan (1995, p. 7) argue that ‘a comparative advantage in resources, then, can translate into a competitive advantage in the marketplace and superior financial performance’. Thus, superior financial performance implies that firms seek a level of financial performance that exceeds that of its referents, often its closest competitors (Hunt & Morgan 1995).

While the R-A theory addresses the firm’s resource employment for competitive advantage, it is important to note that R-A theory conceptu-alises the firm as operating within a larger environment (Hunt & Morgan 1996; Hunt 2000), inclusive of societal resources, societal institutions, actions of competitors and suppliers, behaviours of consumers, and public policy decisions. For example, Hunt (2000, p. 205) argues that R-A theory

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‘contributes to explaining the superior productivity of market-based eco-nomic over command economies’. Building on this, it can be argued that, at a cross-national level, differences in R-A theory external influencing factors create unique contexts for resource deployment effectiveness, enhancing our understanding of cross-national issues. Furthermore, and more of note to this application to global advertising research, R-A theory provides a foundation for understanding the firm’s embeddedness in society and allows for cross-market and cross-national applications, most notably due to differentiations across nations in regard to customers, com-petitors, public policy and societal resources and institutions.

In addition, researchers have begun to apply R-A theory at the indi-vidual level (e.g. Griffith & Lusch 2007). Specifically, Griffith and Lusch (2007) indicate that intangible resources of the firm are, to a degree, embodied within the employees of the firm and are only firm resources to the degree to which the firm aggregates the resources embodied within employees. For example, R-A theory contends that a key firm resource is business skills and experience. However, business skills and experience are resident in firm employees, not the firm itself. As such, the study of resources (most notably intangible resources) embedded within employ-ees, within the theoretical framework of R-A theory, provides a rich theo-retical framework to examine global advertising research issues pertaining to advertising personnel, e.g., what intangible resources make global advertising managers effective.

Taken together, we believe that resource-advantage theory’s focus on resources, and their utilisation by a firm, can provide new insights to many of the challenging issues global advertising research faces both at the firm/inter-firm level, comparative level and individual level, within a structured theoretical frame. In the next section, we specify how resource-advantage theory can be employed within extant literature streams to provide for more theoretically founded insights.

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Advancing global advertising research: an agenda for resource-advantage theory’s application

Firm-level resource-advantage theory global advertising research applications

Resource-advantage theory views firms as combiners of heterogeneous and imperfectly mobile resources leading to competitive differentiation and/or customer value delivery that enhances performance (Hunt 2000). A central area of the global advertising agenda over the past few decades has been the role of the firm in developing effective global advertising efforts, whether in isolation or with partners, such as agencies (Taylor 2005). R-A theory offers a structured manner of investigating this area. Specifically, we note R-A theory’s applications in a number of different firm-level research streams.

First, R-A theory can serve as a basis for understanding resource foun-dations for establishing competitive positions. Magnusson et al. (2009) examine multinational advertising agencies and the resources employable in enhancing performance. By Magnusson et al. (2009) employing R-A theory they provide fine-grained insights into both the specific resource categories that multinational advertising agencies can draw from, as well as how these resources can provide a foundation for competitive positioning. R-A theory allows for the incorporation of not only internally theoretically specified resources (e.g. revenues as a measure of financial resources and experience as a measure of human resources), but also environmental cat-egories that would influence resource conversion into competitive position and ultimately financial performance. As such, R-A theory provides for an overarching framework from which pre-specified categories of resources and external influences could be drawn, thereby providing stronger theo-retical rationale for construct selection in model development than many other theories. Advances to the Magnusson et al. (2009) work can be made by explicating a broader set of R-A theory elements within models of glo-bal advertising research.

Second, a great deal of global advertising research has focused on the issue of standardisation/adaptation (e.g. Green et al. 1975; Greg 1994; Chandra et al. 2002; Griffith et al. 2003; Taylor & Okazaki 2006; Okazaki et al. 2007), albeit much without a strong theoretical foundation (Ryans &

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Griffith 2003). For example, Griffith et al. (2003) argue that process stand-ardisation directly and positively influences advertising message stand-ardisation and packaging standardisation. However, this work presents a theoretically unstructured set of antecedents of promotion standardisa-tion. Employing R-A theory, a more structured theoretical frame could be used that would not only strengthen the causal mechanisms underlying the specified relationships but provide for a more complete theoretically justifiable model. For example, process standardisation represents just one (i.e. organisational capital) of the seven resources R-A theory identi-fies. By incorporating the other six resource elements, a more compre-hensive model could be offered within the literature. Further, and more importantly, rather than simply focusing on whether process standardisa-tion leads to advertising standardisation, under R-A theory, the key out-come variable becomes competitive positioning, which, in this case, would provide an effectiveness measure.

Third, R-A theory can provide a structured manner of examining the management of agency/client relationships, an area that has been a central element of global advertising research (Kaynak et al. 1994; Hanni et al. 1995; Henke 1995; Sanford & Maddox 1999; Na & Marshall 2001; Prendergast et al. 2001). R-A theory focuses on the individual firm. However, researchers have demonstrated that idiosyncratic inter-firm linkages can be a source of competitive advantage (Dyer & Singh 1998; Griffth, Myers & Harvey 2006), through employing unique combinations of resources across firms. Expanding R-A theory to inter-firm linkages allows for the investigation of the structuring and utilisation of resource combinations across inter-firm relationships. For example, employing the seven capital elements of R-A theory, researchers could investigate the dispersion of tangible and intan-gible resources across agency/client linkages that provide for competitive advantage, also exploring the interaction across elements. In addition, R-A theory recognises that societal institutions, such as laws, customs, tradi-tions and moral codes, produce order by structuring political, economic and social interaction (Hunt 2000). The kind of order produced by societal institutions enables agencies to work closely with advertisers and effec-tively overcome challenges as a result of operating in multiple countries with different cultural and social environments.

Fourth, R-A theory can provide a framework for examining comparative advantage as a frame for research focused on global advertising effective-

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ness (e.g. Green et al. 1975). A fundamental element of R-A theory is that the role of management is to recognise, understand, create, select, imple-ment and modify strategies (consisting of allocations among resources) focused on creating competitive dynamics that are disequilibrium- provoking (cf. Hunt & Morgan 1995, 1996, 1997; Hunt 1999, 2000, 2001). Nowhere is this more applicable than in the study of global advertising effectiveness. While often global advertising effectiveness is viewed in relation to single stimulus-response elements, the employment of R-A theory provides the opportunity to broaden and deepen our understanding of global advertising effectiveness by exploring the competitive dynam-ics of individual advertising executions under competitive conditions. Furthermore, under R-A theory, what is really important is the firm’s ability to develop core competencies that are so embedded in the firm that they are causally ambiguous, inimitable, not transferable, not eas-ily substitutable, and important to specific customer segments. This is the key aspect of sustainable competitive advantage, and brings together dimensions such as the learning organisation, market orientation and firm culture/climate. As a result of this process, global advertising managers are able to systematically collect market intelligence in regard to the firm’s advertising decisions, which in turn improves their ability to better under-stand current trends, assess and track competitors’ actions, provide early warning of opportunities and threats, and ultimately improve strategic decision making (i.e. global advertising effectiveness).

Fifth, R-A theory proposes that firms learn through competition as a result of the feedback loop from relative financial performance (Hunt 2000). As one firm’s comparative advantage in resources enables it to realise superior performance through a position of competitive advantage in some market segments, competitors attempt to offset and/or surpass the advantaged firm (or firms) by acquiring the resource and/or reactive innovation. Reactive innovation includes imitating the resource, finding (creating) an equivalent resource, or finding (creating) a superior resource and is endogenous to R-A theory. This constant reactive innovation aspect of R-A theory enables global advertising managers not only to stay current with market changes/challenges but also to learn from other firms’ tactics and techniques.

These applications of R-A theory to research in global advertising demonstrate the potential of R-A theory in strengthening the underlying

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theoretical foundation for existing streams of global advertising research as well as for the development of new research. While the areas highlighted hold promise for understanding issues associated with the firm and its relationships in global advertising – an area of significant prior research investigation (Zou 2005) – these are just a few of the areas to which R-A theory could be applied.

Comparative-level resource-advantage theory global advertising research applications

R-A theory contextualises firm resource employment for comparative advantage within the larger societal context inclusive of customers, com-petitors, public policy, and societal resources and institutions. This is con-sistent with the environmental analysis approach used in the international marketing literature (cf. Cavusgil, Deligonul & Yaprak 2005) and is par-ticularly relevant to global advertising research as it provides a theoretical foundation from which to draw in the identification of factors moderat-ing advertising effects across markets, a key aspect of global advertising research in the past (Taylor 2005; Zou 2005). Specifically, we draw upon the public policy, social resources and institutions approach of R-A theory in this work to discuss R-A theory’s application to key global advertising research areas.

First, the issue of advertising effectiveness across markets has been a central theme of global advertising research (e.g. Taylor et al. 1994; Okazaki et al. 2007). This research is closely related to the issue of adver-tising standardisation/adaptation. As R-A theory works to explore resource conversion to competitive advantage, a question becomes whether the resource employment for global advertising effectiveness in one institu-tional context is applicable in another institutional context. underlying this issue has been one of understanding cross-national differences. Okazaki et al. (2007) recently employed institutional theory to understand influences on market convergence. This is aligned with the social institu-tional elements under R-A theory, which would imply consistent resource employment effects in similar institutional conditions. Alternatively, where social institutions differ, the platform for advertising standardisa-tion across markets would be challenged. For example, Goerzen and Beamish (2003) and Dow and Larimo (2009) argue that when the degree

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of dissimilarity in institutional environments increases, it is more dif-ficult to understand the required collection of operations and responses appropriate to local demands. This makes it harder for advertisers operat-ing in different parts of the world to choose and implement the optimal mix of integrated marketing communications (IMC). However, Dow and Larimo (2009) indicate that experience gained in one environment may be effectively transferred to like environments, thus adding a complexity to IMC transferability. As such, the study of the exogenous factors to the resource-competitive advantage-financial performance model could be more fully explored under the more encompassing R-A theory framework (where like environments are compared and contrasted with unlike envi-ronments) in order to provide for greater understanding with regard to the optimal mix of IMC components.

Second, the investigation of social resources and institutions that cre-ate divergence across markets has been a hallmark of global advertis-ing research (e.g. Taylor et al. 1994; Cheng & Sweitzer 1996; Aaker & Williams 1998; Reardon et al., 2006; Bu et al. 2009). While studies have demonstrated unique cultural differences, only limited theoretical insights have been gained beyond those attributed to culture research such as Hofstede’s or Hall’s (e.g., Lam, et al. 2009), such as giving limited theo-retical insights into how these specific social resources and institutions influence the underlying firm model of resource employment (cf. Down & Larimo 2009). Here we contend that greater understanding of the influence of social resource and institutional effects could be gained by examining either their direct effect on capital accumulation by the firm, or the influence of these elements as moderators on the conversion and combination of capital elements to competitive advantage.

Third, R-A theory’s focus on public policy provides a theoretical context as an exogenous factor of firm advertising effectiveness in global markets. Researchers of global advertising have specifically examined compara-tive advertising as influenced by public policy differences across markets (Boddewyn 1985; Calfee 2002; Petty 2003). For example, Calfee (2002) notes that advertising cost increases due to the need to adapt to local market regulatory issues (regulatory issues set for a nation’s public policy). Here, R-A theory can contribute to the advancement of research in this area. For instance, Reardon et al. (2006) explored cross-cultural differences in response to anti-smoking messages. While this provided new insights,

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researchers could study the interaction effect of culture and public policy (as each market employs a differing public policy stance on issues such as smoking) on the resource-competitive advantage-financial performance relationship. Given the importance of public policy to global advertising (e.g. Gao (2008) examined China’s public policy response to deceptive advertising) when examining cross-market regulatory issues, one could contend a heightened importance of the relationship of a firm’s legal resources to its competitive advantage.

Fourth, a central issue of global advertising is local versus global compe-tition – explored from resource utilisation, i.e. do local firms have greater relational and informational resources for the local market? Researchers contend that a firm’s resources can extend beyond the firm’s boundaries via inter-firm linkages, bringing forth market-based resources (Srivastava et al. 1998; Griffith & Harvey 2001). R-A theory allows for the examina-tion of this via the study of the market-specific resources. For example, informational capital provides for unique market knowledge relating to the firm’s advertising to its ability to be effective within the competitive market to the local consumer. Furthermore, relational capital, if leveraged, can provide the critical linkage between customers, the firm and adver-tising agencies. The comparison of global versus local competition need not be restricted to the MNC vs local firm level, but can extend to the structuring of global advertising agencies (similar to research examining subsidiary knowledge flows to MNCs (e.g. Roth et al. 2009)). Through the employment of R-A theory, researchers can gain a better understanding of the capital foundation of firms (local vs global) and their individual abili-ties to create disequilibrium within the local market context.

As noted by these applications, R-A theory provides theoretically derived insights into comparative aspects of global advertising research. This is of particular note as Zou (2005) found that comparative research is one of the most frequently investigated areas of global advertising, and Taylor (2007) commented that the comparative aspects are some of the weakest theo-retically (with heavy emphasis on cultural distance – a construct that has come in for much criticism over the last decade (Shenkar 2001; Tihanyi et al. 2005; Dow & Larimo 2009)). The application of R-A theory pre-sented here, in reference to key areas of prior global advertising research, demonstrates the potential that R-A theory could provide for advancing theory and practice in the area. It is important to note that these are just a

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few of the areas related to comparative advertising research to which R-A theory could be applied.

Individual-level resource-advantage theory global advertising research applications

R-A theory is founded on tangible and intangible resources. Intangible resources are embodied, to some extent, within the personnel of the firm (Griffith & Lusch 2007; Magnusson et al. 2009). The extension of R-A theory to the individual level provides new manners of conceptualising where within the firm competitive advantage derives. As such, follow-ing this literature direction, we contend that this approach may be useful for the investigation of a number of important research topics in global advertising.

First, although much research focuses on the effectiveness of advertis-ing in a global context, this research focuses on the ability of the firm. However, effective global advertising is developed and executed at a micro-level by the individual global advertising managers who develop and execute global advertising (Roman 2009). Employing R-A theory at the individual global advertising manager level would allow for the examination of what intangible resources are important for an effective global advertising manager. For example, R-A theory stipulates human, organisational, informational and relational intangible capital elements (Griffith & Lusch 2007). Following this decomposition, researchers can work to delineate the specific intangible capital elements allowing global advertising managers to establish a comparative advantage (e.g. advertis-ing effectiveness). For example, human capital can produce increased efficiency due to the integration of tacit knowledge as well as increased effectiveness resulting from leveraging of the learning curve related to current market dynamics. Relational capital can provide opportunities for a global advertising manager to build strong ties with customers, suppli-ers, government agencies, unions and other intermediaries to better track changes in the environment. Likewise, informational capital yields valu-able insights not only about changing trends but also with regard to new executional techniques. Differences in a firm’s organisational capital (e.g. reputation, routines, culture) may require a global advertising manager to execute local adaptation over standardisation across markets. Therefore,

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this stream of research is particularly important as it not only allows for the theoretical advancement of the individual-level knowledge of the global advertising manager, but also furthers the practice of global advertising as it provides for the specification of skills to enhance practice (and can be formalised within global advertising education).

Second, global advertising occurs in global markets, whether via agency–client relationships or as part of the MNC. While global adver-tising is developed and executed in multiple markets, it is important to understand the contextual constraints on individual-level intangible resources, thus working to answer the question of whether the intangible resources of an advertising manager are universal. To examine this issue, a cross-national examination of the individual capital element drivers of advertising manager effectiveness (i.e. the competitive advantage of individual advertising managers) could be examined. Hunt (2000) argues for the application of R-A theory across market-based economies. As such, researchers could explore the consistency of intangible capi-tal drivers on effectiveness. This is of particular interest as researchers explore the unique aspects of advertising deriving from MNCs from newly industrialising countries (e.g. Cho et al. 1994). Further, expan-sion of this model to the emerging market context could provide further clarity, both theoretical and empirical, to the underlying R-A theoretical model.

Third, a derivative of the cross-national approach is to view advertising personnel in terms of the market from which they emanate as well as the market in which they operate (e.g. expat versus local advertising manag-ers), a neglected area of global advertising research (Choi et al. 2002). This issue becomes increasingly important, as MNCs as well as advertising agencies are increasingly employing multiple combinations of expats and locals within individual market locations on project teams. This context may be particularly useful for understanding the development of the intangible capital elements of advertising managers in a global context thereby providing researchers with an opportunity to more clearly under-stand the external drivers of R-A theory (e.g. social institutions, custom-ers) on the formation, development and evolution of intangible capital. Further, through the longitudinal study of the formation, development and evolution of intangible capital, scholars can gain a greater understand-ing of the process by which capital accumulated by an advertising manager

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provides the appropriate combinations to establish a competitive advan-tage within and across markets.

Fourth, building on the intangible capital elements of R-A theory advanced in the previous idea, we could advance our understanding of glo-bal advertising research from a long-term competitive MNC/agency stand-point via the exposition of intangible capital mobility. Specifically, Griffith and Lusch (2007) argue that intangible capital elements vary in their degree of transferability. Building on this facet of R-A theory’s extension to the individual level, a stream of research could develop by examining a firm’s ability to retain less easily transferable capital elements embodied within their advertising personnel, leading to individual global advertising effectiveness, and build upon the R-A theory element of minimisation of capital mobility for competitive advantage. Research in this area could therefore provide evidence of why specific advertising personnel, when locked in to specific firms/agencies, provide a foundation for long-term competitiveness.

These applications demonstrate the potential for R-A theory, when con-ceptualised at the individual level, to provide new insights into research in global advertising. Given the topics at the individual level, these research fronts not only serve academics but also have the potential to provide insights for practitioners of global advertising. These are but a limited set of opportunities available to researchers via the application of R-A theory at the individual level for gaining depth of understanding of the complexi-ties of those executing global advertising.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the growing global advertis-ing research field by presenting a theoretical perspective to answer the recent call by Taylor (2007) for the incorporation of stronger theoreti-cal foundations for global advertising research. In this work, we present resource-advantage theory, which argues that the value of a resource to a firm is seen in terms of its potential to yield competitive differentia-tion and/or customer value delivery that enhance performance outcomes (Hunt 2000). We demonstrate that resource-advantage theory can provide new insights to many of the challenging issues global advertising research faces at the firm/inter-firm level, the comparative level and the individual

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level. Specifically, first, this article shows how R-A theory provides specific concepts and conceptual frameworks beyond those currently employed. These concepts and conceptual frameworks can assist global advertising managers in their efforts to understand and analyse strategic issues in glo-bal advertising. Second, many advertisers operate in multiple markets with different institutional and media environments. It is important to under-stand how agencies work with their clients (i.e. advertisers) to overcome such difficulties. At this point, R-A theory may offer insights into resource utilisation for effectively managing agency/client relationships. Third, under R-A theory, competitive processes are significantly influenced by five environmental factors, namely societal resources, societal institutions, actions of competitors and suppliers, behaviours of consumers and public policy decisions. These large-scale societal contextual elements provide detailed categories for examining factors influencing advertising effec-tiveness across markets as well as cross-national advertising differences. Fourth, one of the central issues of global advertising is standardisation versus local adaptation. Because R-A theory sees firms operating within the larger environment, a more comprehensive theoretical frame could be offered in regard to standardisation/adaptation since the degree of dif-ferences in social institutions would determine whether standardising (or adapting) advertising efforts across markets is appropriate.

Although this article has illustrated a number of direct applications of resource-advantage theory to global advertising research, it is important to note that additional applications are possible to numerous other streams of global advertising research, that the continual evolution of resource- advantage theory will present new opportunities for applications to emerg-ing research issues in global advertising and that R-A theory has substan-tial limitations that researchers should be aware of in its application (cf. Deligonul & Cavusgil 1997). It is our hope that researchers interested in global advertising will employ resource-advantage theory, or its elements, to provide a stronger theoretical foundation to research, thus providing for a better understanding of the complex relationships in global advertis-ing. Further, given the inherent linkage between theory and practice (cf. Alderson 1965), we hope that the application of resource-advantage theory can serve as a foundation for more effective global advertising practice.

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About the authors

David A. Griffith is the John William Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing at the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State university, where he also serves as Director of the PhD Programme. Professor Griffith’s research focuses on marketing strategy, inclusive of intra- and inter-organizational governance, the influence of culture and institutional factors on international marketing strategy execution, and decision-making of marketing managers. He also studies the scientific development of the field of marketing. His research has been pub-lished in numerous journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Retailing. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief (2008–2013) of the American Marketing Association’s Journal of International Marketing, on the editorial review boards of the Journal of World Business, International Marketing Review and the Journal of Global Academy of Marketing Science, and as a member of the Board of Directors of both the American Marketing Association’s Global Marketing Special Interest Group and the Korean Academy of Marketing Science.

Goksel Yalcinkaya is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the university of New Hampshire. Professor Yalcinkaya’s research focuses on new product development, inno-vation and diffusion and international marketing strategy. His research has been published in a number of academic outlets, inclusive of the Journal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review and the Asian Pacific Journal of Management. He currently serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of International Marketing and as an ad hoc reviewer

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for a number of journals in the areas of innovation, international marketing and marketing strategy.

Address correspondence to: David A. Griffith, The John William Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing, The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State university, Department of Marketing, N370 North Business Complex, Eli Broad College of Business, East Lansing, MI 48824-1122.

Email: [email protected]

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Global brand positioning and perceptions

International advertising and global consumer culture

Melissa Archpru Akaka and Dana L. AldenShidler College of Business, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Global consumer culture is recognised as a collection of common signs and symbols (e.g. brands) that are understood by significant numbers of consumers in urban markets around the world. International advertising is a powerful driving force of this evolving phenom-enon. However, scholars have suggested that more comprehensive theoretical frameworks are needed to better understand international advertising in the global environment. Global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) and perceived brand globalness (PBG) represent two important constructs for studying international advertising in the context of global consumer culture. This review of GCCP and PBG highlights their past application and future potential for advancing international advertising theory, research and practice. It also sheds light on the long-standing standardisation versus adaptation debate.

Introduction

The process of economic globalisation may slow down during times of financial and social upheaval, but global movements of capital, labour and production will continue to grow over the long term (Townsend et al. 2009). Furthermore, while deep-seated cultural traditions and values do not appear to be converging, demand for global brands among certain segments remains strong. In addition, evidence supports the validity of acculturation to global consumer culture (AGCC; Cleveland & Laroche 2007) and the existence of the individual difference construct–global consumption orientation (GCO; Alden et al. 2006).

Alden et al. (1999) describe global consumer culture (GCC) as a set of consumption-related symbols and behaviours that are commonly under-

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stood but not necessarily shared by consumers and businesses around the world. GCC does not represent homogenisation as envisioned by some scholars (Levitt 1983); rather, it reflects the global diffusion of con-sumption signs and behaviours, predominantly from Western and Asian developed countries (e.g. hamburgers and sushi as fast food). Consumers understand GCC signs and behaviours but continuously rely on their own local meaning systems for interpretation, use and display.

Thus, GCC is a complex, evolving structure, comprising cultural simi-larities and differences, as well as global and local meanings, which is in a constant state of change (e.g. Appadurai 1990; Wilk 1995). This dynamic phenomenon is driven by the continuous transfer of cultural artefacts and their embedded meanings (McCracken 1986). Although various mediums of cultural transfer have been explored (e.g. ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, finanscapes and ideoscapes; Appadurai 1990), of par-ticular interest in this paper is the transfer of cultural signs via media – specifically, international advertising.

