Attractiveness,Purchase Intention,and Willingness to Pay More for Global Brands: Evidence from Turkish Market

Emerging markets (EMs) are increasingly becoming significant in income growth for Multinational corporations (MNCs). Therefore, what affects the consumer perceptions and behaviors toward global brands in EMs is a fundamental question to answer for MNCs. There is a remarkable literature on global brands in EMs however there is little evidence specifically upon bandwagon effects. This study aims to fulfil this gap and examines the effects of bandwagon consumption, conspicuous value and social value on consumer attitudes towards the global brands. In the study, data were collected via face-to-face questionnaire from a sample of 458 university students, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. As a result, it was found that bandwagon consumption, conspicuous value, and social value have positive impacts on brand attractiveness, purchase intention and willingness to pay more for global brands.     

Managerial ownership,diversification, and firm performance: Evidence from an emerging market

Numerous existing studies have explored the impact of corporate diversification on firm performance, whereas considerably less research has investigated the inter-relationships among managerial ownership, diversification, and firm performance. This paper develops several hypotheses based on the agency theory self-interest perspective and tests the relationships among managerial ownership, corporate diversification, and firm performance using a sample of 98 emerging market firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The results show a U-shaped relationship between managerial ownership and corporate diversification, similar to that found in prior studies. However, the inflection point is 33.17%, which is lower than that found in previous studies. Moreover, in contrast to prior results, corporate diversification is found to be positively associated with short-term firm performance and bears no relationship with mid-term firm performance, while firms engaged in unrelated diversification outperform those engaged in related diversification. This paper concludes with theoretical implications and suggestions for future research.     

Ethical consumerism and wage levels: Evidence from an experimental market

This paper contributes to the promotion of multidisciplinary research on ethical consumerism by providing experimental evidence on consumer's willingness to reward sellers by paying higher wages to their workers. We analyze repeated interactions occurring between workers, sellers, and consumers within the framework of an experimental market. By successfully performing a task, workers allow sellers to offer a good through a market. Sellers set the price of goods and decide the wages of workers. Consumers enter the market sequentially and decide whether to accept one of the offers or to leave the market. Our data show that, especially in the first periods of the experiment, some sellers opt to pay high wages to their workers. However, this behavior is not rewarded by consumers, whose purchasing choices are almost exclusively driven by self-interest. In our interpretation, the connection between workers and sellers that connotes our experimental design, with workers who allow sellers to enter the market, may induce consumers to believe that eventual sacrifices for paying high wages to workers must be entirely on sellers. Our result suggests that the more salient is made the importance of some stakeholders in allowing the firm's activity, the fewer consumers' may be willing to sacrifice their monetary payoff to improve these stakeholders' condition.     

Expropriation risk and housing prices: Evidence from an emerging market

This paper examines the microeconomic determinants of residential real estate prices in Caracas, Venezuela, using a private database containing 17,526 transactions from 2008 to 2009. The particular institutional characteristics of many countries in Latin America, and Venezuela in particular, where land invasions and expropriations (with only partial compensation) have been common threats to property owners, provide us with an opportunity to test the effects of these risks on housing prices using a unique database. The effect of these risks on property prices is negative and significant. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to quantify these impacts in the Hedonic pricing literature applied to real estate. Size, the number of parking spaces, the age of the property, the incidence of crime, and the average income in the neighborhood are significant determinants of prices. Finally, this paper analyzes the microeconomic determinants of housing prices at the municipal level.     

Habitus,doxa, and ethics: insights from advertising in emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa

The advertising industry influences culture through its pervasive messages that reflect and shape culture and through the role that advertising practitioners play as cultural intermediaries. As such, the manner in which advertising practitioners confront ethical issues is important. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, this paper examines how the perceptions, practices, and discourses of advertising practitioners in the Middle East and North Africa influence the advertising field's habitus and doxa. It demonstrates that understanding ethical problems is enhanced by examining them as macro, meso, and micro phenomena. However, that is not enough. Understanding how factors at the three levels interrelate, interact, and reinforce one another is critical to understanding the habitus. Underlying biases that shape the doxa can be explained by ideas central to behavioral ethics. A better understanding of the forces that shape the habitus and doxa with respect to ethics is key to moving toward a culture that encourages ethical advertising practices.     

