EXPRESS: Choice Deprivation, Choice Overload, and Satisfaction With Choices Across Six Nations

Whether consumers have too little, too much, or the ideal amount of choice can have profound consequences. The present research explores patterns of choice deprivation (having less choice than desired) and choice overload (having more choice than desired) across six choice domains in six countries that together provide home to about half the human population (Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the U.S.; combined N = 7,436). In most domains in most countries, choice deprivation was the norm—only in the U.S. was choice overload sometimes commonly reported. Deprivation was also more strongly related to decreased satisfaction with choices than was overload, suggesting that choice deprivation can be both more common and more consequential than overload. The present research has implications for “inverted-U” theories of consumer choice experiences and underlines the need for more diverse samples, including cross-cultural samples, in research on choice deprivation and overload.

EXPRESS: Vaccination Acceptance across Cultures: The Roles of Collectivism, Empathy, and Homophily

How does culture influence vaccination acceptance? This is an important question facing managers, policymakers, and global health organizations. Even with effective vaccines for highly contagious diseases, humankind remains at risk from vaccine hesitancy. We conduct a largescale multilevel analysis of more than 400,000 survey respondents, finding that COVID-19 vaccination intentions are higher among people from countries higher in cultural collectivism (Study 1). Follow-up studies indicate that vaccination acceptance is higher among people that endorse collectivistic values because they feel more empathy for those afflicted by the disease (Studies 2a, 2b, 3), especially when victims of the disease have similar characteristics (e.g., political affiliation, lifestyle, personality) as themselves (Study 3). To encourage vaccination acceptance, we suggest promoting collectivistic values and empathic concern, as well as homophily through the portrayal of victims with characteristics like those hesitant to accept vaccination.

EXPRESS: How to Go Glocal: Omni-Brand Orientation Framework

The authors develop an omni-brand orientation framework: a bi-dimensional conceptualization that allows global (local) brand elements to coexist alongside local (global) elements in creating a gloCal brand. Based on an interpretive analysis of interviews with 50 top executives, the authors offer new insights into building and succeeding as a gloCal brand. The study finds global brands trying to become gloCal by building and nurturing local authenticity. The building blocks of local authenticity are brand image local connection, local iconness, local insights, and originality. Local brands, in turn, try to become gloCal by achieving global acceptance, a perception identified closely with global brands. The building blocks of global acceptance are perceived brand globalness, innovation, product performance quality, and global brand power. Based on follow-up interviews with nineteen executives, the study dives deeper into the drivers of success and conceptualizes a GloCal Success Cycle, which identifies components and strategies that enable brands to win both globally and locally.

EXPRESS: Timing Market Entry – the Mediation Effect of Market Potential

Timing a multinational firm’s entry into a new country is a pivotal decision with long-term impact on the firm’s overall performance, thus a deeper understanding of the drivers of the decision and their interrelationship can yield significant managerial benefits. We explore the mediating role of market potential by decomposing the total effects of the decision’s main drivers—macro-economic attractiveness, market concentration, social heterogeneity, population density—into direct and indirect effects. These decompositions explain the countervailing effects of some drivers that simultaneously make both positive and negative impacts. Our dataset encompasses mobile 4G broadband penetration in 130 countries, including market entry timings for 28 international operators in 79 countries. We establish the nature of the mediation effect of market potential on the drivers of entry timing. Using early penetration data, we utilize growth mixture modeling to divide the countries into four latent segments. We validate this segmentation using machine learning with the four key drivers as classifiers; the process establishes macro-economic attractiveness as the predominant classifier. Our analysis offers entry-timing guidance at both pre- and post-launch stages.

EXPRESS: Effective Sme Import Strategy: Its Drivers, Moderators, and Outcomes

We propose a conceptual model of the drivers, moderators, and outcomes of a firm’s effective import strategy, anchored on the Dynamic Capabilities and Industrial Organization theories. While the former theory explains the mechanism through which dynamic capabilities facilitate import strategy effectiveness that boosts competitive advantage and ultimately enhances financial performance, the latter theory sets the foundation for explaining the contingency role of both competitive intensity and environmental uncertainty on translating effective import strategy into competitive advantage. The model was tested using a sample of 151 British importers of small-to-medium size, with results indicating that possession of high levels of certain dynamic capabilities of a generic (i.e., adaptive and entrepreneurial) and import-specific (i.e., source identification and market development) nature are conducive to import strategy effectiveness. The latter was found to generate both product-differentiation advantage and low-cost advantage, although this was contingent on the degree of competitive intensity and environmental uncertainty prevailing in the importer’s home market. Finally, it was confirmed that both product-differentiation advantage and low-cost advantage have a favorable impact on the importer’s financial performance.

EXPRESS: Synergy vs. Tradeoff: the Influence of National Philanthropic Environment and Industry on the Relationship Between R&D and Corporate Social Responsibility

International marketing research has demonstrated that research and development (R&D) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are firm capabilities that can lead to competitive advantages in the international marketplace. A synergy vs. tradeoff dilemma on the R&D/CSR relationship has emerged as an important topic in the literature. The synergy approach suggests a positive link, while the tradeoff approach suggests a negative link between R&D and CSR. The authors employ the resource-, institution-, and industry-based views to clarify this dilemma by examining two moderators at the country and industry levels. The authors envision that home country national philanthropic environment (NPE) influences whether managers should take the synergy or tradeoff approach because NPE reflects the institutional pressures for firms to be more philanthropic. Further, since research finds that CSR differs between manufacturing and service firms, this industry categorization is hypothesized to moderate the effects of NPE on the R&D/CSR relationship. Estimating a hierarchical linear model with a sample of 888 firms across 15 countries, the results show that in high NPE level countries, there is an R&D/CSR synergy, and in low NPE level countries, there is a tradeoff. Furthermore, these relationships are relevant only within service rather than manufacturing industries.

EXPRESS: Consumer Stockpiling Across Cultures During the COVID-19 Pandemic

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak a pandemic. In the following days, media reports showed that consumers increasingly stockpiled groceries and household supplies. Interestingly, behavioral data shows that this stockpiling exhibited considerable heterogeneity across countries. Building on cultural dimension theory, the authors theorize that this heterogeneity can be explained by countries' cultural values: Consumer stockpiling after the WHO's announcement was more pronounced in countries whose residents show high uncertainty avoidance, low long-term orientation, low indulgence, and high individualism. The authors confirm these propositions using global mobility data from Google matched with country-level data on cultural values, pandemic reaction policies, and other key variables. This research note thereby integrates the previously disconnected literature on cultural dimension theory and consumer stockpiling in general, as well as providing new and significant knowledge about cross-cultural consumer behavior in crises. Furthermore, the authors provide actionable insights for international policymakers and business managers who aim to predict or control consumer stockpiling in future global crises, in order to enhance consumer well-being.

EXPRESS: Trust Propensity across Cultures: The Role of Collectivism

Does collectivism influence an individual's willingness to trust others? Conflicting empirical results from past research and the role of trust in international marketing make this question important to resolve. We investigate this question across cultures and at the individual level with four studies using multiple methods. Study 1 establishes correlational evidence between societal-level collectivism and individual-level trust propensity with results from a multi-level analysis of data from over 6,000 respondents in 36 different countries. Study 2 offers an individual-level analysis using the trust game, introducing a more rigorous behavioral outcome variable. Study 3 contributes causal evidence at the individual level based on experiments in both the US and China and offers evidence of social projection as the explanatory mechanism. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates managerial relevance by using advertising to prime collectivism and assessing its effect on trust in the firm.