International advertising is recognised as a driving force of the transi-tioning global culture and an important means for studying cultural change (McCracken 1986; Mazarella 2003). Thus, international advertising is criti-cal in the investigation of GCC as it plays a key role in communicating and reflecting cultural symbols in a given culture at a specified point in time (McCracken 1986; Mazarella 2003). However, it has been suggested that in order to advance the understanding of phenomena associated with international advertising, more comprehensive and empirically tested theoretical models are needed (Taylor 2005).

To advance the development of such models, this paper reviews and inte-grates two theoretical constructs used for studying issues related to interna-tional advertising and GCC: global consumer culture positioning (GCCP; Alden et al. 1999) and perceived brand globalness (PBG; Steenkamp et al. 2003). These constructs are based on two perspectives that are critical for understanding the complexities of global consumer culture – specifically, that of the firm (GCCP) and that of the consumer (PBG). Considered together, GCCP and PBG provide a more comprehensive approach to understanding the relationship between international advertising and GCC than either the firm’s or the consumer’s perspective alone.

First, an overview of GCC is provided and its relationship to interna-tional advertising is highlighted. Next, GCCP and PBG are described and

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GLOBAL BRAND POSITIONING AND PERCEPTIONS

international advertising research that applies these constructs is exam-ined. Thereafter, the value of consumer perceptions of brand globalness is discussed. Special attention is paid to what this means for the standardisa-tion versus adaptation debate. Finally, the implications of GCCP and PBG are identified, and future directions for international advertising research are proposed.

Global consumer culture

As cultural meanings move about through interconnected pathways, such as technology and media (see Appadurai 1990), new cultures are created that are found within (e.g. local cultures) and span across (e.g. regional) the boundaries of traditionally studied national cultures (Hofstede 1980). As noted, global consumer culture (GCC) represents a collection of common signs (e.g. products such as blue jeans and brands such as iPod) that are understood by certain market segments (e.g. youth) around the world (e.g. Alden et al. 1999; Cleveland & Laroche 2007; Zhou et al. 2008).

While few deny the presence of GCC, there is debate in the literature as to exactly what GCC represents and how it should be studied (see Merz et al. 2008). Some believe that the emergence of GCC indicates an increas-ingly homogeneous global market (e.g. Levitt 1983), while others argue that globalisation actually increases heterogeneity through an increased effort to preserve unique local cultures (e.g. Jackson 2004). Still others highlight the complexities of globalisation; they also note the simultane-ous increase of homogeneity and heterogeneity, and point to the ‘glocalisa-tion’ of worldwide consumption attitudes and patterns (e.g. Ger & Belk 1996; Hermans & Kempen 1998). Merz et al. (2008) distinguish between symbolic and functional meanings embedded in market offerings and offer a categorisation framework (superordinate, basic and subordinate) that helps explain how GCC represents both homogeneous and heteroge-neous meanings, depending on the category and meaning type.

Taking a distributed approach to understanding culture provides insight into the development and multifaceted nature of GCC (Arnould & Thompson 2005). Consumer culture theory (CCT) emphasises the complexities associated with cross-cultural consumption phenomena by suggesting that culture is made up of ‘the heterogeneous distribution of meanings and the multiplicity of overlapping cultural groupings that exist

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within the broader sociohistoric frame of globalization and market capital-ism’ (Arnould & Thompson 2005, p. 869). This perspective is similar to that of Wilk (1995, p. 111), who argues that cultural researchers need to look beyond the ‘polarities of global hegemony and local appropriation’ by recognising structures of common difference across cultures.

As an example, Wilk (1995) describes beauty pageants in Belize that are embedded with unique social relationships and meaning. However, when viewed through a global lens, local beauty pageants become predictable and uniform. Wilk suggests that the replication of diversity (among local cultures) can actually increase homogeneity by producing commonalities across cultures.

In the same vein, Mazarella (2003, p. 17) recognises that ‘the global is constructed locally just as much as the local is constructed globally’. The common structures among local cultures and similarities in consumption patterns may appear to establish a framework for a homogeneous GCC. However, what is considered ‘global’ in any given culture is done rela-tive to what is considered ‘local’. In other words, there are no ‘global’ or ‘foreign’ meanings without ‘local’ reference points, and vice versa; culture itself exists only when it is viewed relative to another culture (Tobin 1992).

Adding to the complexity of GCC, cultures are not only multifaceted, they are very dynamic. Often, as cultural forms or symbols enter a new culture, the meaning of the object or symbol changes. In essence, that which is considered global in one culture may not be considered as such in another. Moreover, symbols that are currently considered global may not maintain their ‘global’ meaning over time (Tobin 1992). Appadurai (1990) discusses the dynamics of globalisation through his presentation of five dimensions of global cultural flow: (1) ethnoscapes, (2) mediascapes, (3) technoscapes, (4) finanscapes, and (5) ideoscapes. Of particular inter-est are mediascapes and the cultural forms and meanings that move across cultures through various ‘image-centered, narrative-based accounts of strips of reality’ (Appadurai 1990, p. 299). Advertising is a key medium for driving this type of cultural flow.

According to McCracken (1986, p. 74), ‘Advertising works as a potential method of meaning transfer by bringing the consumer good and a repre-sentation of the culturally constituted world together within the frame of a particular advertisement.’ Mazarella (2003, p. 18) explains that advertis-ing (and other marketing) institutions ‘are perhaps the most efficient and

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successful contemporary practitioners of a skill that no one can afford to ignore; namely the ability to move fluently between the local and the glo-bal, as well as between the concrete and the abstract.’ It is because of this ability to transfer, share and contribute to the creation of cultural mean-ings that advertisements – particularly for global or foreign brands – often establish a ‘cultural paradox’ (de Mooij 1998) that ultimately questions what is represented by an advertisement: the culture of the consumers or that of the company.

Kates and Goh (2003, p. 62) shed light on the paradoxical nature of global advertising and GCC in their investigation of how advertisers incor-porate local cultural contexts in developing advertisements for foreign or multinational brands. They explain, ‘Even before specific brands are discussed, ad professionals consider strong sociocultural meanings among foreign consumers. These meanings provide a basis for creating local rel-evance and the ways brands might morph into the new locale.’

The dynamic and multidimensional nature of GCC provides a theoreti-cal framework for studying international advertising from the perspective of the firm as well as that of the customer. In fact, there are instances in which GCC appears relevant to international advertising research, but has not been applied. For example, Li et al. (2009) investigate the similarities and differences in internet advertising by Eastern and Western multina-tional firms advertising in China. They report that Eastern and Western firms use different approaches (e.g. emotional vs rational) in their advertis-ing appeals. Additionally, Diehl et al. (2008) study attitudes towards phar-maceutical advertising across cultures, and describe associations between consumer perceptions and culture. In these studies GCC could have been applied to help explain strategic differences across firms and response dif-ferences across customers, respectively.

Advertisers’ consideration of both global market positioning (Alden et al. 1999) and perceptions of globalness (Steenkamp et al. 2003) reflects the interplay between firms’ and consumers’ cultures around the world. Thus, it is clear that firms’ cultural positioning strategies, often executed via international advertising (Alden et al. 1999), and consumers’ existing cultural perceptions (Steenkamp et al. 2003) play key roles in the emer-gence of shared symbols (e.g. brands) associated with GCC.

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Global positioning and perceptions

The overview of GCC suggests that while cultural signs and symbols are globally diffusing, the process is neither unidirectional nor stable (Wilk 1985; Appadurai 1990; Mazarella 2003). International advertising is recognised as an important driver of transferring signs and symbols (de Mooij 1998; Mazarella 2003). One challenge in studying such phenomena is that the definition of ‘global’ is not always clear. Özsomer and Altaras (2008, p. 1) stress objective measures such as ‘regional/global awareness, availability, acceptance, and demand’, as well as ‘consistent positioning, personality, look and feel in major markets’. Others argue that, in addi-tion to ‘objective’ definitions, identification of the global and associated attributes is dependent on consumer perceptions (Holt et al. 2004; Alden et al. 2006). This study integrates these perspectives by defining a global brand as one that standardises aspects of its brand communication pro-gramme (e.g. brand name, logo, brand positioning statement, brand image, brand positioning, brand packaging), and that consumers in multiple coun-tries view as global. GCCP and PBG are now discussed in greater detail.

Global consumer culture positioning

Alden et al. (1999) recognise the emergence of GCC and argue that brand positioning strategies across cultural borders parallel the development of the global market. They call these strategies global consumer culture posi-tioning (GCCP), foreign consumer culture positioning (FCCP) and local consumer culture positioning (LCCP). GCCP is defined as a strategy that ‘identifies the brand as a symbol of a given global culture’ (Alden et al. 1999, p. 77). This strategy can be seen in advertisements that suggest that consumers around the world use a particular product or brand, as well as those ads that reflect universal values (e.g. peace) or markets (e.g. youth). GCCP is distinguished from FCCP, which positions the brand as symbolic of a specific foreign consumer culture, and LCCP, which associates the brand with local cultural meanings (Alden et al. 1999).

The theoretical framework for GCCP is grounded in semiotics – the study of signs and their meanings (Mick 1986) – and globalisation theories associated with GCC (e.g. Appadurai 1990; Hannerz 1990). Based on these theoretical foundations, Alden et al. (1999) examined language, aesthetic

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styles and story themes in television advertising from seven countries using indigenous coders to identify the extent of GCCP, FCCP and LCCP in their large multinational ad sample. Their analysis provides evidence that globally common consumption-orientated signs exist, and that firms make specific efforts to feature these symbols and appeal to consumers’ associations with GCC.

The results of the original GCCP study (Alden et al. 1999) suggest that a distinct global positioning strategy, which differs from foreign and local positioning, is employed by firms. For example, firms used a globally common language (English), as well as global aesthetic styles (e.g. global spokesperson – someone who is well recognised in multiple countries) and story themes (e.g. membership in the global culture – such as use of the latest worldwide technology) to reach certain segments in multiple coun-tries. In addition, GCCP emphasised soft-selling techniques (indirect, image-orientated content), rather than hard-selling techniques (direct, strong message argument appeals). Certain product types (durable high-tech goods) were more likely to be positioned globally.

GCCP contributes to the understanding of international advertising and GCC by highlighting firms’ efforts to use widely understood symbols to communicate similar meanings across different countries and cultures. Importantly, this study not only suggests that GCC exists, but also points towards specific signs and symbols that firms use to connect their brands with consumers across the globe. However, while this framework identi-fies common symbols in the global market, it does not delve into the meanings associated with these signs. Moreover, the framework recog-nises commonly shared global symbols among certain consumer segments (e.g. middle- to upper-class urban or teens) that associate with a specific GCC, but it does not suggest that these symbols are understood or shared among the global population as a whole.

Perceived brand globalness

Alden et al.’s (1999) GCCP study suggests that firms often position their brands as global, foreign or local. However, as mentioned, a brand’s glo-balness, foreignness or localness, is not based on a firm’s actions alone. Rather, firm positioning and consumer perceptions intersect and jointly contribute to meanings associated with brands in the market (Holt et al.

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2004). Thus, in studying GCC, consumer perceptions of brand globalness should also be considered (Steenkamp et al. 2003; Holt et al. 2004).

In order to better understand consumer perceptions associated with global brands, Steenkamp et al. (2003) proposed a construct referred to as perceived brand globalness (PBG). Based on the notion that consumers ‘believe the brand is marketed in multiple countries and is generally rec-ognised as global in these countries’, PBG is hypothesised to be driven by exposure to the brand via general media (e.g. sporting events, word of mouth, or travelling) and through marketing promotions (e.g. advertising and packaging; Steenkamp et al. 2003, p. 54). The authors examined the effects of PBG on brand purchase likelihood, both directly and indirectly (through pathways of perceived brand quality and brand prestige) in two countries: the Republic of Korea and the united States. Consumer ethno centrism (CET) was also investigated as a moderating factor of PBG on purchase likelihood. Additionally, the influence of a brand as a local (rather than foreign or global) icon was examined to provide an alternative antecedent to brand purchase likelihood. Several covariates controlled for brand familiarity, country of origin and unobserved, brand-specific effects.

The results of this study (Steenkamp et al. 2003) reveal that PBG is positively associated with perceptions of both brand prestige and brand quality, but has a stronger relationship with perceived brand quality. While the overall effect of PBG on purchase likelihood was positive, when per-ceived brand quality and prestige were controlled, the direct effect of PBG on purchase likelihood was not significant. Alternatively, the direct asso-ciation between local icon value and purchase likelihood was found to be significant. Moreover, the effect of local icon value was positively related to perceived brand prestige but not perceived brand quality. In addition, CET was a significant moderator as PBG was positively associated with purchase likelihood only for consumers with low ethnocentrism. These findings were consistent across both countries.

Although consumer perceptions of globalness were considered impor-tant to the success of global brands prior to the development of the PBG construct (e.g. Shocker et al. 1994), in this study Steenkamp et al. (2003) addressed the questions ‘Do perceptions of globalness influence purchase decisions?’ and ‘What makes global brands appealing?’ They established a framework for empirically testing the impact of consumers’ perceptions

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towards global brands and identified important pathways (perceived qual-ity and prestige) through which PBG influences purchase likelihood.

The results of this study suggest that brand prestige and, more so, brand quality are important factors in the positioning of global brands. The authors also found that the total effect of PBG on purchase likelihood was greater than that of local icon value. Thus, if a firm’s GCCP strategy is effective in establishing perceptions of globalness as well as quality and/or prestige, GCCP may be a more beneficial positioning strategy than LCCP.

GCCP and PBG in international advertising research

Since its initial development (Alden et al. 1999), the GCCP framework has been identified as a useful positioning tool for multinational marketers (e.g. Onkvisit & Shaw 2004; Grover & Vriens 2006). There is also growing evidence of GCCP’s usefulness in advertising research regarding global strategies (Tharp & Jeong 2001; Nelson & Paek 2007). In addition, GCCP has been applied in conjunction with research related to PBG in studying the role of brand quality (Amine et al. 2005) and brand prestige (Zhou & Belk 2004; Hung et al. 2005), as well as the relationship between global positioning and consumers’ individual traits and cultures (Kates & Goh 2003; Zhou et al. 2008).

Tharp and Jeong (2001) reference GCCP in their examination of the strategic efforts of global network communications agencies (GNCAs). They suggest that global strategies should focus on the brand and the common values associated with it across cultures, rather than adapting to individual consumer cultures. In line with the GCCP framework, they argue that GNCAs can use certain spokespeople, story themes and visual images to establish a brand as global or belonging to GCC.

Also focusing on firm strategies, Nelson and Paek (2007) draw on GCCP in their investigation of the extent of standardisation in global advertising. The authors conduct a content analysis of advertisements in local editions of Cosmopolitan in seven countries and find that, generally, multinational ads consist of more standardised elements (i.e. advertising copy and models) than domestic ads, which is consistent with the ideas that GCC features common symbols across cultures and that firms communicate these commonalities through advertising. Additionally, Nelson and Paek (2007) reinforce Alden et al.’s (1999) findings that product type is related

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to positioning strategy, e.g. they report that beauty products are likely to employ more standardised advertising than other product categories.

In a study related to brand quality, Amine et al. (2005) respond to Alden et al.’s (1999) call for more managerially orientated research on the use of global positioning strategies. The authors referenced both the GCCP and PBG frameworks in their case study analysis, which examined Taiwan’s country-image ad campaign. They found evidence of a semiotic approach for meaning transfer in advertising, and identified quality and excellence as recurring themes that were used to improve Taiwan’s country image to the rest of the world. Taiwan’s use of a quality appeal in the promotion of its country image is consistent with the PBG construct (Steenkamp et al. 2003), which suggests that quality is often associated with perceptions of globalness. Moreover, Amine et al.’s (2005) study supports Alden et al.’s (1999) finding that global ads employ soft-selling over hard-selling tactics, as Taiwan’s recent ads portrayed an affective approach using images of culture and quality of life.

In their study of status-seeking consumers in China, Hung et al. (2005, p. 52) draw on both GCCP and PBG. The authors explain:

Global brands are known to purposely promote a foreign image when market-ing in transitional economies (Alden et al. 1999). This is to enhance the desira-bility of these brands among local consumers who tend to associate foreignness with higher perceived quality and social status given the brands’ higher price, relative scarcity and higher prestige (Batra et al. 2000; Steenkamp et al. 2003).

With the goal of improving media decisions in China, Hung et al.’s (2005) study found that advertising in special interest magazines is more effec-tive in reaching ‘upscale urbanites’ – consumers who are young, educated and have relatively high incomes – than advertising on television or in newspapers. Moreover, they found that magazines, particularly fashion magazines, were effective for reaching status-seeking consumers. In line with Steenkamp et al. (2003), the authors suggest that these media out-lets, which are effective in reaching status-seeking consumers, should be important to advertisers with non-local positioning.

Zhou and Belk (2004) apply the GCCP framework and analyse reader responses towards globally versus locally positioned advertisements among Chinese consumers. Two distinct groups were identified: one attracted to global advertising appeals and the other to local advertising appeals. Consistent with the GCCP framework, global advertisements

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were found to use less literal or ‘softer’ appeals, and portrayed the feeling of cosmopolitan sophistication. The group attracted to the global appeals interpreted meanings of beauty, status and cosmopolitanism, while the group attracted to local appeals associated ad meanings with Chinese cultural values and feelings of nationalism. These results also supported Steenkamp et al.’s (2003) findings that the global culture is associated with the desire for status or prestige.

While research related to GCCP and PBG indicates the existence of common elements associated with international advertising and GCC (e.g. brand quality and prestige), other variables also appear to influ-ence attitudes and perceptions towards global brands (Alden et al. 2006). Several advertising studies have drawn on GCCP in conjunction with research related to consumer perceptions. Such studies emphasise indi-vidual differences and cultural differences in responsiveness to advertising communications.

For example, Zhou et al. (2008) develop a scale measuring susceptibility to global consumer culture (SGCC). The authors derive this concept from the PBG framework (Steenkamp et al. 2003) and define SGCC as ‘the con-sumer’s desire or tendency for the acquisition and use of global brands’ (p. 337). They explain that this individual difference is recognised as a gen-eral consumer tendency that varies across cultures (Holt et al. 2004) and influences the effectiveness of GCCP on consumer perceptions of brand globalness. In line with the pathways of PBG, SGCC is found to relate to three general aspects of consumption: conformity to consumption, quality perception and social prestige. The authors suggest that the SGCC con-cept can be used to inform decisions related to GCCP by helping firms better understand the motivations of consumer attitudes towards globally positioned brands.

In their study on ‘brand morphing’, Kates and Goh (2003) recognise the three brand-positioning categories proposed within the GCCP framework, but they argue that global, local and foreign positioning does not account for the presence of multiple brand meanings in the culturally diverse glo-bal market. They explain that a brand can have multiple meanings and may be associated with diverse groups of people, including cultures. The authors present several brand morphing practices (customised uniformity, changing brand positioning and creating ‘new’ meanings) that interna-tional advertisers can use to communicate global images while increasing

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local relevance. The integration of local cultural signs and symbols with global messages and content has been recognised as the hybridised approach (e.g. Alden et al. 2006) – an alternative to the extreme positions of standardisation and adaptation.

Global positioning and local relevance

A major challenge with understanding GCC is that while some signs (e.g. brands) may be positioned consistently across cultures, their relevance and/or meaning across those cultures may vary (Tobin 1992). Kates and Goh (2003) provide an example of Kraft’s Philadelphia Cream Cheese, which markets itself globally using a consistent brand position as an ‘indulgent, heavenly experience’. They explain that, because heaven is viewed differ-ently in various cultures (e.g. Muslim vs Christian cultures), angels were used to represent heaven in some cultures but not in others. This is a clear example of how different cultures may use culturally unique signifiers to represent various meanings (Tobin 1992), and how a globally positioned brand or commonly shared symbol can be made locally relevant.

The discussion of both GCCP and PBG encourages consideration of the firm’s global positioning as well as changing consumer perceptions of what represents global versus local. As discussed, taking into account both sets of perspectives establishes a more comprehensive approach to understanding GCC. This is important because in some cases what is positioned as global by the firm is not considered global in the eyes of consumers (Mazarella 2003). Furthermore, what is thought of as global in a given culture today may not be considered as such tomorrow (Tobin 1992). Additionally, although there is evidence to suggest that PBG leads to more positive brand perceptions (Steenkamp et al. 2003), negative perceptions have also been associated with globalness and globalisation (e.g. Zhou & Belk 2004). More recently, research has shown that individual differences influence consumer preferences for not only local and global offerings, but hybrid options as well (Alden et al. 2006).

Hybridisation in international advertising

Consideration of consumers’ perceptions of brand globalness and varying attitudes towards global brands provides insight into the long-standing

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debate regarding standardisation versus adaptation in international adver-tising research (Agrawal 1995; Papavassiliou & Stathakopoulos 1997). Agrawal (1995) identifies three schools of thought in international adver-tising that have developed since the 1950s: standardisation, adaptation and contingency approaches. He explains that proponents of standardi-sation focus advertising efforts on the similarities of consumers around the world, and argues that standardisation has benefits of cost reduction and economies of scale. Alternatively, the adaptation school argues that country-level differences must be considered in advertising development. These differences include culture, economic and industrial development, media access and political/legal restrictions.

The third school of thought argues that effective advertising requires a combination of the standardisation and adaptation approaches (Agrawal 1995). The specific combination of the two approaches depends on con-text, circumstance and culture. In line with this reasoning, Papavassiliou and Stathakopoulos (1997) argue that the standardisation decision is not dichotomous. Rather, the two stand at opposite ends of a continuum with a multitude of options for utilising both strategies in the middle.

The discussion of GCC and the intersection between GCCP and PBG suggests that global brand advertising may benefit most from a combined or hybrid approach. Hybrid ads should feature globally desired attributes (e.g. quality and prestige) along with consumer preferences for global versus local signs and behaviours in the selection of language, visuals and themes. For example, the use of local images can help increase the rel-evance of global brands (Kates & Goh 2003).

Hung, Li and Belk (2007) investigate the perceptions of Chinese women towards a variety of advertisements, and identify three strategies used to enhance image meaningfulness: (1) perceived localness, (2) perceived otherness, and (3) creolisation. The authors explain that the creolisation strategy ‘represents not only a mix of different images but a character that embodies both global and local influences’ (Hung et al. 2007, p. 1046). The women also revealed pathways they followed in associating with the brands in the ads: (1) identifying, (2) aspiring, (3) identifying and aspiring, and (4) rejecting/dismissing. Importantly, only the ‘creolised’ ad, with a global market position and local model, evoked both identification and aspiration responses. Hung et al. (2007, p. 1048) explain that the creolised ad was perceived as outstanding because ‘it has a local look and elicits

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the strength of character involving clothes hedonism and career achieve-ment. Yet these two desirable “foreign” traits were presented in a non- threatening manner consistent with Chinese socialization.’

The hybrid approach to global positioning leverages attractive aspects of GCC, such as prestige and quality, and considers optimal integration of these attributes into existing local values and cultural beliefs. The chal-lenge with this approach is that there is no standardised mixture of global and local symbols. Thus, while hybridisation advertising strategies have been presented in the literature (e.g. Kates & Goh 2003), each situation requires careful thought regarding symbols that effectively represent glo-bal and local meanings and how they will be portrayed (Agrawal 1995). For instance, Merz et al.’s (2008) categorisation approach to GCC suggests that globally shared symbols are most easily identified at the superordinate level. However, the strength of superordinate-level symbols depends on whether meanings associated with signs at the basic and subordinate lev-els are primarily functional or symbolic.

Clearly, more research is needed to investigate perceptions of how the global and the local vary by culture and how such signs are best integrated in international advertising.