Status consumption in newly emerging countries: The influence of personality traits and the mediating role of motivation to consume conspicuously

In emerging countries, individuals’ tendency to consume status products to display their wealth and new lifestyle is rising. To unlock the underlmathying reasons for consuming status products in emerging countries, this study brings attention to the mediating role of motivation to consume conspicuously as a missing link between consumers’ personality traits - susceptibility to interpersonal influence, need for uniqueness and status consumption. Using social identity and social comparison theory and drawing on data from 269 Bangladeshi individuals, we found that status consumption is positively influenced by susceptibility to interpersonal influence and need for uniqueness. We also found that the relationship between susceptibility to interpersonal influence and status consumption is partially mediated by the motivation to consume conspicuously. However, the results show that the relationship between need for uniqueness and status consumption is not mediated by the motivation to consume conspicuously.     

The influence of firm-specific and country-specific advantages in the internationalization of emerging market firms: Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the role of institutional factors that enable firm- and country-specific drivers of emerging market (EM) firms’ internationalization based on case-based research conducted in one EM, Turkey. Findings indicate that 10 major factors comprised of firm-specific and country-specific advantages drove the focal case study firms abroad: the firm-specific factors ranged from financial and operations supremacy; excellence in value chain activities; inexpensive human resources; rapid learning capabilities in production and technology development; and adaptability to foreign markets; while the country-specific factors included home-government policies supporting internationalization; logistical advantages arising from geographical position; adaptability capabilities resulting from former survival through institutional voids; strong social ties formed through networks; and availability of low cost resources. These findings are discussed and future research questions are offered.     

From desire to help to taking action: Effects of personal traits and social media on market mavens’ diffusion of information

While extant research has studied traits of market mavens and the link from mavenism to market helping behavior, there is a need for more research to understand personal and contextual factors that influence actual recommendations of products and differences among market mavens with different traits in that respect. In this study, we took research in the area of market mavenism one step further and investigated the role of personal traits such as self‐esteem and susceptibility to normative interpersonal influence, and the contextual factor of social media, in the frequency of recommendations. We hypothesize that while market mavens with lower self‐esteem are likely to engage in less frequent recommendations, negative effect of their lower self‐esteem is attenuated when they use social media platforms as their medium of choice. Our findings lend support to our hypotheses, including the triple interaction effect between self‐esteem, choice of social media, and market mavenism on market recommendations.     

Dependence between the global gold market and emerging stock markets (E7+1): Evidence from Granger causality using quantile and quantile‐on‐quantile regression methods

This study examined the dependence between gold and stocks during 2002–18 in seven emerging countries. The study combined the bivariate cross‐quantilogram introduced recently with quantile‐on‐quantile regression (QQR) approaches to conduct comprehensive and complementary analyses. The QQR results for the full sample revealed a weak positive dependence in all the quantiles of gold and stock returns across all the countries selected during mild market conditions. The results for pre and post‐crisis periods largely were consistent with those obtained for the full sample, except for Turkey (pre‐crisis), and China and Indonesia (post‐crisis). The results of the causality test‐in‐mean (return) and that of the causality test‐in‐variance revealed no causal relation between stock and gold in the pre‐crisis period, while causality ran only from gold to some stocks in the post‐crisis period. Further, while there was volatility causality running only from gold to stocks during the pre‐crisis period, the volatility causality between the two markets was very high during the post‐crisis period. Therefore, we suggest that gold may have been a hedge for stocks during the pre‐crisis compared to the post‐crisis period. Further, international risk factors should be considered in optimal investment decisions between domestic and global markets' assets (stocks and gold).     