Implications and future research directions

GCCP and PBG establish two theoretical frameworks that provide insight on the driving forces of globalisation and cultural change. The intersection of these frameworks indicates that GCCP is a valid marketing strategy, in which international advertising plays an important role in transferring cultural messages and portraying globally shared signs (i.e. language, aesthetic styles and story themes). However, consideration of globalness as perceived by consumers, rather than as an objective trait of an object or brand, suggests that certain symbols associated with the construct (i.e. basic and subordinate-level symbols) may vary across cultures. Moreover, the PBG framework and related research suggests that attitudes towards global brands are also influenced by individual consumer differences (e.g. consumer ethnocentrism) and that globalness is not always perceived favourably (Alden et al. 2006). Thus, recognition of GCC is not an open invitation to firms to standardise offerings and messages for a worldwide market. In order to increase local relevance and favourability among those

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less attracted to standardised global messages, a hybrid approach to inter-national advertising may be optimal.

Hybridisation in advertising is not new (Agrawal 1995). However, the complex task of integrating global and local images in an effort to evoke positive perceptions of globalness provides fertile ground for fur-ther investigation of international advertising and GCC. With regard to perceptions of globalness, research is needed to better understand what constitutes ‘global’ in a given place and time. While PBG was found to be associated with perceived brand quality and prestige (Steenkamp et al. 2003), this does not necessarily mean what is perceived as global today will be tomorrow (Tobin 1992). For example, as industrialisation advances around the world and the quality of local offerings increases, associations between perceived globalness and brand quality may decrease.

Ongoing research is also needed to identify attributes (both positive and negative) associated with global objects as perceptions of ‘global’ change. This call for further investigation aligns with Taylor’s (2005) suggestion that research is needed to identify factors that can be standardised in glo-bal advertising. Taylor (2005) also notes the need for the identification of culture-specific execution techniques or local adaptation strategies. It is clear that hybridisation is complex and that there is much to learn about balancing globally standardised and locally adapted attributes and symbols in international advertising, particularly with regard to GCC.

The recognition of GCC does not suggest that there is one homogenous global market segment. Rather, it indicates that there are commonly under-stood symbols and behaviours among market segments that span physical and geographical boundaries. Thus, in addition to attributes, identification of consumer segments associated with GCC is needed. The youth market appears to cut across geographical borders (e.g. Kjeldgaard & Askegaard 2006), as do cosmopolitans (e.g. Thompson & Tambyah 1999). However, there are probably many more unrecognised markets, with varying levels of social status, that share understanding of consumption signs and behav-iours across nations and regions. For example, research regarding brand communities (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001) recognises groups of consumers associated with particular brands that are capable of spanning national bor-ders, as well as other traditional segments such as age, gender and social class. Further investigation of groups associated with GCC, particularly through global brand communities, is needed.

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Additionally, while the extant research regarding GCC covers multiple nations, many other countries remain unstudied. Moreover, the complex-ity of the GCC construct makes it difficult to measure and has generally limited research to either the perspective of the firm or that of the cus-tomer, rather than the consideration of both. Investigating GCC in dif-ferent countries and cultures, using multiple methods, will increase the external validity and generalisability of the theoretical framework.

Concurrent consideration of GCCP and PBG emphasises the complex nature of GCC and the challenge of matching a firm’s global position with existing perceptions of globalness in a given culture. De Mooij (1998) recognises the increasing number of products consumed by global market segments but warns that, while products may be similar, buying motives for such standardised products differ across cultures. Thus, even for stand-ardised products, advertising messages may require adaptation to achieve relevance for a local audience. While studies have investigated consumer perceptions towards globally positioned ads (e.g. Hung et al. 2007; Zhou et al. 2008) and advertisers’ efforts to adapt to local consumer cultures (Kates & Goh 2003), more work is needed to understand how consumers’ interpreted meanings influence the development of the brand image – in other words, how firms’ advertising efforts and consumers’ interpretations change the meanings of signs and symbols associated with a given brand (McCracken 1986).

Anthropological and ethnographic accounts of consumerism around the world (Tobin 1992; Mazarella 2005) provide detailed descriptive examples of how consumers interpret market-related meanings. However, research regarding the firm’s role in studying, understanding and responding to consumer-driven brand meanings remains limited. Perhaps more impor-tantly, the iterative process in which firms and consumers interact and col-laborate to co-create brand meaning (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001; Merz et al. forthcoming) has only recently gained attention. Research in these areas will provide insight into how firms are responding to consumers’ inter-pretations of brand meanings and how communications via international advertising can contribute to the co-creation of global brands.

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Conclusion

This exploration of international advertising and GCC responds to Taylor’s (2005) call for research regarding cultural influences in adver-tising and empirically tested theoretical frameworks for advancing international advertising research. It is argued here that GCC is a par-ticularly relevant context for international and cross-cultural advertis-ing research, as it cuts across local, national and regional borders alike. As mentioned, due to the complexity of globalisation, investigation of GCC benefits from consideration of both the role of the firm and that of the consumer. Two theoretical constructs – global consumer culture positioning (GCCP; Alden et al. 1999) and perceived brand globalness (PBG; Steenkamp et al. 2003) – have been presented here, along with related research that has contributed to the study of international adver-tising and GCC. However, the concept of GCC is relatively new and the dynamics of globalisation make it difficult to study. Research regarding GCC will only gain in importance as globalisation advances and the worldwide movement of brand signs and globally oriented consump-tion behaviours increases in speed. Thus, though challenging, future research opportunities are plentiful and meaningful to the advancement of international advertising theory and practice.

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About the authors

Melissa Archpru Akaka is a doctoral student in Marketing at the Shidler College of Business at the university of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Her research interests include value co-creation, service-dominant logic, networks and related cross-cultural issues.

Dana L. Alden is the William R. Johnson Jr. Distinguished Professor and a Professor of Marketing at the Shidler College of Business at the university of Hawai‘i at Manoa. His research interests include: global consumer culture, global brand strategy, social franchising and patient– physician decision-making.

Address correspondence to: Professor Dana L. Alden, Shidler College of Business, university of Hawai‘i at Manoa, 2404 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822.


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An integrated theory of global advertising

An application of the GMS theory

Shaoming Zou and Yong Z. VolzUniversity of Missouri, Columbia

Although there has been an increasing interest in global advertising research, the litera-ture suffers from the lack of a broad theoretical foundation that could guide conceptuali-sation and theory development in global advertising research. In this paper, the authors contend that the GMS theory developed by Zou and Cavusgil (2002) can serve as a broad theoretical foundation for global advertising research. The GMS theory is described, and used to develop a new conceptualisation of global advertising and propose a theoretical framework of global advertising. The implications of the framework for future research are also discussed.

Introduction

Ever since the publication of the seminal work of Elinder (1965), Fatt (1967) and Buzzell (1968) a debate about whether international advertis-ing should be standardised across country markets or adapted to individual country markets has raged in the international advertising literature. The proponents of the standardisation approach argue that standardising advertising can help maintain a uniform global strategy and image of the firm, maximise the firm’s cost advantage and meet a universal need of people across the world (Roostal 1963; Levitt 1983; Johansson & Thorelli 1985; Jain 1989; Peebles 1989; Yip 1995; Solberg 2002). The adaptation approach, on the other hand, contends that the cultural, linguistic, histori-cal, religious and socio-economic differences would affect the interpreta-tions of advertising messages by different customers and thus hinder a firm from transferring its advertising campaign from one country market to another (Mueller 1987; Tansey et al. 1990; Kanso 1992; Roth 1995; Shoham 1996; Cateora & Graham 2002; An 2007).

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Recent literature called for viewing standardisation and adaptation as two extremes of the same continuum (Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995; Papavassiliou & Stathakopoulos 1997; Taylor 2002) and investigating the factors that are associated with the standardisation or adaptation of inter-national advertising. Some studies in the last two decades have found a list of factors (e.g. consumer and market similarity, high market competition, high-involvement products, larger subsidiaries) that foster international advertising standardisation (e.g. Florenthal & Shoham 1999; Laroche et al. 2001; Samiee et al. 2003). With few exceptions (e.g. Jain 1989; Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995; Papavassiliou & Stathakopoulos 1997; Samiee et al. 2003), however, the international advertising literature still suffers from the lack of a broad theoretical foundation that explains when and why international advertising needs to be standardised, and what effect standardised international advertising has on companies’ performance (Theodosiou & Leonidou 2003; Taylor 2005). This is a major gap in the literature because our knowledge cannot be advanced if only anecdotal and fragmented findings are available with regard to factors that are associ-ated with international advertising standardisation.

With the continuing trend towards globalisation, multinational corpora-tions (MNCs) are increasingly faced with the challenge of planning and executing global advertising campaigns. Companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Dell, Nokia and Apple have used global advertising cam-paigns to build their global brands. Yet, in the international advertising literature, the concept of global advertising remains elusive, offering little guidance to MNCs’ global advertising campaigns. Most studies have con-ceived global advertising simply as standardised advertising (e.g. planning, price, message, execution or media selection) across country markets. Although it has generated a significant amount of research in the past, this narrow conceptualisation of global advertising has limited both the insight that can be gained from research and MNCs’ ability to take full advantage of the potential reach of global advertising campaigns.

The purpose of this study is to develop a broad conceptualisation of global advertising and a theoretical framework of global advertising. Specifically, we draw on the global marketing strategy (GMS) theory developed by Zou and Cavusgil (2002) in the field of global marketing strategy to advance a new global advertising construct, and to present a broad theoretical framework that illuminates the antecedents and out-

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AN INTEGRATED THEORY OF GLOBAL ADVERTISING

comes of global advertising. We will first review the GMS conceptualisa-tion, followed by a discussion of the theoretical bases of the GMS theory. Then, we will propose a new conceptualisation of global advertising and an integrated theoretical framework of global advertising. Finally, we will discuss the implications of the new global advertising construct and the broad theoretical framework for future research and for global advertising managers.

The GMS: a broad conceptualisation of global marketing strategy

Zou and Cavusgil (2002) advanced a broad conceptualisation of global marketing strategy – the GMS – as the extent to which an MNC globalises its marketing strategies in various country markets through the standardi-sation of the marketing mix variables, concentration and coordination of its value-adding activities, and integration of its competitive moves across the country markets. Essentially, the GMS was proposed to integrate three diverse perspectives of global marketing strategy that are prevalent in the literature: the standardisation perspective, the configuration/coordination perspective and the integration perspective.

The standardisation perspective sees a firm as pursuing a global mar-keting strategy if its marketing strategies across different national mar-kets are standardised, particularly with regard to its product offering and promotional campaigns (Jain 1989; Samiee & Roth 1992). Advocates of standardisation believe that the world’s markets are increasingly converg-ing, fuelled by the advances in interactive communication and transporta-tion technology, increased worldwide travel and the liberalisation of trade. Consumers in different parts of the world are being more exposed to the same brands and products, and thus have cultivated similar tastes and life-styles and formed a global consumer culture (Levitt 1983; Ford & Phillips 2000). In turn, they increasingly prefer the same brands, similar products, and similar product features and functionality. The source of competitive advantage in the global market, therefore, is the ability to produce high-quality, low-price products. A standardised product through standardised marketing programmes across countries is what it takes to achieve a low-cost position due to its purported benefits of economies of scale in produc-tion and marketing (Levitt 1983), consistency in dealing with customers

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(Buzzell 1968; Hamel & Prahalad 1985) and the ability to exploit good ideas on a global scale (Buzzell 1968). Arnold Schuh’s (2000) study, for example, shows that MNCs entering Central Eastern Europe rely heav-ily on marketing standardisation to keep investments and additional costs low, even though varying market conditions seem to favour adaptation and customisation.

The configuration/coordination perspective considers global marketing as the means to exploit the interdependencies between different country markets as well as the comparative advantages associated with various countries. To achieve global efficiency, a firm must configure its value-adding activities properly and coordinate its activities across different country markets (Porter 1986; Roth 1992). According to the configuration/coordination perspective, proper configuration allows the firm to exploit location-specific advantages (Ghoshal 1987), whereas cross-national coor-dination captures economies of scale, scope and learning (Bartlett & Ghoshal 1987; Roth 1992). The worldwide success of the entire MNC requires the balance of the sub-units’ functional specialisation and the coordination requirements (Mauri & Sambharya 2003). According to Porter’s (1986) theory of global competition, a major aspect of configura-tion is the degree of concentration of value-adding activities. Since differ-ent countries possess different comparative advantages, it is important for a firm to concentrate its global marketing activities in a few country loca-tions where they can be performed most efficiently and effectively, and have the most potential to achieve large economies of scale. Foreign sub-sidiaries are not expected to carry out the whole range of value activities but to focus on those activities that can contribute to the global efficiency of the MNC (Bartlett & Ghoshal 1998).

According to the integration perspective, the global environment and industrial forces necessitate that an MNC deploy worldwide resources and integrate dispersed subsidiaries across national boundaries (Roth & Morrison 1990). The key to a firm’s global marketing success is to par-ticipate in all major world markets and effectively integrate the firm’s competitive moves across these markets (Yip 1989; Yip & Coundouriotis 1991). In global industries, since a firm’s marketing operations in dif-ferent countries are interdependent, the firm must be able to subsidise operations in some markets with resources generated in others (Hamel & Prahalad 1985; Ghoshal 1987), make strategic decisions that can yield

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synergies across the markets and minimise overall costs (Hout et al. 1982), and respond to competitive attacks in one market by counterattacking in others (Yip 1989).

While the three perspectives of global marketing strategy have gener-ated a great deal of research interest and empirical investigations, each of them is focused on a unique aspect of MNCs’ global marketing operations to prescribe a winning global marketing strategy. For example, standardi-sation is focused on generating economies of scale through standardised products and marketing, whereas the configuration/coordination perspec-tive emphasises taking advantage of different countries’ unique compara-tive advantages and creating cross-country synergies, and the integration perspective stresses fighting competitors through cross-subsidisation and integrated competitive moves. However, the aims of the three perspec-tives are the same: helping MNCs to achieve competitive advantages in the global market. The GMS is proposed by Zou and Cavusgil (2002) as a broad global marketing strategy that integrates all three perspectives.

Specifically, Zou and Cavusgil (2002) identified eight dimensions span-ning all three perspectives. Product standardisation, promotion stand-ardisation, standardised channel structure and standardised price are four dimensions that reflect the standardisation perspective. Concentration of marketing activities and coordination of marketing activities across coun-tries are two dimensions that are derived directly from the configuration/coordination perspective. Global market participation and integration of competitive moves are two dimensions that tap the integration perspec-tive. Put together, the eight dimensions of the GMS offer a comprehen-sive view of what MNCs’ global marketing strategy will entail. The GMS suggests that MNCs’ global marketing strategies do not need to rely solely on standardisation to help them gain competitive advantage in the global market.

The GMS theory

The bases of the GMS theory

After developing the broad conceptualisation of the GMS, Zou and Cavusgil (2002) proposed and tested an integrated theoretical model of the GMS that delineates the cause and effect of the GMS construct. Two

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theories serve as the foundation of the GMS theory: the industrial organi-sation (IO) theory and the resource-based view (RBV).

The IO theoryThe structure–conduct–performance (SCP) paradigm of Bain (1956) is the most common IO theory used to explain the cause and performance effect of the GMS (Bartlett & Ghoshal 1991; Collis 1991). The IO theory views competitive advantage as a position of superior performance that a firm attains and sustains by pursuing a sound strategy that deliberately responds to industry/market forces (Porter 1980; Scherer & Ross 1990). A key premise of the IO theory is that the external forces impose selective pressures on a firm. Only firms that respond with a successful strategy will survive and prosper (Scherer & Ross 1990). As summarised by the princi-ple of co-alignment in the IO theory, the ‘fit’ (or ‘congruency’) between a firm’s strategy and its environment has a significant positive effect on its performance (Scherer & Ross 1990; Venkatraman & Prescott 1990). Therefore, Zou and Cavusgil (2002) posited that the principal effect of the GMS is a firm’s performance in the global market, whereas a primary cause of the GMS is external market forces.

The resource-based viewIn the RBV, a firm is viewed as a bundle of tangible and intangible resources, and its uniqueness lies in the nature of those resources and the organisational routines that link them together (Wernerfelt 1984). The term ‘resource’ is used in a very broad sense by the theorists. Barney (1991) defines internal organisational resources as all assets, capabilities, organisational processes, firm attributes, information, knowledge, and so forth, controlled by a firm and enabling the firm to pursue a strategy to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. The most critical resources, however, are those that are superior in use, hard to imitate, difficult to sub-stitute for, and more valuable within the firm than outside (Porter 1991).

The RBV contends that differential endowment of strategic resources among firms is the ultimate cause of their strategy and performance (Bartlett & Ghoshal 1991). Competitive advantage is said to reside in the inherent heterogeneity of the immobile strategic resources that each firm controls (Wernerfelt 1984; Barney 1991; Grant 1991). Strategy, then, is a firm’s conscious move to capitalise on its idiosyncratic endowment

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of strategic resources (Wernerfelt 1984; Barney 1991; Lado et al. 1992). Following this logic, Zou and Cavusgil (2002) theorised that another prin-cipal cause of the GMS is internal to the firm, and the effect of the GMS is a firm’s performance.

The GMS theoretical model

Zou and Cavusgil (2002) contended that the IO and the RBV each pro-vides only a partial explanation of the cause and effect of the GMS, and that both the external forces and internal organisational attributes must be combined to offer a complete explanation of the causes and effects of the GMS. They proposed an integrated GMS theory in which MNCs’ global orientation and international experience – two key internal organi-sational attributes – and the external industry globalisation conditions – a key external force – are theorised as the causes of the GMS. The GMS is further theorised to be the major determinant of MNCs’ global market performance in global industries.

The GMS theory has several major characteristics. First, since the broad GMS construct is the focal point in the model, this GMS model has inte-grated the three major perspectives of global marketing strategy. Second, both the IO theory and the RBV have been incorporated into the GMS model because both external industry globalisation conditions and inter-nal organisational characteristics have been theorised as the factors that motivate MNCs’ pursuit of a global marketing strategy. Third, the GMS model essentially presents a ‘fit’ theory, which argues that it is the fit of an MNC’s global marketing strategy to its external industry environment and internal organisational characteristics that determines the MNC’s perform-ance in the global market. When the external industry environment exerts pressure on an MNC to adopt a high degree of global marketing strategy (i.e. high degree of standardisation, concentration and coordination, and integration) and when its internal organisational characteristics are con-ducive to global marketing strategy, an MNC that pursues a high degree of global marketing strategy will achieve a good fit between its strategy and its external and internal environments, and this will lead to improved performance in the global market. In contrast, when the external industry environment forces it to seek greater adaptation to individual country markets’ unique culture, and when its internal organisational structure and

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value promote local autonomy at the country subsidiary level, an MNC that pursues a low degree of global marketing strategy (i.e. a high degree of local adaptation, dispersed value-adding activities, autonomous local subsidiaries and independent competitive campaigns in local markets) will achieve a better fit between its strategy and its external and internal environments, enhancing its performance in various country markets.

In essence, the GMS theory is a contingency theory, and the type of marketing strategy that works best for an MNC depends on the MNC’s external and internal environments. This theory suggests that, for exam-ple, a high degree of standardisation, concentration and coordination, and integration works well for an MNC that competes in global industries where the industry environment enables fast globalisation and that has a globally orientated internal value and organisation structure. In traditional and non-global industries, in contrast, a high degree of adaptation, auton-omy and independence works better. Thus, instead of advocating blind pursuit of a global marketing strategy, the GMS theory emphasises the fit of an MNC’s marketing strategy to its external and internal environments.

A broad conceptualisation of global advertising

The broad and integrative nature of the GMS conceptualisation offers insight into how global advertising should be conceptualised. In the cur-rent international advertising literature, researchers have consistently viewed global advertising from a standardisation perspective (e.g. Harris 1994; Onkvisit & Shaw 1999; Karande et al. 2006; Okazaki et al. 2006). Recognising the limit of advertising standardisation, some researchers have found patterns of global advertising in that the general advertis-ing strategy is standardised while execution and languages are modified for individual markets (e.g. Ramaprasad & Hasegawa 1992; Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995; Tai 1997; Taylor & Johnson 2002; Samiee et al. 2003; Ran & Jiang 2005). However, global advertising as currently viewed in the literature is mostly a matter of standardisation, even with the distinction between advertising strategy (including themes, positioning and overall character of messages), advertising execution (referring to the selection of advertising appeal and copy), media selection and languages. Moreover, as Samiee et al. (2003) rightly observe, current cross-cultural studies of advertising standardisation ‘typically focus on the contents of advertise-

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ments (i.e. content analysis) rather than corporate policies or executive viewpoints’. This leads to a lack of connection with and contribution to the central theoretical approaches outside the advertising and marketing field, such as organisation economics, institutional theory and resource management (Birnik & Bowman 2007).

Despite the volume of research that has been generated and the insight that has been gained into international advertising standardisation, it is our contention that standardisation is a relatively narrow and limited perspec-tive of global advertising. It ignores the opportunities for an MNC to coor-dinate the development and execution of advertising campaigns across country markets even if the standardisation level is low. It also fails to rec-ognise the advantage of using advertising campaigns in various countries as an integrated competitive tool for global success. For example, when an MNC faces a fierce competitor’s advertising blitz in one country, its global advertising strategy should allow it to initiate a counterattack, perhaps in another country where the competitor is most vulnerable. If our concept of global advertising were limited to standardisation, our work could not offer the MNC much guidance in how to use global advertising in challenging its competitor. Furthermore, advertising standardisation can be effective in terms of exploiting scale economies, but the gains from standardisation might disappear in the long run or be weakened in different contexts. In other words, standardisation alone cannot guarantee an MNC’s sustainable global competitive advantage in the global markets. The keys to long-term success also include the firm’s capacity to coordinate across different subsidiaries and integrate its advertising strategies across country markets.

Building on the GMS conceptualisation, and recognising that global advertising is part of an MNC’s broader global marketing strategy, we define global advertising as ‘the extent to which an MNC standardises its advertising messages, copy/visualisations and media use, coordinates the process of developing and executing advertising campaigns, and integrates its advertising campaign objectives and strategies across country markets’. This conceptualisation is illustrated in Figure 1.

The conceptualisation of global advertising depicted in Figure 1 has several features. First, it is broader than the standardisation perspective of global advertising that dominates the current literature. It includes not only the standardisation of advertising messages, copy/visualisations and media use, but also the coordination of advertising planning and

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execution, and the integration of advertising objectives and strategies across countries. Second, this new conceptualisation of global advertis-ing incorporates three major perspectives of global marketing and points out more options that MNCs can use to enhance the effectiveness of their global advertising campaigns and gain a competitive advantage in the global market. Third, this new concept of global advertising is conceived as a formative construct of three components that can func-tion independently of each other and yet are essential. On one hand, although standardisation, coordination and integration may be related to each other in a particular MNC’s case, there is no theoretical reason to expect high correlations among the three. For example, an MNC could conceivably seek a high degree of standardisation of messages, copy/vis-ualisations and media selection for its international advertising without seeking a correspondingly high degree of coordination or integration. In other words, the three components can be independent of one another. On the other hand, each of the three components is essential to the overall conceptualisation of global advertising. Dropping one or more of these components of global advertising would fundamentally change the meaning of the concept of global advertising. For example, if coor-dination and integration are dropped, global advertising would revert to mere standardisation, something that is fundamentally different from

Standardisation– Messages

– Copies/visualisations– Media

Globaladvertising

Figure 1: A broad conceptualisation of global advertising

Integration– Campaign objectives– Campaign strategies

Coordination– Planning– Execution

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our conceptualisation. Based on Jarvis et al. (2003), therefore, we argue that global advertising should be conceived as a formative construct.

A theoretical model of global advertising, and research propositions

The global advertising construct defined in the previous section does not suggest total standardisation, coordination and integration. Instead, it is a matter of degree of standardisation, coordination and integration. An MNC could decide to select an appropriate degree of standardisation, coordina-tion or integration based on its situation. Although existing studies have produced mixed results regarding global advertising, there is a general tendency towards a medium level of advertising standardisation (Shoham 1996; Yip 1997), while some other studies have shown a stronger degree of advertising standardisation across all or most markets (Rosenthal 1994; Harris & Attour 2003), especially among those firms with accepted brand names and identity (Hite & Fraser 1988). It is argued that MNCs can use global advertising to at least build a successful global brand (Hill & James 1990; Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995; Taylor 2002). To better understand the drivers and consequences of our new construct of global advertising, it is imperative to develop a sound theoretical model of the antecedents and consequences of global advertising.

Drawing on Zou and Cavusgil’s (2002) GMS theory and the existing international advertising literature, we propose an integrated theoretical model of global advertising in Figure 2. In this theoretical model, global advertising is theorised to be driven by both the MNC’s external indus-try characteristics and internal organisational attributes. In addition, an MNC’s global advertising is posited to affect its global brand perform-ance. Similar to the GMS theory, the proposed theoretical model of global advertising is founded on an integration of industrial organisation (IO) theory and the resourced-based view (RBV). The external industry characteristics as drivers of an MNC’s global advertising are suggested by the IO theory, whereas the internal organisational attributes as drivers of an MNC’s global advertising are derived from the RBV. Essentially, the proposed theoretical model of global advertising is founded on the principle of fit: when an MNC’s global advertising fits its external industry characteristics and its internal organisational attributes, its global brand

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performance is enhanced. Thus, the proposed theoretical model depicted in Figure 2 is a broad theory that integrates the IO and the RBV theories. In the following, we will explicate the dimensions of the external industry characteristics and internal organisational attributes in the model, and link them to global advertising in a set of research propositions.

External industry characteristics

Convergence of consumer demandA major aspect of globalisation is the convergence of consumer demand and preferences across the world. Due to technological advancement and increased worldwide travel, consumers in different parts of the world are exposed to the same knowledge, values, lifestyles and tastes, and are therefore increasingly demanding similar products, product features and services (Levitt 1983; Ford and Phillips 2000). Research has shown a general degree of consumer homogeneity across national borders, and global consumers or consumer segments have emerged as a reality in many industries (Yavas et al. 1992). In this paper, convergence of consumer demand is defined as the degree to which consumer preference for a

Figure 2: A theoretical model of global advertising

External industrycharacteristics– Convergence of consumer– demand– Similarity of advertising– regulations– Media availability– Similarity of competitive– position– Ad agency competency

Internal organisationalattributes– Global orientation– International experience– Subsidiaries’ autonomy– Brand-building capability

Global advertising– Standardisation– Coordination– Integration

Global brandperformance

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product or service is similar across the world. Although different industries may face different degrees of convergence of consumer demand, the trend is especially strong in high-tech industries and fashion-based industries. In high-tech industries such as telecommunications, computers, con-sumer electronics, machine tools, pharmaceutical products, and banking and investment, there is little cultural tradition of consumer demand and preferences because the products and services never existed until technol-ogy brought them to consumers. Indeed, consumers in different parts of the world were taught to use the product or services in these industries, carrying few culturally specific preferences. As a result, the convergence of consumer demand in these industries is especially strong (Cavusgil et al. 1993). In contrast, in industries where there has been long-standing demand – such as skincare, food, clothing and entertainment – the conver-gence of consumer demand is relatively weak (Johansson 2003).

When the convergence of consumer demand is high, MNCs would find it advantageous to seek a high degree of standardisation in their advertis-ing messages, copy/visualisations and media use across the world, in order to coordinate their advertising planning and execution in different coun-tries, and to integrate their advertising campaign objectives and strategies (Zou & Cavusgil 2002). Thus, MNCs would seek a greater degree of glo-bal advertising. Therefore, we expect:

Proposition 1: Convergence of consumer demand is positively related to MNCs’ degree of global advertising.

Similarity of advertising regulationsIn the post-Second World War period, there has been a steady trend towards trade liberalisation. A significant part of this trend is that gov-ernment regulations of business, including advertising, have become increasingly similar. In the era of globalisation and increasing international trade, governments in different countries share similar challenges, and efforts have been made by international and regional trade organisations to harmonise advertising regulations (Gao 2005). The European union, for example, has passed legislation to standardise advertising regulations among its members. In this study, the similarity of advertising regulations is defined as the extent to which government regulations on advertising are similar across the globe. When the similarity between advertising

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regulations is high, MNCs would find it easier to standardise their adver-tising because the same set of advertising regulations could be expected in different countries, making it feasible and desirable to standardise ad messages, copy/visualisations and media use (Rau & Preble 1987; Harvey 1993; Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995; Papavassiliou & Stathakopoulos 1997; Onkvisit & Shaw 1999). Similarly, when government regulations are similar, it would be easier for MNCs to coordinate their ad planning and executions between foreign subsidiaries, and integrate their advertising goals and strategies across the world. Hence:

Proposition 2: Similarity of advertising regulations is positively related to MNCs’ degree of global advertising.

Media availabilityThe advances in telecommunications technology have led to an explo-sion of media and media outlets. Yet, the extent to which a particular medium is accessible varies in different countries. For example, though digital television is spreading in developed countries like the uS, in rural India and some African countries even a black-and-white television set is still a luxury. In western rural China, smaller-screen colour TVs with picture tube still dominate the market. Similarly, internet media and cel-lular phones have achieved significant penetration in developed countries and some emerging markets, but they are available only to a minority of the population in less developed countries. The significant variability in media availability across the world could pose significant challenges for MNCs in contemplating global advertising campaigns. In addition, dif-ferent degrees of technical quality and capacity of the media may also affect the effectiveness of the advertising message to be delivered to the target audience (Jones 2000). Depending on their target markets, some MNCs could find that global advertising built on crisp video images and stereo sound is simply unworkable in other markets. Studies have shown that a crucial difference in advertising execution in different countries is the variability of advertising media availability (Synodinos et al. 1989). Here, media availability refers to the extent to which the media an MNC intends to use for its advertising campaigns are available across all major markets in the world. When media availability is high, MNCs should find it feasible and desirable to standardise their advertising message, copy/

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visualisations and media use (Sriram & Gopalakrishna 1991). They should also find it easier to coordinate their advertising planning and execution, and integrate their advertising objectives and campaign strategies across the world. Consequently:

Proposition 3: Media availability is positively related to MNCs’ degree of global advertising.

Similarity of competitive positionSimilarity of competitive position is defined as the degree to which an MNC’s competitive strength and advantage is similar across different national markets. The globalisation of markets is accompanied by the globalisation of competition. It is not uncommon to find that MNCs are battling the same foes in different national markets. For example, the fight between Coca-Cola and Pepsi has raged in many countries across the world, as has that between P&G and unilever, between McDonald’s and KFC, between GM and Toyota, between Motorola and Nokia, and between Boeing and Airbus. In some industries, MNCs have to battle fiercely with local competitors too. It has been argued that the similarity in a firm’s competitive position across markets will enhance its likelihood of adopting advertising standardisation in order to achieve an advantage over its competitors (Jain 1989; Laroche et al. 2001). Especially when competi-tive intensity is high on the global scale, an MNC may find it imperative to match its global rivals’ global advertising campaign with its own global advertising, or to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals by adopting global advertising. The efficiency and effectiveness of global advertising in building a dominant global brand could be irresistible to MNCs seeking a competitive edge over their global or local rivals. Therefore:

Proposition 4: Similarity of competitive position across different mar-kets is positively related to an MNC’s degree of global advertising.

Agency competencyFollowing in the footsteps of their clients, many advertising agencies have embarked on their own global expansion. Some have achieved global scale and are able to provide their clients with services across the world.

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Earlier studies have shown that advertising agencies tend to adopt the standardisation approach in order to take advantage of their own interna-tional networks and to maximise their profit potential from their clients’ international advertising budgets (Ryans 1969). Yet, not all advertising agencies are equal when it comes to their knowledge, creativity and capa-bilities to serve their clients in different parts of the world. In this study, agency competency refers to the ability of an advertising agency to serve its clients’ global needs in planning and executing global advertising campaigns. It involves the agency’s knowledge of the cultural, political, legal and competitive environments in which its clients operate across the world, its expertise in selecting advertising themes, messages and formats to appeal to the audience that its clients wish to target, and its ability to help its clients plan, develop and execute effective advertising campaigns. Since many multinational corporations have increasingly depended on their advertising agencies for their advertising campaigns, their use of global advertising is influenced by their advertising agencies’ competency in understanding their global market, and in planning, developing and executing global advertising campaigns.

When an MNC’s advertising agency possesses a high competency, it is more likely that it could advise the MNC about the benefits and feasibil-ity of standardised advertising, help the MNC coordinate the planning and execution of advertising campaigns across the world, and facilitate the MNC’s integration of its advertising objectives and strategies in the global market. Hence:

Proposition 5: Agency competency is positively related to an MNC’s degree of global advertising.

Internal organisational attributes

Global orientationGlobal orientation is defined as the degree to which an MNC has an organisation-wide emphasis on success on a global scale, as opposed to on a country-by-country basis (Zou & Cavusgil 2002). Traditionally, many MNCs had stressed the importance of succeeding in each country market that they entered – namely a polycentric orientation (Douglas & Craig 1989). With the trend towards globalisation, many have now realised that

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their market position in one country may be dependent on their market position in other countries. As a result, an increasing number of MNCs have started to foster an organisation-wide value focusing on their world-wide performance – namely a geocentric orientation (Douglas & Craig 1989). Yet, due to their historical organisational set-up, it’s not easy for MNCs to foster a global orientation, and it takes time and gradual organi-sational change to transform MNCs’ value. Consequently, MNCs typically have different degrees of global orientation at any given time.

When an MNC has a high degree of global orientation, its organisational emphasis is placed on enhancing the firm’s worldwide performance. Its performance in a single country is of secondary importance to the firm’s overall performance in the global market. A coherent global orientation defines the firm’s overall policies, influences the headquarters–subsidiary relationship, and sets the stage for the coordination and integration of the sub-units of the firm (Samiee et al. 2003). As a result, its country subsidi-aries are more willing to yield to the firm’s overall strategy, even if this means that they have to sacrifice their local advantages and benefits. In such a globally orientated MNC, it’s much easier to standardise the adver-tising messages, copy/visualisations and media use across national mar-kets, to coordinate the planning and execution of advertising campaigns in various countries, and to integrate the advertising campaigns’ objectives and strategies. This is because, in a globally orientated MNC, the country subsidiaries will understand the importance of building a global brand through global advertising campaigns, and will have less tendency to resist the MNC’s attempt to seek high degrees of standardisation, coordination and integration of advertising campaigns. Consequently, we expect:

Proposition 6: An MNC’s global orientation is positively related to its degree of global advertising.

International experienceDue to their different paths to internationalisation, MNCs are not all the same when it comes to the knowledge and skills related to operating inter-nationally (Douglas & Craig 1989). An MNC’s international experience refers to the extent of its knowledge of international markets, and its skills in operating effectively in international marketing. As Douglas and Craig (1989) argued, when a firm has little international experience, its emphasis

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in international marketing is to find a market similar to its home market and sell its existing product to the market. When it gains international experience, it will start to find ways to adapt its product to each market it enters. Eventually, when it becomes a very experienced international marketer, it will realise the interdependency of markets and figure out a way to integrate its operations across the markets. Similarly, Zou and Cavusgil (2002) find that international experience is positively related to MNCs’ pursuit of a global marketing strategy. Solberg’s (2002) study also shows that a firm with more international experience and a higher-level knowledge of its local markets is more likely to find similarities across dif-ferent national markets, which will lead to more advertising and marketing standardisation. Consistent with Douglas and Craig’s (1989) and Solberg’s (2002) argument, we contend that an MNC with significant international experience is more likely to understand the interdependency of various country markets, and seek an effective way to standardise its advertising messages, copy/visualisations and media selection, to coordinate the plan-ning and execution of advertising campaigns in various countries, and to integrate the advertising strategies across countries. Hence:

Proposition 7: An MNC’s international experience is positively related to its degree of global advertising.

Subsidiary autonomyMNCs grant different degrees of autonomy to their country subsidiaries. Some MNCs, such as Nestlé and P&G, had traditionally given significant decision-making power to their relatively independent country subsidiar-ies. In such MNCs, headquarters won’t intervene in local subsidiaries’ marketing and advertising decisions. The country managers are free to decide what products to introduce into their local markets, how to position and promote the products, what prices to charge and where to distribute the products. The headquarters only evaluate the performance of each country subsidiary and reward the subsidiary based on its performance. In recent years, more and more MNCs have begun to rein in their sub-sidiaries’ decision-making power in an effort to develop a more coherent global brand through global marketing. Even P&G initiated Project 2005 to increase its headquarters’ ability to influence local subsidiaries’ deci-sions. Studies have shown that fully integrated or substantially controlled

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subsidiaries are more likely to use standardised marketing and advertising strategies (e.g. Rau & Preble 1987; Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995; Laroche et al. 2001).

Subsidiary autonomy is defined as the degree to which an MNC grants its country subsidiaries the power to determine their marketing and adver-tising strategies. When subsidiary autonomy is high, an MNC will have very limited involvement in the subsidiary’s advertising budgeting process and fewer communication channels to influence its subsidiaries’ advertis-ing decisions in their local markets. Instead, in an MNC with a decentral-ised organisational structure, the subsidiaries will have power to decide what is most appropriate in their local markets, and will be more likely to resist headquarters’ attempts to standardise advertising messages, copy/visualisations and media use, to coordinate the planning and execution of advertising campaigns, or to integrate the advertising objectives and strategies across the country markets if they don’t think it’s to their ben-efits to follow headquarters’ move. Thus, in an MNC with high subsidiary autonomy, it will be very difficult to pursue global advertising. Hence:

Proposition 8: Subsidiary autonomy is negatively related to an MNC’s degree of global advertising.

Brand-building capabilityIn today’s global market, it is extremely important to have a well- positioned and widely recognised global brand (Johansson 2003), because global brands are widely regarded by consumers to be the symbol of qual-ity, trend, global ideals and social responsibility (Holt et al. 2004). Yet, not all MNCs are capable of building successful global brands. Brand-building capability refers to the level of an MNC’s ability to build a successful global brand. It involves the ability to understand global consumers, to develop and introduce new products into the global market, to advertise and promote the brand in the global market, and to render high-quality customer service. Studies have found that MNCs with well-accepted global brands are the more likely candidates to use advertising stand-ardisation (e.g. Hite & Fraser 1988; Hill & James 1990). When an MNC possesses a strong brand-building capability, it is more likely to recognise the global market trend towards interdependence and the need to use global advertising to build a successful brand. As a result, it is more likely

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to standardise advertising messages, copy/visualisations and media use in order to present a consistent brand image to consumers in the global market. In addition, it is more likely to coordinate the planning and execu-tion of advertising campaigns and integrate advertising strategies across countries. Therefore:

Proposition 9: An MNC’s brand-building capability is positively related to its global advertising.

The effect of global advertising on global brand performance

At a strategic level, multinational corporations often use global advertising to build a uniform brand image (Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995). A uniform brand image can propel a brand into a global brand and increase its appeal. According to Holt et al. (2004), consumers in the global market see a glo-bal brand as a key symbol of quality, a global myth for being trendy and modern, and even a stamp for social responsibility. As a result, a global brand possesses significant brand equity that isn’t available to national or regional brands.

Global brand performance is referred to as the extent to which a brand has achieved global awareness, a uniform and positive image among consumers across the world, and a loyal base of consumers in the global market (Johansson 2003). Indeed, global brand performance is indicative of a global brand’s equity. It is what MNCs are striving to achieve in their global advertising campaigns. In industries in which the degree of globali-sation is high, global brand performance is vital to the business success of MNCs. In fact, global brand performance is an important determinant of MNCs’ competitive advantage in the global market (Johansson 2003).

By using global advertising, an MNC can increase its global brand per-formance (Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995) and build competitive advantage in the global market. When an MNC seeks a high degree of standardisa-tion of its advertising messages, copy/visualisations and media use, it could enhance its chance of projecting a uniform positive image throughout the world (Jain 1989). Due to economies of scale, the MNC could cut the costs of developing different versions of advertising for different mar-kets. Instead, it could concentrate its resources to increase the exposure of worldwide consumers to its standardised advertising, leading to the

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brand’s higher global awareness and uniform image. Similarly, when an MNC coordinates the planning and execution of its advertising campaigns across the world, it could ensure that the brand is positioned uniformly and positively in the ads, and that the advertising campaigns are executed in various countries in a way that ensures they lead to greater consumer awareness and positive brand image across the countries. It could also make sure that loyal consumers across countries are targeted properly and well served in advertising campaigns, which leads to increased brand loyalty. Finally, when an MNC attempts to integrate the objectives and strategies of its advertising campaigns across the countries, it could ensure that advertising campaigns in different countries have clear objectives and strategies that are strategically set to help the MNC’s global campaign objectives. For example, when a subsidiary of the MNC is attacked in a country by a competitor, the MNC could direct other subsidiaries to stage aggressive advertising campaigns in their countries to counterattack the competitor in its key markets. In this way, the competitor would have to divert its resources to protect its key markets, lessening the force of its attack on the MNC. Thus, the MNC could better fend off the com-petitor’s attack and protect its positive global brand image. Therefore, we expect that:

Proposition 10: An MNC’s global advertising is positively related to its global brand performance.

Conclusion and implications for future research

With globalisation in many industries, especially high-tech and fashion-driven industries, it is critical that MNCs develop and sustain a successful global brand. Global advertising plays an indispensable role in developing and sustaining a global brand. In the current study, we build on Zou and Cavusgil’s (2002) GMS theory to propose a new broad conceptualisation of global advertising. This new construct goes beyond the traditional view of global advertising as simply standardisation, to incorporate two new dimensions: coordination and integration. In addition, we develop an integrated theory of global advertising by delineating the antecedents and outcomes of global advertising. The key theoretical logic of the proposed theory of global advertising is that an MNC’s global advertising must fit

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both its external industry characteristics and its internal organisational attributes in order to enhance its global brand performance. It is a direct application of the GMS theory to the field of global advertising.

We hope that the new conceptualisation of global advertising and the integrated theory of global advertising can help open the global advertis-ing field to more exciting research. A study by Ko et al. (2007) has already adopted the GMS theory in exploring cross-national market segmentation. We note that the current body of research in global advertising often lacks broader theoretical foundations, which has led to a limited contribution to the key theoretical debates in other related fields such as international marketing and organisational management. Our model is an attempt to link global advertising with other literature, and integrate global advertising with industrial organisation economics (IO theory) and the resource-based view (RBV). We also note that, despite the vast number of empirical stud-ies in global advertising, the findings regarding whether an MNC should standardise or adapt its advertising strategies across national borders are far from conclusive or consistent. Moreover, while the global advertis-ing literature has increasingly favoured adaptation over standardisation, many MNCs seem to continue to adopt the standardisation approach in their advertising strategies in order to gain large economies of scale. The discrepancies between research and its managerial applications are partly due to the current literature’s narrow focus on the content of advertising, and having not closely examined the dimension of multinational value chain configuration and coordination as a key component of global adver-tising strategy. An academic debate that is only limited to standardisation vs adaptation of advertising content will not lead to effective and credible managerial prescriptions for MNCs’ management practitioners.

Based on the new model we have proposed in this paper, the follow-ing are productive directions for future research for scholars to pursue. First, future researchers could enrich our proposed conceptualisation of global advertising by investigating more and more specific aspects of global advertising that could be standardised, coordinated and integrated. This could help build a stronger theoretical foundation for the global advertising field, and help MNCs to explore different aspects of global advertising and make appropriate marketing decisions. Second, future research could identify, conceptualise and test additional external indus-try and consumer characteristics that are conducive to global advertising.

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For example, similarities of media-use patterns and perceived impor-tance of information sources among different consumer markets can be useful predictors for global advertising strategies (Choi & Ferle 2004). Also, cultural similarity and socio-economic similarity can be identified as important external industry factors (Karande et al. 2006). Third, future researchers could investigate more internal organisational attributes that facilitate or hinder global advertising. An MNC’s country of origin or the size of an MNC’s subsidiaries can be important factors influencing global advertising. We especially hope to see more studies on those MNCs that originate from emerging economies; such studies will significantly enrich our understanding of the key issues of global advertising. Fourth, in addi-tion to global brand performance, future researchers should identify and conceptualise additional outcomes of global advertising and find boundary conditions in which our proposed theory of global advertising applies.

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About the authors

Shaoming Zou (PhD, Michigan State university) is Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. Professor of Marketing and Associate Professor at university of Missouri. His research focuses on international marketing strategy and firm’s performance. He has published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising and Journal of International Marketing among others. His work is among the most cited in international marketing and has won several major research awards, including the AMA Global Marketing SIG’s inaugural ‘Excellence in Global Marketing Research Award’ for 10-year research impact. Dr Zou is editor of Advances in International Marketing and a consulting editor of Journal of International Business Studies.

Yong Z. Volz (PhD, university of Minnesota) is Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism, university of Missouri. Her research interests lie in transcultural and comparative perspectives of mass communication. She has published in Media, Culture & Society, Journalism Studies, International Communication Gazette, Journalism and other academic journals. Dr Volz has earned several top paper awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the Chinese

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Communication Association (CCA), including the 2007 Asian Journal of Communication Award for International Communication Research.

Address correspondence to: Shaoming Zou, Department of Marketing, Trulaske College of Business, university of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211.

Email:[email protected]

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International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), pp. 85–110 © 2010 Advertising Association Published by Warc, www.warc.comDOI: 10.2501/S026504870920104X

The Hofstede modelApplications to global branding and

advertising strategy and research

Marieke de Mooij and Geert Hofstede

Recent years have seen increasing interest in the consequences of culture for global mar-keting and advertising. Many recent studies point at the necessity of adapting branding and advertising strategies to the culture of the consumer. In order to understand cultural differences, several models have been developed of which the Hofstede model is the most used. This article describes elements of this model that are most relevant to brand-ing and advertising, and reviews studies that have used the model for aspects of inter-national branding and for advertising research. It provides some cautious remarks about applying the model. Suggestions for more cross-cultural research are added.

Introduction

The study of culture for understanding global advertising results from the global–local dilemma: whether to standardise advertising for efficiency reasons or to adapt to local habits and consumer motives to be effective. Only recently have studies included performance criteria and several have demonstrated that an adaptation strategy is more effective (Dow 2005; Calantone et al. 2006; Okazaki et al. 2006; Wong & Merrilees 2007). As a result, understanding culture will be viewed as increasingly important. In the past decades, various models have emerged of which the Hofstede model has been applied most to global marketing and advertising.1 Geert Hofstede’s dimensional model of national culture has been applied to vari-ous areas of global branding and advertising, and the underlying theories of consumer behaviour. The model has been used to explain differences

1 When we use the term global marketing and advertising, we refer to advertising worldwide, not to standardised advertising.

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of the concepts of self, personality and identity, which in turn explain variations in branding strategy and communications. Another area is infor-mation processing, including differences in perception and categorisation that influence interpersonal and mass communication, and the working of advertising. This article summarises various elements of consumer behaviour that affect global branding and advertising strategy, and that have been explained by the Hofstede model. Referring to several issues from Taylor’s (2005, 2007) research agenda, we not only cover advertising research, but also questions concerning global brand image, brand equity, advertising and consumer behaviour theories in cross-cultural contexts.

We have pulled a number of topics of this article together in Figure 1. First of all, we view cultural values as an integrated part of the consumer’s self, not as an environmental factor. For developing effective advertising the consumer must be central. Cultural values define the self and person-ality of consumers. Next we distinguish mental processes and social proc-esses. Mental processes are mostly internal processes, how people think, learn, perceive, categorise and process information. Social processes are about how we relate to other people, including motivation and emotions. Both processes affect interpersonal and mass communication, which in turn affect advertising appeals and advertising style. All elements must

Communication and culture, purpose of advertising

How advertising works across culturesCross-cultural advertising research

Brand positioningAdvertising strategy

ConsumerThe self

PersonalityIdentity, ImageCultural values

Advertising appealAdvertising style

Information processingCategorisation

Abstract-concrete

Mentalprocesses

MotivationEmotion

Figure 1: Global advertising research – understanding cultural values of consumers

Socialprocesses

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be taken into account when researching how advertising works across cultures. Cultural models help to analyse culture’s consequences for the self and personality, mental and social processes, and how these influence global advertising strategy.

Cultural models applied to advertising research

Cultural models define patterns of basic problems that have consequences for the functioning of groups and individuals, e.g. (a) relation to authority; (b) the conception of self, including ego identity; and (c) primary dilem-mas of conflict and dealing with them (Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck 1961; Inkeles 1997). These basic problems can be recognised in the Hofstede model (Hofstede 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede 2005), and have been found in other studies, such as those by Trompenaars (1993), Schwartz (1994; Schwartz & Bilsky 1987), and the recent GLOBE study (House et al. 2004).

Although these models find similar basic value differences, they are different with respect to the number of countries measured, the level of analysis (individual versus culture level), the dimension structure (one-poled or two-poled categorisations), the number of dimensions, the subjects (Schwartz – teachers and students; GLOBE – middle managers; Hofstede – all levels of employees in a company), and conceptual and methodological differences (e.g. measuring what ought versus measuring what is). These differences in research design can cause different results when applying dimensional models to international branding and advertis-ing. In particular the differences resulting from asking for the desired or the desirable influence research results. The desirable is how people think the world ought to be, the desired is what people want for themselves. Statements about the desired, although closer to actual behaviour, do not necessarily correspond to the way people really behave when they have to choose (Hofstede & Hofstede 2005). Advertising tends to appeal to the desired, as the desirable is too far from reality. Dimensional models based on questions asking for the desirable may be less useful for measuring dif-ferences in consumer attitudes, motives and advertising appeals. A most important area of research would be to analyse and compare the working of the various models in this respect.

A reason for the widespread adoption of Hofstede’s classification of cul-ture lies in the large number of countries measured and the simplicity of

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his dimensions, which are straightforward and appealing to both academic researchers and business people. Comparison of different models for the purpose of measuring cultural distance for international marketing strat-egy shows that the more recent cultural frameworks provide only limited advancements compared with Hofstede’s original work (Magnusson et al. 2008).

None of the cultural models was developed for analysing consumer behaviour. When using them, the manifestations of culture that are rel-evant for consumer behaviour have to be selected and interpreted. Too often, cross-country research begins with a research instrument without consideration of the underlying conceptual framework (Douglas & Craig 2006), and research method focuses almost exclusively on sophisticated statistical analyses (Schwarz 2003). There is a variety of manifestations of the Hofstede dimensions to consider before setting hypotheses. The next section describes the manifestations of the five Hofstede dimensions that are most relevant to branding and advertising. These elements are based on findings from cross-cultural psychology and meta-analysis of consumer behaviour data (De Mooij 2004, 2010).

The Hofstede dimensional model of national culture

The Hofstede model (Hofstede 2001; Hofstede & Hofstede 2005) dis-tinguishes cultures according to five dimensions: power distance, indi-vidualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-/short-term orientation. The model provides scales from 0 to 100 for 76 countries for each dimension, and each country has a position on each scale or index, relative to other countries.

The power distance dimension can be defined as ‘the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is dis-tributed unequally’. In large power distance cultures, everyone has his or her rightful place in a social hierarchy. The rightful place concept is impor-tant for understanding the role of global brands. In large power distance cultures, one’s social status must be clear so that others can show proper respect. Global brands serve that purpose. Luxury articles, some alcoholic beverages and fashion items typically appeal to social status needs.

Individualism/collectivism can be defined as ‘people looking after themselves and their immediate family only, versus people belonging to

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in-groups that look after them in exchange for loyalty’. In individualis-tic cultures, one’s identity is in the person. People are ‘I’-conscious and self-actualisation is important. Individualistic cultures are universalistic, assuming their values are valid for the whole world. They also are low-con-text communication cultures with explicit verbal communication. In col-lectivistic cultures, people are ‘we’-conscious. Their identity is based on the social system to which they belong, and avoiding loss of face is impor-tant. Collectivistic cultures are high-context communication cultures, with an indirect style of communication. In the sales process in individualistic cultures, parties want to get to the point fast, whereas in collectivistic cul-tures it is necessary to first build a relationship and trust between parties. This difference is reflected in the different roles of advertising: persuasion versus creating trust.

The masculinity/femininity dimension can be defined as follows: ‘The dominant values in a masculine society are achievement and success; the dominant values in a feminine society are caring for others and quality of life.’ In masculine societies, performance and achievement are important; and achievement must be demonstrated, so status brands or products such as jewellery are important to show one’s success (De Mooij & Hofstede 2002; De Mooij 2010). An important aspect of this dimension is role dif-ferentiation: small in feminine societies, large in masculine societies. In masculine cultures, household work is less shared between husband and wife than in feminine cultures. Men also do more household shopping in the feminine cultures. Data from Eurostat (2002) show that low masculin-ity explains 52% of variance of the proportion of men who spend time on shopping activities.

uncertainty avoidance can be defined as ‘the extent to which people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid these situ-ations’. In cultures of strong uncertainty avoidance, there is a need for rules and formality to structure life. This translates into the search for truth and a belief in experts. People of high uncertainty avoidance are less open to change and innovation than people of low uncertainty avoid-ance cultures. This explains differences in the adoption of innovations (Yaveroglu & Donthu 2002; Yeniurt & Townsend 2003; Tellis et al. 2003). Whereas high uncertainty avoidance cultures have a passive attitude to health by focusing on purity in food and drink and using more medica-tion, low uncertainty avoidance cultures have a more active attitude to

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health by focusing on fitness and sports (De Mooij & Hofstede 2002; De Mooij 2010).

Long- versus short-term orientation is ‘the extent to which a society exhibits a pragmatic future-orientated perspective rather than a conven-tional historic or short-term point of view’. Values included in long-term orientation are perseverance, ordering relationships by status, thrift, and having a sense of shame. The opposite is short-term orientation, which includes personal steadiness and stability, and respect for tradition. Focus is on pursuit of happiness rather than on pursuit of peace of mind. Long-term orientation implies investment in the future. An example is the relationship between LTO and broadband penetration (De Mooij 2010). Broadband asks for large investments by business or governments.

The concepts of self and personality – implications for global branding and advertising

The concepts of self, personality, identity and image that are applied to branding strategy are derived from an individualistic worldview. A host of knowledge from cross-cultural psychology is now available that helps understand the basic differences between the concepts of self and person-ality in different cultures.

The concept of self

The concepts of self and personality, as developed in the individualistic Western world, include the person as an autonomous entity with a distinctive set of attributes, qualities or processes. The configuration of these internal attributes or processes causes behaviour. People’s attributes and processes should be expressed consistently in behaviour across situations. Behaviour that changes with the situation is viewed as hypocritical or pathological.

In the collectivistic model the self cannot be separated from others and the surrounding social context, so the self is an interdependent entity that is part of an encompassing social relationship. Individual behaviour is situational; it varies from one situation to another and from one time to another (Markus & Kitayama 1991). The very first words of little children in China are people-related, whereas children in the united States start talking about objects (Tardiff et al. 2008). In Japan, feeling good is more

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associated with interpersonal situations such as feeling friendly, whereas in the united States feeling good is more frequently associated with interpersonal distance, such as feeling superior or proud. In the united Kingdom feelings of happiness are positively related to a sense of inde-pendence, whereas in Greece good feelings are negatively related to a sense of independence (Nezlek et al. 2008).

How the self of young people develops is not the same either. In indi-vidualistic cultures, a youth has to develop an identity that enables him or her to function independently in a variety of social groups apart from the family. Failure to do so can cause an identity crisis. In collectivistic cultures, youth development is based on encouragement of dependency needs in complex familial hierarchical relationships, and the group ideal is being like others, not being different (Triandis 1995).

Next to individualism, masculinity explains variation of the self-concept. Whereas in feminine cultures modesty and relations are important char-acteristics, in masculine cultures self-enhancement leads to self-esteem. A relationship orientation, including family values, not only is specific to collectivistic cultures but also is found in individualistic cultures that are also feminine (Watkins et al. 1998).

Personality

Personality generally is defined as unique and cross-situationally consist-ent and is usually described in terms of traits such as autonomy or socia-bility. In collectivistic cultures, people’s ideal characteristics vary by social role, and behaviour is influenced by contextual factors (Church 2006). Easterners believe in the continuous shaping of personality traits by situ-ational influences (Norenzayan et al. 2002).

The Western habit of describing oneself and others in terms of abstract characteristics has led to the development of characterisation systems of personal traits. The most used set of personality traits is the Five-Factor Model, also called ‘Big Five’ (McCrae 2002). Although these five factors are found in many different cultures, they vary in weight across cultures and these variations relate to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Hofstede & McCrae 2004). Although research using the same set of questions has resulted in similar five-factor structures across cultures, this doesn’t imply that these are the only existing conceptions of personhood; it merely

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shows that a set of English-language questions, when translated, results in similar five-dimensional structures (Schmitt et al. 2007). There may be other conceptions of personality that are not found. The different factors also vary as to different facets (Cheung et al. 2008). Personality research in East Asia suggests a ‘Big Six’ structure, including a factor ‘dependence on others’ (Hofstede 2007).

The practice of attaching personalities to brands is typical of individual-istic cultures. Several studies have found brand personality factors that are culture specific (e.g. Aaker et al. 2001). For example, in the united States ‘Ruggedness’, in Japan and Spain ‘Peacefulness’, and a specific Spanish dimension, labelled ‘Passion’. A study of Korean brand personalities (Sung & Tinkham 2005) of well-known global brands like Nike, Sony, Levi’s, Adidas, Volkswagen and BMW found two specific Korean brand personali-ties, labelled ‘Passive Likeableness’ and ‘Ascendancy’.

Consumers across cultures attribute different brand personalities to one and the same global brand. The Red Bull brand has been marketed with a consistent brand identity, but consumers attribute different personalities to the brand (Foscht et al. 2008). A commercial cross-cultural brand value study (Crocus 2004, in De Mooij 2010) found that a brand characteristic like ‘friendly’ is most attributed to strong global brands in high uncertainty avoidance and low power distance cultures. ‘Prestigious’ is a characteristic attributed to global brands in high power distance cultures, and ‘trust-worthy’ is most attributed to strong brands in high uncertainty avoidance cultures. In cultures of the configuration low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance, people attributed ‘innovative’ and ‘different’ to these brands. So consumers project their own personality preferences on to global brands. The companies that own global brands want to be con-sistent in their messages worldwide, but consumers attribute personalities to such brands that fit their own cultural values, not the values of the pro-ducer of the brand. More research is needed to find whether consumers link brand personalities to brands and, if they do so, consumers’ personal-ity preferences across cultures.

The need for consistency also is at the basis of preferences for stand-ardisation strategies of uS multinationals. It drives the wish of compa-nies to build uniform brand images (Duncan & Ramaprasad 1995) and academic focus on standardisation instead of adaptation. Taylor (2002) mentions a preoccupation with questions of whether campaigns should be

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standardised to the detriment of seeking answers for pragmatic execution across markets. Consistency needs drive several research assumptions and questions, such as the assumption that a uniform brand image plays a key role in building global brands, and questions about the role of standardised advertising in building a uniform brand image (Taylor 2005, 2007).

Another consequence of consistency need is the relationship attitude–behaviour. Individualists want consistency between their attitudes, feel-ings and behaviours. As a result, under certain conditions, the behaviour of consumers can be predicted from their attitudes towards products, services and brands, and a purchase prediction is derived from a positive attitude. In collectivistic cultures, however, there is not a consistent relationship between attitude and future behaviour. It may even be a reverse relation-ship: behaviour (product usage) comes first and defines attitude (Chang & Chieng 2006). This implies that measurement of attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) for measuring advertising effectiveness will not work the same way in collectivistic cultures as it does in individualistic cultures.

The most widely known model that measures the relationship between attitude and behaviour is the Fishbein behavioural intentions model, in which a normative or social component refers to social pressures on behav-iour such as expectations of others. What in Western terms is called ‘social pressure’ (Lee & Green 1991) has relatively weak influence on individu-alists, who will refer to their own personal attitudes as having influenced their buying decisions. This is different in collectivistic cultures where the norm is to live up to the standards of one’s position, to save ‘face’. The social norm component of the Fishbein model doesn’t capture ‘face’. Face motivates collectivists to act in accordance with one’s social position. If one acts contrary to expectations of one’s social position, ‘a shadow is cast over one’s moral integrity’ (Malhotra & McCort 2001).

Social processes: motivation and emotion

Assumed universal emotions and consumer motives are fundamental to standardisation issues, but both motives and emotions are culture-bound. understanding the variations in what motivates people is important for positioning brands and for developing advertising appeals in different markets. Many motives are category-bound, such as status motives for luxury brands, but the strength of such motives will vary across cultures

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(De Mooij 2004, 2010). More research should be done to find different category motives and the relationship with culture.

Emotion psychologists have argued that emotions are universal. An argument in favour of universal basic emotions is that most languages possess limited sets of central emotion-labelling words, such as anger, fear, sadness and joy. However, display and recognition of facial expres-sions, intensity and meaning of emotions vary and are culturally defined. Emotions are, for example, more subdued in high power distance and col-lectivistic cultures (Kagitçibasi 1997). East Asian collectivists try to display only positive emotions and tend to control negative emotions. Probably this is the reason why, in emotion-recognition studies, Chinese people are less able to identify expressions of fear and disgust (Wang et al. 2006). A comparison of emotion expression across 32 countries showed a significant correlation with individualism for overall emotion expressivity and in par-ticular expressing happiness and surprise (Matsumoto et al. 2008). People also weigh facial cues differently. When interpreting the emotions of oth-ers, the Japanese focus more on the eyes, whereas Americans focus on the mouth. This difference may explain why emoticons differ between Japan and the united States (Yuki et al. 2007). Researchers using emoti-cons – assumed to be more neutral than the faces of real people – should be aware of these differences. As the same expressions may have different meanings in different cultures, this should be an important research area for international advertising researchers.

Mental processes and the implications for branding and communication

How people see, their worldview, how they think, how language struc-tures their thinking, how they learn and how people communicate are mental or cognitive processes. We discuss cross-cultural studies of three such processes: abstract versus concrete thinking, categorisation and infor-mation processing.

Abstract versus concrete thinking

Whereas in individualistic cultures brands are made by adding values or abstract personality traits to products, members of collectivistic cultures

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are more interested in concrete product features than in abstract brands because they are less used to conceptual thinking. For members of col-lectivistic cultures where context and situation are important, the brand concept is too abstract to be discussed the way members of individualis-tic cultures do. The Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands survey in 2002 asked people in 18 different countries in Europe about the probability of buy-ing unknown brands. The responses ‘extremely/quite likely to consider buying a brand which I’ve heard of but haven’t tried before’ correlated significantly with individualism (r = 0.82***).2 Instead of adding abstract personal characteristics to the product, in collectivistic cultures the brand is linked to concrete persons, in Japan called talents (Praet 2001). Whereas American companies have developed product brands with unique char-acteristics, Japanese companies have generally emphasised the corporate brand. In essence, this means inspiring trust among consumers in a com-pany and so persuading them to buy its products. As a result, Japanese and Korean companies, in their television advertisements, display corpo-rate identity logos more frequently than do uS and German companies (Souiden et al. 2006).

The unfamiliarity with abstract brand associations leads to variation when measuring brand equity of global brands across cultures. An impor-tant element of brand equity is consumer equity, which is measured in part by brand associations. Many of these associations are abstract. In this respect, Western measurement systems are not adequate to measure global brand equity. Hsieh (2004) demonstrated that the brand value calculated based on brand associations for 19 car brands in 16 countries varied significantly. In Europe, the average brand value of the 19 brands was higher than in the Asian countries. These differences appear to corre-late with individualism (r = 0.68***). Other studies confirm that different cultural conditions lead consumers to different brand evaluations (Koçak et al. 2007).

2 For correlation analysis, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient is used. Correlation analysis is one-tailed. Significance levels are indicated by *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.005. Regression analysis is stepwise. The coefficient of determination or R2 is the indicator of the percentage of variance explained.

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Categorisation

How people categorise other people and objects varies with individu-alism-collectivism. Collectivists tend to pay attention to relationships between objects, whereas individualists categorise objects according to rules and properties (Choi et al. 1997). Chinese children will group items together that share a relationship, whereas Canadian children will group items together that share a category (unsworth et al. 2005). Such findings explain variation of acceptance of brand extensions. American consumers view a brand extension of a different product category as not fitting with the parent brand. However, collectivists view the parent brand in terms of the overall reputation of or trust in the company. So they perceive a higher degree of brand extension fit also for extensions in product categories far from those associated with the parent brand than individualists would (Monga & Roedder 2007).

Information processing

How people acquire information varies with individualism-collectivism and power distance. In collectivistic and/or high power distance cultures, people will acquire information more via implicit, interpersonal commu-nication and base their buying decisions more on feelings and trust in the company, whereas in individualistic cultures of low power distance, people will actively acquire information via the media and friends to prepare for purchases. Frequent social interaction causes an automatic flow of com-munication between people, who as a result acquire knowledge uncon-sciously (De Mooij 2010). Cho et al. (1999) state that, in China, consumers rely on word-of-mouth communication because of the high contact rate among group members. A 2002 consumer survey by Eurobarometer (14 countries) asked people to what degree they view themselves as well-informed consumers. The answers ‘well-informed’ correlate with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and individualism; individual-ism alone explains 61% of variance.

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Culture and communication

If we want to understand how advertising works across cultures, we’ll first have to learn how communication works. One of the clearest distinctions is between high-context and low-context communication of collectivistic and individualistic cultures. Whereas in individualistic cultures commu-nication is more or less synonymous with information, in collectivistic cultures communication varies with roles and relationships, with con-cern for belonging and occupying one’s proper place (Singelis & Brown 1995; Miyahara 2004). Different interpersonal communication styles are reflected in advertising styles across cultures. Related to this distinction are people’s expectations of the role, purpose and effect of communica-tion. Is advertising persuasive by nature, or can it have another role in the sales process?

How advertising works

There is not one universal model of how advertising works. One of the first scholars to demonstrate this was Gordon Miracle (1987). In individualistic cultures, advertising must persuade, whereas in collectivistic cultures, the purpose is to build relationships and trust between seller and buyer. Japanese advertising focuses on inducing positive feelings rather than providing information. The different purposes are reflected in the dif-ference in timing and frequency of verbal or visual mention of the brand name in television commercials (Miracle et al. 1992). In a typical Japanese television commercial, the first identification of a brand, company name, or product occurs later than in a typical uS television commercial. In Chinese commercials, brand acknowledgement appears later than in uS commercials (Zhou et al. 2005).

Western models of how advertising works presuppose that consumers want to be informed, gather information actively and want to solve prob-lems. This is the model for individualistic and low power distance cultures. The focus on information is reflected in the Resnik and Stern (Stern & Resnik 1991) typology, in which the criterion for considering an advertise-ment informative is whether the informational cues are relevant enough to assist a typical buyer in making an intelligent choice among alternatives. Next to the fact that in some cultures people do not consciously search for

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information, what is relevant information to members of one culture may not be relevant to members of another culture.

Models also follow the assumption that the advertising concept is what classical rhetoricians call an ‘argument from consequence’. Information is an instrument to persuasion. Petty and Cacioppo’s (1986) elaboration likelihood model (ELM) distinguishes a central route and a peripheral route of persuasion. In the theory, the peripheral route generally includes visual cues like the package, pictures or the context of the message. This theory is embedded in Western advertising practice, which uses pictures as illustration of words. Various studies have been conducted to find the influence of pictures, in both the central route and the peripheral route. Experiments conducted by Aaker and Maheswaran (1997) suggest that the dual process model works across cultures but evaluation differences exist between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Advertising appeals and style

Content analysis based studies have revealed culture-specific appeals in advertising that can be explained by the Hofstede dimensions (e.g. Albers 1994; Zandpour et al. 1994). In collectivistic cultures such as China and Korea, appeals focusing on in-group benefits, harmony and family are more effective, whereas in individualistic cultures like the united States, advertising that appeals to individual benefits and preferences, personal success and independence is more effective (Han & Shavitt 1994). The use of celebrities in advertising is related to collectivism, where the func-tion of a celebrity is to give a face to the brand in a world of brands with similar product attributes (Praet 2001).

Current research questions (Taylor 2005, 2007) are about the effective-ness of various executional techniques and which elements of advertising to standardise and when. These questions assume that consumers proc-ess various elements of advertisements separately. Consumers, however, observe the whole picture. Distinguishing what one says from how one says it may not be the way to understand how advertising works across cultures. Often the communication style is decisive for consumers’ acceptance of advertising. For example, the direct style of individualistic cultures may be offensive to members of collectivistic cultures. Various advertising researchers have studied differences in style such as the direct

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versus indirect styles used in individualistic and collectivistic cultures (e.g. Cutler et al. 1997; Cho et al. 1999). As the right advertising style may be more influential to success than executional aspects of advertising, more research is needed to understand advertising styles across cultures. This also applies to communications on the internet.

Advertising research across cultures: points of attention

A review of cross-cultural advertising research by Okazaki and Mueller (2007) shows that most cross-cultural advertising research topics were cultural values and the most used research methods were content analysis and survey. Content analysis has been criticised for providing description without prescription (Samiee & Jeong 1994). We have two arguments against discarding the method.

The first is that comparative content analysis does provide insight in cross-cultural advertising practice that also points at what works best in a country. If in a country certain appeals and communication styles are more common than in others, these style elements are used because they are effective (McQuarrie & Phillips 2008). When the values of consumers are congruent with the values reflected in advertising, the link to liking the ad, the brand or the company increases, and advertising will be more effective (Polegato & Bjerke 2006). Consumers are more positively dis-posed towards local advertisements and find them more interesting and less irritating (Pae et al. 2002). This is also relevant to website design. People perform information-seeking tasks faster when using web con-tent created by designers from their own culture (Faiola & Matei 2005). Cultural adaptation not only enhances ease of use of the website but also leads to more favourable attitudes towards the website, which in turn affects the intention to buy (Singh et al. 2006).

A second argument for the use of content analysis is for measuring the degree of standardisation of advertising. The usual method is surveys among managers of – mostly – uS multinationals. However, the univer-salistic values of uS managers may make them give the desirable answer in the direction of standardisation. Observation of actual practice by con-tent analysis demonstrates what companies do in reality and may as well uncover important advertising appeals and styles for other cultures than the home culture.

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A problem of cross-cultural content analysis is the organisation and logistics of a large-scale cross-country study. In particular when using cul-tural variables like the Hofstede dimensions, comparison should be across more than two countries. unfortunately most studies compare the united States with one other country (Chang et al. 2007), whereas for proper cross-cultural research preferably at least five countries must be compared. unfortunately, few multiple-country studies have been conducted.

Another point of attention is the use of scales or constructs developed in a North American or European context for the study of another. Examples from advertising research are the application of the Resnik and Stern cod-ing scheme (Al-Olayan & Karande 2000; Mindy & McNeal 2001), the informational-transformational distinction (Cutler et al. 2000) and Pollay’s advertising appeals (Albers-Miller & Gelb 1996), all developed in the united States to analyse advertising in other countries. Such constructs may not uncover important items of other cultures.

Next to comparing cultures something can be learned from national studies of how advertising works in other countries than the united States, conducted among non-uS subjects. This is not facilitated by the way some authors report their findings. An example is a study by Ang and Lim (2006), whose affiliations are with universities in Singapore and Australia. Their paper on the influence of metaphors on perceptions and attitudes is very relevant for understanding how advertising works, but they do not mention the national culture of their respondents, as if their findings are universal. This limits the viability of the conclusions. Another example is a statement like ‘Many advertisers standardise general strategy while modifying executions’ (Taylor 2005). Are these American advertisers, or also from other countries? This is important information as managers of uS firms are more inclined to standardise advertising and to create a uniform brand image than, for example, Japanese managers (Taylor & Okazaki 2006). The degree to which marketing managers customise brand image varies with individualism and uncertainty avoidance (Roth 1995). Any study dealing with information processing, how advertising works, attitudes towards advertising and advertising practice should mention the cultural background of research subjects, because the national culture of respondents may influence the results.

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Applying the Hofstede model to research for global branding and advertising

In cross-cultural research we have noted an advance of methodological techniques but less conceptual analysis of cultural dimensions when for-mulating hypotheses. Some research questions ask for better understand-ing of how dimensional models work. Examples are the question as to which cultural dimensions are especially relevant to advertising, and the suggestion that cross-cultural studies that examine the impact of culture should actually measure how the individual respondents stand on the cul-tural dimension investigated (Taylor 2005, 2007).

Measuring individual respondents on scales of cultural dimensions

In comparative cross-cultural research, the properties of individuals as observed within a country are aggregated and then treated as culture-level variables. These variables can be used to explain variation of phenomena (other aggregate data) at country level (e.g. differences in ownership of computers between countries). The aggregated data represent a mix of different people because a society consists of a variety of people. So culture is not one king-size personality that can be used for measuring individu-als. Patterns of associations observed at the culture level (also called the ecological level) can be different from patterns at the individual level. For example, Schwartz (1994, p. 104) has shown that patterns of associations with ‘freedom’ are different at the individual and at the cultural (national) level. Within countries, individuals who score high on the importance of ‘freedom’ also tend to score high on the importance of ‘independence of thought and actions’. But if the scores for all individuals in each nation are averaged, the nations where on average ‘freedom’ is scored as more impor-tant than in other nations are not those scoring higher on the importance of ‘independence’, but those scoring higher on ‘protecting the welfare of others’. The individual associations are based on psychological logic, the national associations on the cultural logic of societies composed of differ-ent, interacting individuals. Measuring individual respondents on scales based on aggregate data is an ecological fallacy.

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Cultural dimensions relevant to advertising

Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey (1988) have best described the influence of the various dimensions of culture on verbal and non-verbal communica-tion styles, which are reflected in advertising styles. The three dimensions that explain variance of communication styles are power distance, individ-ualism/collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. For appeals and motives reflected in advertising, generally the product category defines the most relevant dimensions (De Mooij 2003, 2004, 2010). The dimensions that are relevant for a product category can be discovered only by correlating the data with the GNI/capita and country scores of all five dimensions.

Setting hypotheses

Sometimes researchers challenge the predictive value of the Hofstede model because their hypotheses were not supported, instead of challeng-ing the formulation of the hypotheses. Several aspects of the Hofstede dimensions must be considered when formulating hypotheses: (1) Some manifestations of each dimension are more work-related, whereas others can be applied to consumer behaviour and advertising; (2) often it is a configuration of dimensions that explains variation; (3) value paradoxes have to be taken into account. It is not easy to recognise values in advertis-ing as advertising appeals may reflect both the desired and the desirable (De Mooij 2010). Other problems are: (4) misunderstanding the content of a dimension, and (5) the effect of the researchers’ cultural roots when selecting and interpreting manifestations of the values of the dimensions. Some examples are as follows.

• Power distance is about the relationship between bosses and subordi-nates, but it is also about everyone having his or her rightful place in society versus equality. The latter explains the need for luxury brands as status symbols in high power distance cultures.

• An important value of masculine cultures is achievement. When com-bined with individualism, success can be shown, less so when combined with collectivism. Innovativeness and the wish for change are low in high uncertainty avoidance cultures, but combined with high power distance, appeals like modernity and innovation provide status. High

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scores on masculinity and power distance explain status needs. In high power distance cultures, status brands demonstrate one’s role in a hier-archy. In masculine cultures, status brands demonstrate one’s success. The configuration of high power distance and uncertainty avoidance explains the importance of personal appearance. The Japanese (high PDI/high uAI) judge people by clothes, which is not the case with the Chinese (high PDI/low uAI). Whereas, in Japan, the proper way things are done and one’s social status provide face, for the Chinese face is related to one’s economic capability (Suedo 2004).

• In content analysis of advertising, the picture of a family is assumed to be a reflection of collectivism, but paradoxically it can also be a reflec-tion of individualism where people are afraid that family values are disappearing. In collectivistic cultures advertisers may even feel a lesser need to depict families because the family is part of one’s identity; it is not the desirable. Comparison of the number of people shown in advertisements is not a measure of individualism/collectivism. A better measure is measuring the directness of communication – for example, by comparing the use of personalised headlines.

• uncertainty avoidance tends to be confused with risk avoidance (Roth 1995). The degree to which people insure themselves is not related to uncertainty avoidance. Instead, more life insurance policies are sold in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures. In the former, should one die early, one cannot count on family to support one’s dependants (Chui & Kwok 2008). Showing people in relation to others can be a reflection of collectivism, but also of the affiliation needs of feminine cultures.

• Collectivism is not about subordinating oneself to the group. The lat-ter is the typical description from an individualistic view of the person. The group itself is one’s identity. Power distance is about accepting and expecting inequality – it is a two-way street. Female nudity in advertising should not be confused with sex appeal, as researchers from masculine cultures may assume. There is no relationship with masculinity (Nelson & Paek 2008).

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Conclusion

The number of cross-cultural consumer behaviour studies has been increasing over the years. The Hofstede model of national culture has proved to be a useful instrument for understanding consumer behaviour differences across cultures. Applying the model to branding and advertis-ing, which originally sought answers to work-related value differences, needs conceptual insight in the various manifestations that are relevant to these business areas. This paper has reviewed many recent studies that help gain conceptual insight.

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Zandpour, F., Campos, V., Catalano, J., Chang, C., Cho, Y.D., Hoobyar, R., Jiang, S.-F., Lin, M.-C., Madrid, S., Scheideler, H. & Osborn, S.T. (1994) Global reach and local touch: achieving cultural fitness in TV advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 34(5).

Zhou, S., Zhou, P. & Xue, F. (2005) Visual differences in uS and Chinese television commercials. Journal of Advertising, 34(1), pp. 111–119.

About the authors

Marieke de Mooij studied English literature at the university of Amsterdam and Textile Engineering in Enschede, the Netherlands. She received her PhD at the university of Navarre in Spain, at the department of com-munication. She was advertising manager for an international company, account executive at an advertising agency, was a director at the Dutch institute for professional advertising education and director of education of the International Advertising Association. She has worked on the applica-tion of the Hofstede model to consumer behaviour and advertising since 1990. She is a consultant in Cross Cultural Communications and advises both companies and advertising agencies on international branding and advertising. She is visiting professor to various universities in Europe. Her books Global Marketing and Advertising (third edition 2010) and Consumer Behavior and Culture (2004, second edition to be published in 2011), both published by Sage Publications, are used at universities worldwide. Her website: www.mariekedemooij.com

Geert Hofstede is Professor Emeritus at the university of Maastricht. He holds an MSc in mechanical engineering and a PhD in social psychol-ogy. He had a varied career both in business and in academia, retiring as a professor of organizational anthropology and international management

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from the university of Maastricht, the Netherlands, in 1993. Since the publication of his book Culture’s Consequences (1980, new edition 2001) he has been a pioneer of comparative intercultural research; his ideas are used worldwide. A student-level book Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (1991, new edition 2005 with Gert Jan Hofstede) has so far appeared in 15 European and 3 Asian languages. Geert Hofstede was listed in the Wall Street Journal of May 2008 among the Top 20 most influential busi-ness thinkers. He holds honorary doctorates from seven European univer-sities, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Management and the Academy of International Business in the uSA. His website: www.geerthofstede.nl

Address correspondence to: Marieke de Mooij, Westerenban 44, NL-4328 HE Burgh-Haamstede, the Netherlands.


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Insights from Project GLOBEExtending global advertising research through

a contemporary framework

Robert J. HouseUniversity of Pennsylvania

Narda R. QuigleyVillanova University

Mary Sully de LuqueThunderbird School of Global Management

Numerous calls have been made for further application of the Project GLOBE cultural framework (cf. House et al. 2004) in the global advertising literature (e.g. Terlutter et al. 2006; Okazaki & Mueller 2007; Diehl et al. 2008b). Similarly, we argue that the present literature could benefit from greater inclusion of the cross-cultural theoretical framework and empirical findings from the GLOBE study to understand societal-level cultural variability between and among consumers across the world. This paper introduces and explores the major findings of the GLOBE study, then reviews the extant advertising literature that has incorporated aspects of GLOBE. Additionally, further application of the GLOBE framework is suggested that may help advance the advertising discipline. Five broad research questions are developed that are intended to guide future global advertising research.

Introduction

Coca-Cola, one of the most widely recognised brands in the world, launched a global integrated marketing campaign in early 2009 focused around its ‘Coke Side of Life’ theme. The Atlanta-based company invited its customers to ‘Open Happiness’ and rediscover the simple joys of life, a message that it hoped would resonate globally. While the outcomes of this particular campaign are still in question, it is clear that Coca-Cola’s international brand recognition is an important asset that allows it to adopt a relatively standardised approach in advertising across cultures. Many

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multinationals, however, do not have this level of brand recognition across international borders. As these firms expand from their home countries into foreign territory, a host of issues may arise, not the least of which is lack of cultural acumen as it relates to advertising. While research in the advertising area is striving to discern how societal-level factors shape con-sumers’ responses to different advertising campaigns (e.g. Zinkhan 1994; Alden et al. 1999; Taylor 2005; Terlutter et al. 2005; Okazaki & Mueller 2007; Diehl et al. 2008b; Nelson & Paek 2008; Bu et al. 2009), the present literature may benefit from greater inclusion of the cross-cultural theoreti-cal framework and empirical findings from the Project GLOBE study (cf. House et al. 2004). This framework may assist in the understanding of societal-level cultural differences (and similarities) between and among consumers across the world.

As Taylor (2005) noted, over the last few decades, published interna-tional advertising papers have been growing in frequency relative to other advertising topics. A challenge in this burgeoning field is to examine research questions that are both strategic and managerial in nature and that use appropriate samples, to continue to develop practically relevant suggestions for multinationals with meaningful scope and generalisability. Here, we argue that the Project GLOBE study may serve as a fruitful theoretical base from which international advertising researchers can design empirical studies and derive practical application. A number of scholars have already utilised fundamental GLOBE concepts in their own work (e.g. Terlutter et al. 2005; Diehl et al. 2008b). The purpose of the present discussion, therefore, is not only to relate more prominently the GLOBE study to the field of international advertising research, but also to show specifically how it may be theoretically relevant in the design of future empirical research. We begin by articulating the details of the GLOBE study and discussing its present impact on the organisational, cross-cultural and broader management literatures. We then review the extant advertising literature that has incorporated aspects of GLOBE and suggest ways in which the further application of GLOBE concepts and theory may help to advance this literature.

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INSIGHTS FROM PROJECT GLOBE

Project GLOBE: contributions to cross-cultural research

Introduction to Project GLOBE

Broadly, the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) research programme seeks to study the effectiveness of leadership behaviours in different cultural contexts. The GLOBE team of cross-cultural researchers collected and analysed data from approxi-mately 17,000 managers from 951 organisations in 62 societies throughout the world. Research from the GLOBE project has, to date, produced two comprehensive volumes (House et al. 2004; Chokhar et al. 2007), and a number of journal articles and book chapters (e.g. Den Hartog et al. 1999; Javidan & House 2001; Quigley et al. 2005; House et al. 2006; Javidan et al. 2006b). As of 2004, more than 100 articles and book chapters had already been written on the GLOBE findings (House & Javidan 2004). The information presented in these outlets describes how each of the 62 soci-eties scores on nine major dimensions of culture and six primary factors of global leader behaviours. Current analyses are addressing some of the original research questions regarding the effectiveness of leader behaviour across cultural context (see Waldman et al. 2006 for an example of ongoing research).

The idea for the GLOBE project initially surfaced through the first author in 1991, when questions regarding the universality (i.e. global applicability) of charismatic leadership began to emerge. After completing a review of the psychological, organisational culture and cross-cultural lit-erature, it became clear that, to adequately study the relationship between societal culture and leadership, a comprehensive reconsideration of soci-etal culture was needed. The first phase of the GLOBE project, there-fore, was dedicated to the development of research instruments to assess both societal culture and leadership. The second phase was dedicated to the assessment of nine core attributes of societal and organisational cul-tures (i.e. nine dimensions of culture). Further, in this phase, scores from 62 cultures in our sample were ranked according to their societal dimen-sions, and hypotheses were tested about the relationships between these dimensions and organisational practices and culturally endorsed implicit theories of leadership. At least 170 social scientists and management scholars from countries representing all major regions of the world were

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involved in the first two phases, and many of these researchers continue to be engaged in GLOBE’s long-term, programmatic research goals. The third phase, currently under way, is dedicated to investigating the impact and effectiveness of specific leader behaviours and styles on subordinates’ attitudes and firm performance (House & Javidan 2004). Although the comprehensive examination of societal culture in the first two phases of GLOBE was not the original goal of the project, the findings and theory that were developed have begun to be of some use to the international advertising research area (cf. Okazaki & Mueller 2007).

The GLOBE definition of societal culture

One of the first tasks of the GLOBE team of cross-cultural researchers was to arrive at a mutually agreeable definition for societal culture. A total of 54 researchers from 38 countries gathered in August 1994 at the university of Calgary in Canada for the first GLOBE research confer-ence. During this conference, the following definition of culture was developed: culture is the ‘shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and interpretations or meanings of significant events that result from com-mon experiences of members of collectives that are transmitted across generations’ (House & Javidan 2004). We emphasised the ‘sharedness’ of the cultural indicators among members of a given collective and noted that the specific criteria used to distinguish among cultures (i.e. dimen-sions of culture) were likely to depend on the preferences and/or disci-pline of the investigator and the issues under investigation. As a result of our qualitative and quantitative investigation, in our operationalisation of culture, we determined that there were two distinct types of cultural manifestations that surfaced: cultural practices and cultural values. With respect to the former, practices were measured through middle manag-ers responding to questions regarding ‘what is’ or ‘what are’ common behaviours or actions within a culture. This approach was developed out of the psychological and behavioural tradition of studying culture, which assumes that cultures should be studied as they are interpreted by their members (Segall et al. 1998). With respect to values, we built on the anthropological tradition of culture assessment (e.g. Kluckholn & Strodtbeck 1961) and attempted to measure respondents’ values regarding their reported ideal behaviour. Questionnaire items reflecting

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values concerned judgements of ‘what should be’ common behaviours or actions within a given culture.

The GLOBE conceptual model

Several existing management and cross-cultural theories were integrated to develop the overarching theory that guided the GLOBE research pro-gramme (House et al. 1997). These included implicit leadership theory (Lord & Maher 1991), value-belief theory of culture (Hofstede 1980; Triandis 1995) and implicit motivation theory (McClelland 1985), among others. The central proposition of this overarching theory is that (1) the characteristics of societal culture that distinguish cultures from each other are predictive of organisational practices, and (2) the leader attributes and behaviours that are most frequently enacted are considered most accepted and expected in that particular culture (House & Javidan 2004).

Though there are many specific linkages presented in the framework of the culture and leadership model, we discuss three of these briefly here, as depicted in Figure 1. A fundamental concept in the GLOBE research pro-gramme was the culturally endorsed implicit theory of leadership (CLT), which we developed from the implicit leadership theory literature (Lord & Maher 1991). According to this literature, individuals have implicit beliefs, convictions and assumptions concerning the basic nature of leadership, as well as what distinguishes effective from ineffective leadership (Hanges et al. 1991; Lord & Maher 1991; Hanges et al. 1997; Sipe & Hanges 1997). GLOBE researchers anticipated that these implicit beliefs might be influ-enced by societal culture, creating a CLT. Thus, the first specific linkage to note in the overall GLOBE conceptual model suggests that societal cul-ture (in terms of practices and values) has a direct influence on culturally endorsed implicit leadership theory. The second linkage of note is that soci-etal culture has a direct influence on leadership behaviours and attributes. The third linkage of note is that leader attributes and behaviours will lead to leader acceptance (as perceived by followers) and effectiveness, but that this relationship is moderated by the CLT. When leader attributes and behaviours match or fit with the culturally implicit understanding of leader-ship, the link between leader attributes/behaviours and leader acceptance and effectiveness is likely to be stronger. The relevance of these particular linkages for research on global advertising will be discussed shortly.

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Units of analysis and sampling procedure

One issue that cross-cultural researchers face is that numerous countries have multiple subcultures within their sovereign borders, which makes it difficult to collect truly representative samples from multicultural nations (e.g. the uS, China or India). As Chokhar et al. (2007, p. 21) noted, however, the samples ‘need to be comparable with respect to the dominant forces that shape cultures, such as ecological factors, history, language, politics, and religion’. In addition, the country samples had to be relatively homoge-nous within cultures so as to ensure adequate levels of within-group agree-ment in terms of aggregating measures to the societal level. The subculture of choice for most of the GLOBE countries was a sample from geographic areas that included the greatest amount of commercial activity. Whenever possible, more than one subculture was sampled (e.g. indigenous and white subcultures in South Africa, or the former East and West Germany) and these subcultures were treated as separate societies. ultimately, as noted in House et al. (2004) and Chokhar et al. (2007), the units of analy-sis for the GLOBE study consisted of culture-level aggregated responses of samples of typical middle managers in at least two of three industries: telecommunications services, food processing and financial services. The three industries were selected because they are likely to be present in most countries, regardless of economic development level. Additionally, the three industries provide some variance in terms of relatively stable vs dynamic industries (food processing vs telecommunications, for example).

Link 1

Link 2 Link 3

Societal culture(e.g. practices and values)

Figure 1: Three GLOBE theoretical linkages

Source: adapted from House et al. 1997

Culturally endorsed implicit theory of leadership (CLT)

Leader attributes and behaviours

Leader effectiveness

Leader acceptance

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As noted above, the units of analysis for GLOBE were the societal-level aggregated responses of middle managers, which we defined as an individ-ual who had at least two levels above and at least two levels below him or her in an organisation. In the case of extremely small organisations, a mid-dle manager was defined as someone who reported directly to the CEO and had at least one level below him/her in the organisation (House et al. 2004; Chokhar et al. 2007). Specified procedures were followed to avoid common source bias. For example, societal- and organisation-level culture questionnaires were completed by independent samples of respondents. Such processes were enacted to ensure construct validity of GLOBE scales, as detailed in House and Hanges (2004), and Gupta et al. (2004).

Nine core dimensions of culture

In Phases 1 and 2 of the study, we attempted to differentiate attributes of culture, both at the organisational and societal levels. After arriving at a shared definition of culture, we developed 735 questionnaire items on the basis of prior literature and our own theorising based on qualitative research. We used two pilot studies to generate responses to these items; we then analysed the results of these pilot studies using conventional psychometric procedures (e.g. item, factor, cluster analysis and generalis-ability analyses; Hanges & Dickson 2004). These analyses resulted in the identification of nine major cultural dimensions (summarised in Table 1): uncertainty avoidance, power distance, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, future orientation, performance orientation and humane orientation. Original scales were developed for each of these dimensions to reflect both the practices and values associated with each dimension within a given culture. As a result, 18 scales measured the practices and values associated with the nine core GLOBE dimensions of culture (House & Javidan 2004). The identifica-tion of these dimensions is a contribution of the GLOBE study that has proved useful for international advertising research (e.g. Terlutter et al. 2006) and that may increasingly continue to benefit the discipline.

A brief explanation of the various GLOBE dimensions of culture, applicable at both the organisational or societal level, is worth featuring. First, uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which members of a cul-ture rely (or should rely, in the case of the cultural values version of the

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scale) on established social norms, rituals and bureaucratic practices, and thus they strive to avoid uncertainty (Sully de Luque & Javidan 2004). Given many labels, uncertainty avoidance has been studied for decades throughout many social science disciplines. A version of this particular dimension of societal culture was originally brought to prominence by Hofstede (1980), though the concept has its origins as an organisational-level attribute (Cyert & March 1963). For illustrative purposes, GLOBE analyses revealed that both Singapore and Switzerland reported high scores on uncertainty avoidance, tending to establish detailed processes, procedures, and strategies. In contrast, Russia and Greece both reported scores low on uncertainty avoidance; these countries tend to prefer simple processes and broad strategies, leaving room for flexibility and risk taking (Javidan et al. 2006a). Societies such as Japan and the united States, in contrast, reported moderate scores on this dimension.

Power distance is the degree to which members of a society expect and agree (or should expect and agree) that power should be stratified

Table 1: Definitions of the nine cultural dimensions of societies

Cultural dimension Definition

1. Institutional collectivism The degree to which organisational and societal institutional practices encourage and reward the collective distribution of resources and collective action

2. In-group collectivism The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organisations or families

3. Power distance The degree to which members of a society expect and agree that power should be stratified and concentrated at higher levels of an organisation or government

4. Performance orientation The degree to which an organisation or society encourages and rewards members for performance improvement and excellence

5. Gender egalitarianism The degree to which a society minimises gender role differences while promoting gender equality

6. Future orientation The degree to which individuals in organisations or societies engage in future-orientated behaviours such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying individual or collective gratification

7. Humane orientation The degree to which members of a society encourage and reward individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring and kind to others

8. Assertiveness The degree to which members of a society are assertive, confrontational or aggressive in social relationships

9. Uncertainty avoidance The extent to which members of a society seek certainty in their environment by relying on established social norms, rituals and bureaucratic practices

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and concentrated at the top of organisational hierarchies, or conversely the degree to which members of a society expect and agree that power should be distributed equally (Carl et al. 2004). Mulder (1971) originally conceived of this concept as a measure of the power differential between superiors and subordinates; Hofstede (1980) then considered whether this concept could reflect differences at the societal level of analysis. A high score on power distance in terms of cultural practices indicates that a given society is more economically, socially and politically stratified; countries like South Korea, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and India reported scores high on power distance, while countries like Denmark and the Netherlands reported scores relatively low on power distance practices (Carl et al. 2004). In general, countries scoring high on this dimension tend to have hierarchical decision-making processes with one-way (i.e. top-down) com-munication processes (Javidan et al. 2006a).

Institutional collectivism and in-group collectivism both assess the extent to which a society prefers affiliations and loyalty towards collectives (Gelfand et al. 2004). Institutional collectivism is the degree to which soci-eties do (or should) reward collective action and collective distribution of resources; in-group collectivism is the degree to which individuals express (or should express) pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organisations or families. Hofstede’s (1980) measure of individualism influenced the basis of the collectivism dimension; however, a factor analysis of the GLOBE items intended to measure collectivism in general resulted in these two dimensions. As noted in House and Javidan (2004), the institutional collec-tivism dimension had not been studied in prior research, though in-group collectivism was based on the studies of Triandis (1995). Cultures that reported high scores on institutional collectivism practices – like Sweden, Japan and Singapore – tend to emphasise group performance and rewards, while cultures that reported comparatively low scores – like Greece and Brazil – tend to emphasize individual rewards. Cultures that reported high scores on in-group collectivism, such as India, China and Egypt, tend to strongly identify with their families and take a great deal of pride in their affiliations with employers; in contrast, the uS, uK, Canada and Finland reported relatively low scores and placed less emphasis on identifying with collectives (Gelfand et al. 2004; Javidan et al. 2006a).

Gender egalitarianism is the extent to which (1) gender role differ-ences are (or should be) minimised in a society, and (2) women would

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be afforded the same opportunities as men within that particular soci-ety (Emrich et al. 2004). Hofstede’s (1980) discussion of a masculinity dimension served as an influence for this particular dimension of culture. However, the GLOBE project theoretically separated the dimension into gender egalitarianism and assertiveness (discussed below), as the original masculinity dimension problematically confounded several different ideas (see Emrich et al. 2004 for a detailed discussion). Societies that reported higher scores on gender egalitarianism practices (e.g. Russia, Sweden, Canada and France) tend to have more women in positions of authority, have higher female literacy rates, and have similar levels of education for men and women; societies that reported lower scores (e.g. South Korea, Kuwait, India and Egypt) tend to have fewer women in decision-making roles, have more occupational sex segregation and have a lower level of education on average for women vs men (Emrich et al. 2004). As a point of interest, none of the 62 societies participating in the GLOBE project reported scores reflecting a truly egalitarian society. In no societies, there-fore, did we find that woman had equal opportunities to men.

Assertiveness, or the degree to which individuals in societies are (or should be) assertive, confrontational and aggressive in social relationships, is the second dimension from the GLOBE study influenced by Hofstede’s (1980) masculinity dimension. Prior to the GLOBE study, there were no studies focusing on assertiveness specifically as a cultural dimension, though Peabody (1985) focused on assertiveness as a ‘national characteris-tic’ that differed across cultures. Societies that score high on assertiveness practices tend to value tough, dominant and assertive behaviour for every-one in society, value direct communication, have sympathy for the strong, have a ‘can-do’ attitude, and value what you do more than who you are (Den Hartog 2004). Societies that score low on assertiveness tend to have sympathy for the weak, value modesty and cooperation, speak indirectly and emphasise ‘face-saving’, and value ambiguity and subtlety in language and communication. The uS, Austria, Germany and Nigeria reported high scores on societal practices for this dimension, while French-speaking Switzerland, New Zealand, Sweden and Japan reported relatively low scores (Den Hartog 2004).

Future orientation is the degree to which individuals in societies engage (or should engage) in future-orientated behaviours such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying individual or collective gratification

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(Ashkanasy et al. 2004). Although this concept has been operationalised and interpreted in a variety of ways (e.g. Seijts 1998), GLOBE derived this dimension of culture from Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) Past, Present, Future Orientation dimension, which focuses on the temporal orientation of most people in the society. Societies reporting higher scores on this dimension (e.g. Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Malaysia) show a propensity to save for the future, have individuals that are more intrinsically motivated, value the deferment of gratification and place a higher priority on long-term success, and view material success and spiritual fulfilment as an integrated whole or interrelated. Societies reporting comparatively lower scores on this dimension (Russia, Poland, Argentina and Italy) have a propensity to spend now (rather than save), have individuals who are less intrinsically motivated, see material success and spiritual fulfilment as dualities requiring trade-offs, and value instant gratification (Ashkanasy et al. 2004).

Performance orientation is the degree to which a society encourages and rewards (or should encourage and reward) group members for per-formance improvement, innovation and excellence (Javidan 2004). We derived this particular dimension from McClelland’s (1961) work on need for achievement, which is assumed to be a non-conscious individual-level motive. Societies that scored high on performance orientation tend to value training and development, emphasise results more than people, expect demanding targets, value being explicit and direct in communi-cations, and have a sense of urgency. These societies may favour per-formance appraisal systems that emphasise achieving results. Societies reporting high scores on performance orientation include Switzerland, Singapore, the uS and China. In contrast, societies that score lower on performance orientation tend to value relationships, have a high respect for quality of life, emphasise seniority and experience, regard being moti-vated by money as inappropriate, emphasise tradition, value ambiguity in communications and have a low sense of urgency. These societies may favour performance appraisal systems that emphasise integrity, loyalty and cooperative spirit. Societies reporting lower scores include Greece, Venezuela, Russia and Argentina (Javidan 2004).

Humane orientation – or the degree to which individuals in organisa-tions or societies encourage and reward (or should encourage and reward) individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring and kind to

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others – draws on several concepts: Kluckholn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) dimension Human Nature as Good vs Human Nature as Bad; Putnam’s (1993) work on civic society; and McClelland’s (1985) concept of the affiliative motive (Kabasakal & Bodur 2004). Societies that score high on humane orientation tend to place importance on others (i.e. family, friends, community and strangers); believe that people are motivated by the need for belonging and affiliation; give high priority to values of altruism, benevolence, love, kindness and generosity; expect people to promote patronage norms and paternalistic relationships; and believe that children should be obedient and should be closely controlled by their parents. Societies scoring low on this dimension, in contrast, believe that self-interest is important; power and material possessions motivate people; people are expected to solve personal problems on their own; formal wel-fare institutions replace paternalistic norms and patronage relationships; the state sponsors public provisions and sectors; and children should be autonomous and independent. Societies reporting high scores on humane orientation practices include Zambia, the Philippines, Ireland, Malaysia and Egypt; societies reporting low scores on this dimension include Germany, Spain, Greece, Poland and Switzerland (Kabasakal & Bodur 2004).

It is important to note with respect to the above dimensions that they shed some light on cultures when considered separately (i.e. one dimension at a time). For a more complete picture of a given culture, the scores on practices (and values) for all nine dimensions should be considered together, despite the inherent complexity of doing so. Also, the nine dimensions are not orthogonal; in other words, cultural values and practices of the nine dimensions may be correlated with each other. For example, a negative correlation (–0.42, p < 0.05) was found between humane orientation practices and assertiveness practices at the societal level, suggesting that societies in the GLOBE sample that are scored higher on humane orientation practices tended to score lower on assert-iveness practices. Similarly, a positive correlation (0.41, p < 0.05) was found between performance orientation values and future orientation values at the societal level, suggesting that societies in the GLOBE sam-ple that value performance tend also to value preparing for the future (Hanges 2004). Interestingly, seven of the nine dimensions exhibited negative relationships between societal practices and values: institu-

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tional collectivism, power distance, performance orientation, future orientation, humane orientation, assertiveness and uncertainty avoid-ance. For the remaining two dimensions, in-group collectivism did not have significant correlation between practices and values, and gender egalitarianism displayed a positive relationship between practices and values. In other words, for the seven dimensions listed above, societies that exhibited high practices wished to exhibit fewer of those practices, and societies that exhibited low practices wished to exhibit more of those practices. Gender egalitarianism was the lone dimension for which societies did not demonstrate differences between reported practice (‘as is’ scores) and values (‘should be’) scores. Table 2 summarises these correlations.

Interpreting the differences between the values and practices scores has been the focus of much discussion (Javidan et al. 2006a). Fundamentally, the research question being addressed should drive whether practices or values scores are assessed. Thus, if the primary research ques-tion concerns the way a soci-ety performs, then focusing on societal practice dimen-sions may be advisable. Conversely, if research con-cerns the values or desires of the way a society should perform, then we would suggest focusing on societal value dimensions.

Ten regional clusters of societal cultures

As noted above, the consideration of a single dimension of culture at a time may not be holistic enough to provide a meaningful way to differentiate and compare cultures. In order to provide a more meaningful consideration of the 62 societal cultures in the GLOBE data sample, GLOBE cultures were grouped into a set of ten regional clusters (Gupta & Hanges 2004). As a result of a detailed conceptual and empirical process, these regional

Table 2: Correlations between societal practices and values for GLOBE dimensions

Dimension Correlation p-value

Institutional collectivism –0.61 <0.01

In-group collectivism 0.21 NS

Power distance –0.43 <0.01

Performance orientation –0.28 <0.05

Gender egalitarianism 0.32 <0.05

Future orientation –0.41 <0.01

Humane orientation –0.32 <0.05

Assertiveness –0.26 <0.05

Uncertainty avoidance –0.61 <0.01

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Table 3: Countries and clusters included in the GLOBE study

Cluster name Countries

Anglo Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa (white sample), United States

Latin Europe France, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland (French-speaking)

Nordic Europe Denmark, Finland, Sweden

Germanic Europe Austria, Germany (former East), Germany (former West), the Netherlands, Switzerland

Eastern Europe Albania, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Slovenia

Latin America Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela

Sub-Saharan Africa Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa (black sample), Zambia, Zimbabwe

Middle East Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey

Southern Asia India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand

Confucian Asia China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan

clusters were developed on all GLOBE dimensions, using both the nine cultural practices and nine values. These cluster profiles provide a ‘conven-ient way of summarizing intercultural similarities as well as intercultural differences’ (Gupta & Hanges 2004, p. 178). One of the major reasons for clustering societies is to provide constructive information for working with diverse nationalities or cultures, as ‘practices, policies, and procedures that work quite effectively in one culture may dramatically fail or produce coun-terproductive behavior in another culture’ (Gupta & Hanges 2004, p. 179). The ten clusters found in the GLOBE study, therefore, could prove quite useful to international advertising scholarship and practice.

There is a robust history of grouping countries into clusters, perhaps based on geographic proximity (Furnham et al. 1994), mass migrations/ethnic social capital (Porter & Zhou 1994), religious and linguistic commo-nality (Cattell 1950) or cultural patterns (Toynbee 1947). After a compre-hensive review of the extant literature on country clusters, the GLOBE team developed hypotheses about the clusters that might emerge from the 62 societies included in the GLOBE sample. These hypotheses were then tested using discriminant analysis, which develops a linear function from a set of variables (i.e. societal culture dimensions reflecting practices and values) believed to be important in differentiating group member-ship, such as the hypothesised societal clusters. Gupta and Hanges (2004) present the detailed results of this analysis, reporting that the ten pro-

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posed regional clusters (Table 3) of the GLOBE societies were supported, though some of the clusters were not as clearly differentiable as others.

A primary contribution of the GLOBE study to cross-cultural research is the proposing of and testing for the existence of these country clusters in the GLOBE sample. In particular, knowledge of the clusters may be especially helpful for multinational organisations looking to manage across multiple cultures by balancing global convergence and integration with local responsiveness and adaptability. In the international management literature, Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989) highlighted a vigorous discussion among international management scholars on how firms manage the competing demands of global integration and local responsiveness. They advocated a ‘transnational’ approach, combining global standardisation and local responsiveness as a possible and sometimes necessary solution to this dilemma. The cultural clusters described in the GLOBE study may help with the enactment of a transnational approach, particularly with respect to international advertising. This issue will be discussed further below.

Twenty-five societal cultures in detail

The findings of Project GLOBE described in the above sections are presented in greater detail in House et al. (2004). A companion volume written by select members of the GLOBE team introduced intensive qualitative and quantitative research in 25 societal cultures with the intent of further illuminating the connection between societal culture and effec-tive leadership within these cultures (Chokhar et al. 2007). In contrast to the first volume, which attempted to compare societies across culturally generalisable dimensions, the second volume integrated quantitative-comparative GLOBE data with qualitative, in-depth results from each society to form a more holistic description of the societies studied. The 25 cultures in this analysis included: Argentina, Australia, Austria, China, Columbia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the uS. Different chapter contributions were made by scholars who had lived in the particular country of focus for some time, which helped them realisti-cally analyse and interpret the data.

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While this particular volume was published relatively recently, we do have a sense that there are certain contributions of the work.1 As noted in Chokhar et al. (2007), the country-specific, in-depth analyses provide important information to practitioners looking to prepare and plan for negotiations, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and collaborations with managers from other societal cultures. The volume significantly contributes to the cross-cultural management field in that it contains rich descriptions of the culture and leadership practices of the represented countries; these culturally specific lessons may also be useful for interna-tional advertising practice.

Prior advertising literature drawing on the GLOBE study

As noted above, there has been some use of the GLOBE research in global advertising research, though its use has been relatively sparse (cf. Okazaki & Mueller 2007). In this section, we briefly review the applica-tion of GLOBE research in the advertising literature and point out some common themes among these articles.

One of the clearest applications of the GLOBE study in global advertis-ing research to date has been in the examination of the cultural dimensions. In their review of global advertising research, Okazaki and Mueller (2007) noted that cultures have been compared with respect to Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions, Schwartz’s (1992, 1994) cultural values framework, and the GLOBE framework. The first published investigation applying GLOBE in advertising research was a study by Terlutter et al. (2005). Their study focused on the assertiveness cultural dimension, since asser-tive messages seem to be an ‘appeal commonly employed in commercial messages’ (Terlutter et al. 2006, p. 435). In this study of participants from France, Germany, the uS and England, the authors hypothesised that the levels of assertiveness practices and values in each societal culture would influence the perception and evaluation of a standardised advertisement featuring an assertive appeal. Terlutter et al. (2006, p. 436) suggest from their findings that ‘in assertive markets, stronger assertive cues may be required if consumers are to perceive the ads as assertive in nature. In less

1 This book received the 2009 ursula Gielan Global Psychology Book Award, awarded to the book that has made the greatest contribution in international research, from the International Division of the American Psychological Association.

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assertive countries, more subtle cues may be sufficient to obtain the same level of perceived assertiveness’.

A follow-up study by Diehl et al. (2008b) examined the performance orientation GLOBE cultural dimension. Hypotheses suggested that (1) there would be a positive relationship between perceived level of per-formance orientation in an ad and consumers’ evaluation of the ad; (2) this relationship would be stronger (i.e. more positive) when individuals more strongly valued performance orientation; and (3) there would be a negative relationship between performance orientation (societal practices) and the perceived level of performance orientation in the ad. Finding par-tial support of the hypotheses, Diehl et al. (2008b, p. 274) conclude that ‘[a]dvertisers employing a standardised approach in their international efforts must be aware that an ad incorporating performance-oriented appeals may well be perceived differently from one country to the next, depending on the role that performance orientation plays in that particular market’.

Another recent study (Okazaki et al. in press) examined how hard- vs soft-sell advertising techniques were perceived by uS vs Japanese consumers. Examining the performance orientation and assertiveness GLOBE dimensions of culture, this study assessed the effectiveness of executional techniques in the two societies. ultimately, the findings suggest that there are significant differences in consumer responses to soft-sell appeals across the two cultures. The use of soft-sell appeals led to more favourable attitudes towards the ad among Japanese consumers, while ‘u.S. consumers are more likely to believe ads containing hard sell appeals, as compared with their Japanese counterparts’ (Okazaki et al. in press, p. 25). The authors conclude that ‘the use of hard-hitting sales pitches may well be more persuasive for American consumers, whose judgments tend to be based on assertive, performance-oriented values. In contrast, Japanese consumers were likely to feel irritated by ads contain-ing hard sell appeals, likely because they are viewed as too aggressive, confrontational, and too achievement-oriented’ (Okazaki et al. in press, p. 25). This study is notable for its use of multiple dimensions of GLOBE (both assertiveness and performance orientation). Also, the results suggest that the adoption of a ‘fit’ perspective when considering what advertising techniques may be more effective in differing cultures may be a produc-tive avenue for future research.

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To conclude, the global advertising literature has just begun to examine the GLOBE dimensions in research questions and study designs. Notably, the few studies that have been conducted using the GLOBE framework have explored cultural dimensions not examined in previous advertising research (performance orientation and assertiveness orientation), as these dimensions are new overall contributions to culture research (House et al. 2004). There are likely to be further opportunities for advertising research-ers to investigate these dimensions as well as others (e.g. humane orienta-tion and gender egalitarianism) through future research.

Future application of the GLOBE study in advertising research

Future global advertising research may draw from the existing Project GLOBE theory, methodology and findings in a number of ways. While GLOBE does not provide a complete answer to Taylor’s (2005) call for the development of a general theory of societal culture’s impact on advertis-ing, there are many insights to be gained from the contributions of this research. Several of these possibilities are listed below, as well as five broad research questions to guide future studies.

Consideration of the GLOBE theoretical model

While the GLOBE overarching theoretical model was intended to draw connections between societal culture, organisational culture and leader-ship (Den Hartog et al. 1999), there are some linkages in the model that may be of value for global advertising research. In particular, while there may be no concept directly analogous to the culturally implicit theory of leadership, there may be culturally implicit theories of communication or messaging relevant to the advertising literature. Okazaki et al. (in press) argue that cultural differences in communication expectations in Japan and the uS provide some evidence of the discrepancy in perception of soft- vs hard-sell advertising appeals. To this point, the global advertising literature would be well served to develop a general, cross-level theoreti-cal model that helps link societal culture to individual-level perceptions of advertising and advertising effectiveness. This suggested theoreti-cal advertising model might draw from the concept of a ‘fit’ or ‘match’

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between a given societal culture, the advertising message itself, and the expectations individuals in that culture share regarding communication and messaging, in predicting individual-level perceptions of advertising effectiveness. It is worth noting that many of the existing global advertis-ing studies that incorporate the GLOBE dimensions have done so at the individual level, based on the idea that individuals are socialised through the shared values and practices of their respective cultures, and there-fore are likely to adopt these values and practices at the individual level (Markus & Kitiyama 1991). An overarching model reflecting the impact of societal culture on global advertising, however, might include the actual societal-level manifestation of culture, since culture has been defined at a collective level of analysis (i.e. societal or organisational; House et al. 2004). This model might also consider how societal-level culture influences the ways in which multinational companies approach different international markets (e.g. Li et al. 2009). We therefore propose the following research questions:

RQ1: What are the cross-level linkages between societal culture, organ-isational advertising practices and perceptions of global advertis-ing effectiveness at the individual level?

RQ2: Would the fit/match between advertising methods, societal expectations regarding communication and societal culture be an important predictor of advertising effectiveness?

Consideration of the GLOBE study’s two aspects of societal culture

Since GLOBE research shows that societal culture can be measured in terms of both values and practices, global advertising research could begin to explore research issues specifically concerning these two aspects of cul-ture. While Diehl et al. (2008b) developed measures to assess performance orientation practices and values as perceived by individuals, they did not specifically formulate hypotheses to address how cultural practices and values might influence consumers in different ways. The initial GLOBE data collection, however, found that societal practices and values are not always positively correlated. As noted in Table 2, seven of nine dimen-

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sions exhibited negative correlations between practices and values. As such, it is likely that practices and values have differential influences on the ways in which consumers interpret and perceive advertising messag-ing. A practical implication of this may be that advertisers could leverage the disparity between a specific cultural dimension’s practices and values scores for consumers from a given society. Therefore, we propose the fol-lowing research question:

RQ3: Given that advertising often appeals to consumers’ aspirations, is it more important to consider the practices or values associated with societal culture dimensions in advertising communication? How do these two aspects of cultural dimensions influence the perceptions of consumers towards advertising?

Consideration of multiple dimensions of culture and country clusters

As noted above, only two GLOBE dimensions of culture have been explored in separate studies in the global advertising literature (perform-ance orientation and assertiveness). Yet, as previous research has noted, other GLOBE dimensions may have important implications for global advertising (e.g. Terlutter et al. 2006; Okazaki & Mueller 2007). The cultural dimensions of humane orientation and gender egalitarianism, for example, seem to provide future research opportunities for adver-tising scholars interested in investigating phenomena related to these dimensions.

Moving beyond the examination of a single dimension in one study is also important (e.g. Okazaki et al. in press). Studying a single cultural dimension in isolation simplifies the research design and allows for an in-depth consideration of that particular dimension, particularly if mul-tiple societal cultures are included in the sampling process (e.g. Diehl et al. 2008a; Nelson & Paek 2008). However, the consideration of a single dimension may lead to an unrealistic and incomplete picture with respect to the culture of a particular society. To make meaningful generalisations across societies, future research should develop hypotheses around con-figurations of several cultural dimensions simultaneously (e.g. Okazaki & Mueller 2008) and consider multiple cultures in the same study. For

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example , researchers might consider what type of messaging may be effective when multiple societal cultures are high/low in gender egali-tarianism practices, assertiveness practices and performance orientation practices concurrently.

Despite the complexities inherent in considering multiple combina-tions of cultural dimensions across multiple societal cultures, some adver-tising research has already begun moving in this direction, albeit without drawing from the findings of the GLOBE study (e.g. Karande et al. 2006; An 2007). Knowledge of the GLOBE country clusters might be beneficial for future research in determining which specific combinations of cultural values and practices are realistic configurations to consider. Within each of the ten country clusters, there are some generalisations that can be made regarding the societal cultures included. These specific configurations may allow advertising researchers to adopt a transnational approach (i.e. linking the general/global and specific/local) when examining the influ-ence of societal culture on advertising. Although the ‘standardisation vs localisation’ argument is debatable (e.g. Taylor 2002), some important theoretical and practical implications can be gleaned about how advertis-ing may be tailored to the cultural leanings of country clusters. Therefore, we suggest the following research questions:

RQ4: What is the influence of multiple dimensions of culture on adver-tising effectiveness? Is it important to consider multiple dimen-sions and multiple cultures simultaneously to arrive at more holistic, generalisable conclusions?

RQ5: How does consideration of the cultural differences between the ten country clusters identified by the GLOBE study shed light on the standardisation vs localisation ‘debate’ in the global advertising literature? What are the generaliseable conclusions to be drawn from the similarities and differences within and between the coun-try clusters that would be useful for global advertising research?

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Conclusion and a note about the GLOBE research process

A final point with direct relevance to international advertising research should be made about the process by which Project GLOBE has evolved. As multinational corporations have grown and domestic companies com-pete globally, research in business disciplines has been slow to embrace a truly global focus. For example, as Leung (2007) noted, modern manage-ment research focuses almost exclusively on the uS and, in some cases, Western Europe and China. In comparison to multinationals like Toyota (with 39 overseas production centres in 24 countries) and Microsoft (with offices in 60 countries), the business research enterprise lacks interna-tional breadth. The GLOBE study has attempted to address this inequity by including 62 societies in its sampling of 17,300 middle managers from 950 organisations. As noted by Terlutter et al. (2006), however, GLOBE has been somewhat limited in its relatively small sample of middle manag-ers (average of about 250 participants per societal culture, though 10% of the societal cultures surveyed included sample sizes of between 27 and 75 individuals). Future global advertising research should continue the trend of collecting data from respondents regarding societal culture, as Taylor (2005) recommended.

Also, while the GLOBE study provides a solid beginning for global advertising research, the sample of middle managers and their perceptions of societal culture may be one among many research steps to propel the global advertising field forward. Future research should focus on study-ing subcultures that exist in majority populations. For example, we may need to know more about how to create advertising that effectively targets minority populations within majority populations who may find them-selves with increasing disposable income. This kind of sample is absent from the current GLOBE dataset of middle managers. While the prospect of global advertising researchers attempting to undertake a study of the scale and scope of GLOBE may seem daunting, targeting subculture populations in cross-cultural research may be extremely useful to move the global advertising field forward.

Some of the strategies by which the GLOBE programme managed to amass its final sample are worth noting; more details about these strate-gies can be found in House et al. (2004) and Chokhar et al. (2007). First,

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we needed decentralised participation from the teams of researchers across the world to design the study, collect and analyse the data, and disseminate the research. Van de Vijver and Leung (1997) proposed that designing a culturally balanced study occurs with input from people from diverse cultural backgrounds to help with the development of theory and methodological design. Commenting on the development of the GLOBE project, Leung (2007, p. xiv) noted, ‘The definition and content of culture and leadership dimensions were the result of collective wisdom gleaned from the first GLOBE research conference in 1994, with the participation of 54 researchers from 38 countries. Furthermore, country co-investigators contributed items to the instruments used, sharpened and reworded items to render them culturally appropriate, assisted in the translation of the instruments, and aided in the interpretation of results based on indigenous research and unique cultural knowledge.’ Put simply, GLOBE involved scholars globally throughout the research process.

A second strategy that allowed us to enact the decentralised partici-pation noted above was the use of a network structure for all GLOBE country co-investigators, with several of us playing key roles as members of the GLOBE integrative/coordinating team. We tried to ensure that all researchers and practitioners associated with the project understood their roles and obligations. We communicated with them regularly over the phone, via email and postal mail, and in person whenever possible. At times it was necessary to specifically monitor the progress of country co-investigators, assist them with problem-solving, provide them with encouragement and/or mildly cajole them (House 2004). Related to this was the importance of trust. As much as possible, we have tried to trust co-investigators to freely exchange ideas and receive credit for their con-tributions through publishing and presenting their work on the GLOBE project. The process of developing the network assisted in building trust.

A third broad strategy to note is that we were very interested in the use of multiple methodologies to triangulate observations and provide both generalisability and specificity with respect to our findings. To that end, we used both quantitative and qualitative methods during various phases of the project. We considered both etic (culture-general) research for identifying global, pan-cultural ways to describe societal culture and emic (culture-specific) findings and insights, as recommended by Yang (2000)

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and others. In so doing, we tried to address the specific deficiencies associ-ated with both pan-cultural and indigenous research.

A final strategy to note (and something that, in hindsight, would have been useful to know in advance) might be a bit surprising. Not all coor-dinating teams that agreed to begin the GLOBE data collection within their society followed through; some coordinating teams dropped out, became difficult to contact or experienced extenuating circumstances that prevented their further participation with the project. We found that less well-established scholars (who probably had more to gain from their participation in the GLOBE project) were more likely to commit to and complete the GLOBE data collection.

In conclusion, while it would be exciting to see the global advertis-ing field undertake the kind of comprehensive, wide-scale cross-cultural research that Project GLOBE attempted, we do recognise that a more likely scenario would be that global advertising research continues incre-mentally. For example, new studies will (and should) examine cultural dimensions such as gender egalitarianism and power distance to see whether individual-level perceptions of these dimensions operate in similar ways as performance orientation and assertiveness in terms of influencing perceptions of advertising effectiveness. ultimately, we are delighted that the Project GLOBE study is impacting fields outside of the management/organisational behaviour research areas, and we look forward to further new and creative applications of the GLOBE framework within the global advertising field in the years to come. We hope the insights and research questions developed here are helpful in advancing this literature.

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(2006) Cultural and leadership predictors of corporate social responsibility values of top management: a study of 15 countries. Journal of International Business Studies, 37, pp. 823–837.

Yang, K.S. (2000) Monocultural and cross-cultural indigenous approaches: the royal road to the development of a balanced global psychology. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 4, pp. 241–263.

Zinkhan, G.M. (1994) International advertising: a research agenda. Journal of Advertising, 23(1), pp. 11–15.

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About the authors

Robert J. House received his PhD in Management from the Ohio State university. He was appointed the Joseph Frank Bernstein Endowed Chair of Organization Studies at the Wharton School of the university of Pennsylvania in 1988. He has published over 130 journal articles and has received the Award for Distinguished Scholarly Contribution to Management, conferred by the Academy of Management. He is a fellow of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association and Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He was principal investigator of the Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) study from 1993–2003. Dr House’s research interests include leadership, personality, power in organisations, and the implications of cross-cultural variation for effective leadership and organi-sational performance.

Narda R. Quigley received her PhD in Management from the university of Maryland, after which she completed a postdoctoral appointment at the Wharton School working with the GLOBE study. She is now an Assistant Professor of Management at Villanova School of Business. Dr Quigley’s research interests include team processes, emergent and cross-cultural leadership and work motivation.

Mary Sully de Luque received her PhD in organisational behaviour and international management at the university of Nebraska. She is cur-rently an Assistant Professor of Management and a Research Fellow in the Garvin Center for Culture and Languages at Thunderbird, the School of Global Management. Before joining Thunderbird, Dr Sully de Luque was a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School working with the GLOBE study. Dr Sully de Luque’s research interests include the influence of culture on leadership, feedback processes in the work environment and human resource management.

Address correspondence to: Narda Quigley, Department of Management, Villanova School of Business, Villanova university, Villanova, PA 19085, uSA.


Book Reviews

Edited by Stephanie O’DonohoeThe University of Edinburgh

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International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), pp. 141–150 © 2010 Advertising Association Published by Warc, www.warc.com

Deception in the Marketplace: The Psychology of Deceptive Persuasion and Consumer Self-ProtectionDavid M. Boush, Marian Friestad and Peter Wright, 2009Routledge, £34.95 (Hardback), £19.95 (Paperback)DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709201075

The fundamental premise of this book is that deception is ‘a central and inevi-table part of marketplace interactions between marketers and consumers’ (p. 3). Deception in its myriad forms – the artful omission, the provision of incomplete or misleading comparative frames, the careful choice of words, and so on – has been a facet of market-places, and of marketing communica-tions, whenever and wherever these have existed. Recent societal-level changes, notably in the technological arena, have created conditions for the emergence of more nuanced forms of marketplace deception aimed at per-suading consumers of the value(s) of a particular promotional message and the product or service of which it speaks.

But what makes marketplace com-munications deceptive? What are the psychological processes that underlie deceptive persuasive tactics? How do marketing managers decide to prevent or practise deception? What skills do

consumers need to learn in order to recognise deceptive communications and to cope with them? How can educators design learning materials to enhance the skills of vulnerable groups in society to deal with deceptive mes-sages? These very questions lie at the heart of this insightful and very well-written book.

Given the long history of market-place deception and its importance as a topic, it is perhaps surprising that this is the first book-length scholarly work to address the psychology of decep-tive persuasion in the marketplace and, most interestingly, the ways in which consumers might/should engage in self-protection from such decep-tive persuasion. The book does not set out to present a general theory of marketing deception, although this more ambitious goal is one the authors appear to consider worthwhile for scholarly endeavour in the field. Instead it provides a much-needed synthesis of previous literature, identi-fies key strengths, limitations and gaps in research on deceptive persuasion and thus undertakes some agenda-setting for future work. The authors make it clear, however, that their driv-ing motivation is less one of addressing an under-researched topic and more to do with teaching consumers how they might protect themselves from the

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potentially insidious effects of decep-tive communications.

The book is organised into ten chapters, with the first five devoted to understanding and conceptualis-ing deceptive persuasion in the mar-ketplace, and Chapters 6 to 10 to consumers’ tactics for protecting them-selves from such deceptions. Chapter 1 sets out a conceptual framework and places definitional parameters around the notion of deceptive persuasion. While a legal perspective has domi-nated previous research in this area, the authors take a cognitive and social psychological approach to deception and persuasion, drawing in particular on some of their own work on per-suasion knowledge. Central to their conception of marketplace deception are intentionality, persuasive purpose, perceptions of the persuasive target, and distinctions between deceptive and unethical communication acts.

Chapter 2 provides an extensive review of theoretical perspectives on deceptive persuasion, drawing on cog-nitive theories of persuasion, social influence, resistance and what they label ‘deception protection’. They argue for the distinctiveness of mar-ketplace deception against the initial pioneering research on everyday lying in interpersonal relations. Marketplace deception involves social agents (mar-keters or advertisers) specifically trained and invested in deception, and the authors encourage us to focus on what they call ‘high-consequence marketing trickery’. According to the authors, deception involves the viola-tion of one or more of the maxims of cooperative communication outlined

by Grice, and its production and con-sumption is mediated by our meta-beliefs regarding attempts by outside agents to manipulate us. The latter belief systems also feed in to accounts of how and why people are motivated to protect themselves against decep-tive persuasion.

While these first two chapters are written in standard literature review tenor, Chapters 3 and 4 examine spe-cific types of ‘deception tactics’ used by marketers. This catalogue contains a number of forms of concealment, omission, simulation and lying, with different ethical systems offering com-peting evaluations of these tactics. Importantly, the authors argue that deception should not be conceived as a single act, but as a ‘theatrical performance’ (p. 40) staged by mar-keters. They suggest that marketers think ‘in terms of integrated deception planning, and that deception involves both message content and message distribution strategies’ (p. 40), a per-spective that provides a neat segue into Chapter 5, which is an intriguing and disturbing read. Entitled ‘How deception-minded marketers think’, it attempts to give voice to the cognitive and verbal processes that marketers engage when taking part in ‘integrated deception strategies’. I would like to know how practising marketers would react to such a depiction, which is derived from three sources: a frame-work originally developed to explain deception planning in the context of covert intelligence operations; a book about how social engineers use low-tech interpersonal deception tech-niques to penetrate organisational

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BOOK REVIEWS

security systems; and recordings of actual telemarketing calls made by professional telescammers.

The second tranche of chapters turns to consumers and how they deal with deception in the marketplace. The central premise here is that consum-ers need to be self-reliant. Indeed, the authors believe that ‘deception protec-tion skill is a critical life skill’ (p. 1), part of one’s self-efficacy. The second half thus focuses on ‘how consumers can detect, neutralize and resist the var-ied types of deception that face mod-ern consumers on a daily basis’ (p. 5). Chapter 6 reviews previous research on how people cope with deceptive-ness, including empirical evidence from experimental and laboratory psy-chological research. The authors note that much of this evidence derives from studies on 18–23 year olds, and examines the effects of uncertainty and suspicion about a message’s valid-ity, inferences made about omitted information and the impact of personal persuasion knowledge on message processing. Chapter 7 outlines what the authors call ‘marketplace decep-tion protection skills’, or MDPS, with consumers urged to develop proac-tive coping skills to enhance what the authors call our ‘marketplace deception protection self-efficacy’. While I find this phrasing rather clumsy, I note the authors’ point about the lack of clarity in current research on the exact type of self-protective thinking people do when deceptive persuasion attempts have been recognised.

In Chapters 8 and 9, the authors take up their pedagogical aims of understanding what and how educa-

tors might teach consumers, notably young consumers, MDPS as a life-long part of developing self-efficacy. In Chapter 8, they examine research on children’s responses to advertising and the development of children’s beliefs about persuasion and deception. The effect of adolescent cognitive develop-ment and an overloaded learning envi-ronment on the acquisition of MDPS is also presented. Chapter 9 synthe-sises another body of prior research, this time on what we already know about teaching youngsters and young adults to improve their MDPS. This research demonstrates that educational processes designed to enhance these skills are neither rapid nor smooth, and that there is no one ‘best way’ to go about it. This is an exciting challenge for researchers in marketing and advertising, and one of increas-ing contemporary importance given the societal-level trends and develop-ments noted in the book’s final chap-ter. These factors – including changes in communications technology, and legal and regulatory environments – are adding to the complexity of mar-ketplace deception activities and thus the nature of the responses to them.

The thoroughness of the reviews, as well as their conceptual clarity, means that this book provides the most com-prehensive anatomy of deception in the marketplace that currently exists. The authors have synthesised a huge amount of literature of persuasion, social influence and consumer self-protection. This material is very well organised, with core themes and miss-ing parts of the puzzle well deline-ated. The critique of previous work

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is thorough, exacting but also sym-pathetic. This book is an absolute must-read for scholars interested in marketplace deception, though schol-ars outside (cognitive) psychology will need patience and perseverance to get through the detail.

Inevitably perhaps, there were a few areas where I would have liked to have known more, such as the ethical and moral underpinnings, not only of the authors’ positions, but also of the idea of the ‘self protective con-sumer’. In order to encourage future interdisciplinary research on market-place deception, I would be inter-ested to see how the cognitive and social psychological perspectives con-tained in this book could be related to broader sociological and critical theory on markets, marketing and decep-

tion. Second, because this book brings together all previous research on how deceptive persuasion might take place, and how marketers can achieve this, it can almost be said to provide a ‘how to’ manual for deceptive marketers. That is to say, the book might well play into the hands of those charged by the authors with deceptive behaviour. This is an interesting ethical issue for the authors as well as readers. It also makes it all the more important that we address the authors’ central con-cern by using this book to promote better educational interventions for the development of MDP skills.

Gavin JackGraduate School of Management, La Trobe university, Melbourne, Australia

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To be President: Quest for the White House 2008Ian Leslie (2009)Politico’s Publishing Ltd, £9.99DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709201063

Reading this version of how plain Mr Obama became President Obama was a pleasantly sobering experience for somebody like me, with a marketing communications orientation. Engaging with Leslie’s ‘soap’-style narrative of the period between November 2007 and 4 November 2008 revealed some-thing so ordinary, so obvious and so steeped in common sense that we easily forget: advertising, indeed the plethora of marketing communica-tion tools, tends to simply merge in with the everydayness of our lives. Certainly, this book’s chronology of the main challengers’ campaigns (Obama, Clinton and McCain dominate) demonstrates incredibly well – even though I am sure it is not the author’s main intent – how advertising is now simply part of the established fixtures and fittings, and that it is expected to the point that we rarely encoun-ter it in an isolated manner. It has become embedded into what political campaigns are, what they inevitably include, and how they run. This is certainly the case in Western democ-racies, which share similar cultural characteristics in relation to media val-ues and the so-called public sphere.

The role for marketing communica-tions may have been strategic in intent in each of the candidate’s camps, and no doubt ads were crafted in order to have a specific measurable impact … but what this book demonstrates is

that once marketing communication messages collide with ‘real life’ they become blurred and tend to make a mostly ‘fuzzy’ contribution to the mass and the mess that political campaign-ing entails.

The book focuses on both stages of the campaign fight: first, McCain and what turned out to be the long tail of ‘other’ Republican candidates; and the much more juicy battle between Obama and Clinton. Through it all, what stands out is how ‘becoming President’ is as much, if not more, about luck, coincidence and seren-dipity as it is to do with insightful strategically informed action plans. Fortunately for us, just occasionally, particular pieces of marketing commu-nication – in this case ads – are magni-fied and briefly become ‘the moment’. In Leslie’s view this rarely happened, though interestingly the examples of such ads that he talks about at some length were run by eventual losers, such as Clinton’s ‘3am’ ad challeng-ing Obama’s readiness by juxtaposing images of a sleeping family with a red phone ringing in the White House and asking who the American elector-ate would want to be picking it up. Later he talks of a period in the cam-paign where McCain is starting to find his groove, with advertising playing a role: a ‘new ad opens with a picture of the crowds gathered in Berlin to hear Obama’s speech. The soundtrack plays a slightly distorted recording of the crowd’s chants: Obama, Obama, Obama. He’s the biggest celebrity in the world, says a female voiceover. Pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are intercut with Obama. But is

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he ready to lead?’ (p. 199). Considered in isolation, these messages would lose almost all of their meaning, but in this book they are blended into the big-ger narrative and can be seen as they should be – woven into the fabric of real events … real life.

One way of reading this rather deflationary role for marketing com-munications in the democratic proc-ess is to be heartened that the public sphere still requires more than the frenzy of brands cleverly trying to out-shout or out-shine each other. Put another way, the book reveals inte-grated communication in action; the most productive ads were those cre-ated and run ‘in direct response’ to events – for example, trying to lev-erage the candidates’ performances after each of the Presidential debates. There may be something we can all learn from this idea that marketing communications should not be the start of a conversation, instead one way in which brands can join exist-ing conversations. Another reading is how marketing communications’ role remains significant, but much of this activity in political campaigns now takes place below the mass radar we have grown used to – in niche and local community websites and other forms of social networks. Leslie suggests this was a real strength, especially for the candidates perceived as ‘challengers’,

an issue worthy of further investiga-tion.

The book is light and frothy at times, and does not claim to be particularly analytical, and so, on that score it does what it says it will do. It helps us to appreciate the modest position that marketing communications, brand-ing, image-making, and so on, tend to occupy when campaigns and events are looked at in a more holistic manner. I was left thinking that the very character of the two eventual candidates in this particular contest contributed to mar-keting activity playing a less pivotal role – a view that flies in the face of much scholarly work published to date on the subject. On the one hand, anyone familiar with the impressive stock of work on negative advertising will know that such forms of persuasion appar-ently fit perfectly in a political context. Yet, one of this book’s sub-plots sug-gests – with a few isolated exceptions – that McCain was simply too decent, and Obama was simply too wise (he judged it unnecessary) to really go dirty. And so, traditional marketing commu-nications was quite peripheral in this battle. Leslie hints at something much bigger stirring in the world of online marketing, but I guess he has kept the detail of that for his sequel.

Richard ScullionMedia School, Bournemouth university

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Boomer Marketing: Selling to a Recession Resistant MarketIan Chaston (2009)Routledge, £25.99DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709201087

AARP is an organisation that claims a membership of more than 40 mil-lion Americans over the age of 50. It turns over more than $1 billion a year, mainly from selling healthcare insur-ance, and its top executive earns in excess of $1 million. Its undoubted success has turned it into a major uS lobbyist with virtual powers of veto over legislation affecting older people. AARP has turned the head of many a marketing executive who has looked at the growing numbers of older people and seen a huge reser-voir of consumer spend.

But, despite many efforts, attempts to duplicate AARP have foundered. In 2008, Age Concern England, a charity ostensibly devoted to the interests of older people, was forced to close Heyday, its intended uK ver-sion of the American behemoth. Age Concern England and its business partners – who should have known better – managed to lose £22 mil-lion in four years. Instead of signing up the promised 300,000 members by the end of year two, with a mix of travel discounts, a magazine and a notional advice service, they had managed to get fewer than 20,000 to pay the £26 a year subscription .

Heyday was the most recent of several similar disasters. Commercial union, a large uK insurer, lost mil-lions supporting something called ARPO50 in the 1990s; the Prudential

lost a packet backing an online ven-ture named VAVO. The Post Office was another that invested in an older people’s magazine that failed. The obvious question is why AARP suc-ceeded while the others failed. Was it something uniquely American or does it tell us something profound about marketing to older people? Is there even a market for older people or is it just lazy shorthand?

Professor Ian Chaston writes about none of this in his book Boomer Marketing: Selling to a Recession Resistant Market. Instead he has produced what is essentially a primer on marketing, which happens to have some anecdo-tal stories about older people that are presented as case studies.

Chaston has lots of business school graphics. There are charts with arrows all over them and the conventional matrix, which compresses the com-plexities of the world to what can be drawn on a two-dimensional piece of paper. He also favours the seg-mentation beloved by marketing consultancies – Healthy Indulgers, Anxious Empty Nesters … that sort of thing – without seriously question-ing whether such segments exist only inside PCs and the minds of PR men and women.

The book doesn’t do what it says on the tin. The sections about marketing to older people seem to be second- or even third-hand recounting, lacking in critical analysis and the ‘selling to a recession resistant market’ line reads like a publisher’s wheeze. It is a pity because, with some tight editing (the book is far too long and repetitive), Boomer Marketing could have been

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stripped back to a useful introduc-tion to a vital issue. The only previous ageing society in our history was dur-ing the Black Death when the plague selectively killed younger people. We face a novel situation in which being old will be ordinary. Millions will have to manage their own ageing process,

and that offers huge opportunities in terms of products and services and the ways in which they are marketed.

Leon KreitzmanChair, Age Concern, Lewisham and Southwark Former director, The Henley Centre

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Ex LIBRISDominic Twose

DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709201099

While I love reading, there are few books that have influenced me in my working life. Among the most valu-able have been the IPA Advertising Works series; the case studies they contain have, over the years, provided a valuable collection of useful exam-ples of what advertising can achieve, and how. But my main influences have been individuals, such as Phyllis MacFarlane, Rick Moore, Gordon Brown, Sue Gardiner and Richard Davies. Working with these people, and seeing the way they handle day-to-day issues, analyse data and resolve problems has been a far better guide for me than any textbook.

However, there is one book that, on reflection, I realise affected my career choice and my attitude to work. I first read The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin by David Nobbs when I was about 16. It was subsequently made into a hugely successful TV series starring the irreplaceable Leonard Rossiter. Its story, about a disillusioned senior sales executive in a struggling dessert company, now I near my fiftieth year (almost the same age as Reggie in the book), has so many resonances with my life, it is hard to put it all down to coincidence.

Near the start of the book there is a product-tasting scene. ‘This lime is bloody diabolical’ was the qualita-tive feedback from Ron Napier of the Transport Department, while the quantitative data at the end of the

project revealed that the three most popular flavours were book-ends, West Germany and pumice stone. I’ve researched the market for ice cream. Were the results of my research really more useful?

Following Reggie as he tries to understand the statistically incon-tinent researcher Esther Pigeon is almost too close for comfort. Similarly, as he listens patiently to the ludicrous ideas of Morris Coates from the third-rate advertising agency, and pretends to be impressed by a colleague’s anal-ysis of the strengths and limitations of market research in International Deep Freeze News, I recall incidents from my own life. And I’ve long suspected that others have adopted his method of choosing test markets – by tracing a line around the outside of his pending tray over a map of Hertfordshire.

His heartfelt but drunken speech at the British Fruit Association Conference, against the growth of marketing, is as relevant today as it was back in the 1970s: ‘If a sur-vey showed that housewives prefer pink square bananas, they would get pink square bananas’, resulting in ‘more people driving more wash-ing machines on bigger lorries down wider motorways’.

Some days, the similarities are frightening. I didn’t get where I am today without having had a boss – at some stage that I choose not to

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reveal – like CJ. I, too, have two children. My God, even my house looks a bit like his. He creates a loganberry essence slick in the River Test near a thatched cottage out-side Newbury; that is where my parents-in-law now live! But, for-tunately, I have yet to visualise a hippopotamus when I think of my mother-in-law, nor have I left my clothes in a pile on the beach and faked my own suicide. But I still have

parsnips. And when I say parsnips, I mean time.

References

Dawson, N. (2009) Advertising Works 17, IPA/WARC.

Nobbs, D. (1976) The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Penguin Books Ltd.

Dominic TwoseGlobal Head of Knowledge Management, Millward Brown

Call for Papers

International Journal of AdvertisingSpecial Issue on Social Media

Recent years have witnessed a flourishing of social media. Examples of the user-centric multimedia applications include Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc. Over three quarters of American consumers have already integrated social media into their daily lives and Facebook alone caters to 250 million users.

Social media are affecting the ways by which consumers connect with others, consumers exchange information and opinions, and persuasive messages are created and delivered. The magnitude and swiftness of the influence of social media challenges researchers and practitioners with a need to understand the science behind social media and devise applications of social media for marketing communications.

Manuscripts are solicited for a special issue of the International Journal of Advertising devoted to social media and their implications for advertising. The goal of this special issue is to extend our theoretical and practical knowledge of how consumers utilize social media and how brand messages are designed and placed in the era of social media. Authors may submit empirical studies or conceptual papers on various aspects of social media. Papers that are theoretically grounded and also provide managerial implications are especially encouraged.

Topics that may be addressed include but are not limited to:

* Social network structure in social media* Psychological or ethnographic studies of social media* Content creation and sharing in social media* Brand-related conversations in social media* Relationship between social media and mainstream media* Customer relationship management (CRM) and data mining in social media* Consumer–brand relationship building in social media* Brand communities in social media* Social media and viral marketing* Current approaches to and practices of using social media for promotional purposes * Social media development and practice in different countries* Current metrics and alternative measures of social media effectiveness* Legal and regulatory issues related to social media* Consumer control and empowerment in social media

Submission InformationManuscripts should be submitted through the International Journal of Advertising’s regular review process while including a note that the paper is being submitted to the special issue. The deadline for submission is March 15, 2010. Enquiries should be directed to the special issue editor:

S. Marina Choi, PhDDepartment of AdvertisingThe University of Texas at Austin1 University Station A1200Austin, TX [email protected]: (512) 471-3359

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