Relevant or redundant: Elite consumers' perception of foreign-made products in an emerging market

Abstract

This paper examines the attitudes of elite Pakistani consumers concerning their preferences for foreign-made products and how these preferences influence purchasing decisions. Data were collected from a sample of 250 buyers using a mixed methodology consisting of focus groups and a questionnaire survey. The results show a link between the country of origin (COO) of products and purchasing decisions. The nature and extent of this link vary across product class and purchasing decisions. A means-end chain (MEC) analysis revealed a close link between consumers' liking for foreign products connected with how they valued those products both psychologically and physiologically. The findings have implications for attaining a competitive advantage by using marketing strategies to target elite customers. As a pioneering study, this paper advances the theoretical knowledge, providing a framework as well as specific guidelines for practitioners to conceptualise the COO construct. The paper also suggests a strategic direction that successfully targets the elite consumer segment in Pakistan.     

Foreign equity flows and the “Size Bias”: Evidence from an emerging stock market

This paper examines foreign investors' equity-level transactions in an emerging stock market, the Istanbul Stock Exchange, for the period 1997–2008 to derive insights into the debate on information asymmetries between domestic and foreign investors and the home bias puzzle. The analysis suggests two important findings. First, foreign investors do not consider the market portfolio of domestic securities as predicted by standard theories of international portfolio diversification. Second, the firm's size and the expected return are central to explain foreign investors' equity trades. The results are consistent with models based upon the hypothesis of differential information between foreign and domestic investors.     

Building and transforming an emerging market global enterprise: Lessons from the Infosys journey

The story of Infosys’ growth and transformation from a $250 start-up to its current market valuation of approximately $26 billion provides one of the most pertinent lessons in leveraging India's strengths and managing the challenges faced by an emerging market global enterprise based in India. In this article, we present a wide-ranging interview with Infosys’ current CEO, Mr. S.D. Shibulal, as he explains what he considers to be the core strengths of the company that made it successful in the past, lays out his vision for the company's future, and discusses in detail how he sees the company's transformation taking place over the coming years. The conversation uncovers several interesting themes and lessons for multinational enterprises in emerging as well as developed economies, including the relevance of being born global, values-based governance, the necessity of creating hybrid business models that infuse the ‘India way’ with local cultures and practices in global markets, leveraging strategic partnerships via co-creation and co-evolution, and the delicate balance between ‘preservation-creation-destruction.’     

Foreign firm characteristics,labour market restrictions and FDI spillovers: Evidence from Moldova

This paper investigates how productivity spillovers from foreign to domestic firms are affected by foreign firm characteristics and labour market conditions in Moldova. We use firm-level administrative panel data and annual survey region-sector indicators of labour market conditions in 2005–2014. Baseline regressions show that domestic firms benefit from backward FDI spillovers, while we find no evidence of horizontal or forward spillovers. Spillover effects are heterogeneous and depend on the ownership structure and age of foreign firms. Domestic firms in upstream sectors benefit from both wholly foreign-owned companies (WFOC) and joint ventures (JV). However, JVs need less time in the market for positive spillovers to materialise, while WFOCs only lead to larger spillover effects when they are older. In regions and sectors where firms experience fewer labour market restrictions, backward FDI spillovers are larger. Interacting foreign firm characteristics with labour market restrictions, we find that spillovers through the labour market channel materialise only for older FDI, regardless of ownership type. The results are in line with our expectation that WFOCs need more time than JVs to develop linkages with local suppliers and lead to spillovers through this channel. Moreover, in developing countries labour market restrictions reduce labour mobility and consequently, the size of FDI spillovers across industries.     

Universally-enabling and context-binding resources in new venture internationalization: Evidence from venture capital backed start-ups in an emerging market

Integrating institutional and effectuation theories, we examine the relationship between entrepreneurs’ means and internationalization in an emerging market. Results indicate that some means, such as technical expertise or business network membership, transform into valuable internationalization resources despite difficult institutional conditions. Others, however, such as industry or international experience, are best deployed locally. Findings also indicate that means such as entrepreneurial experience and number of founders act as catalysts of internationalization, allowing for other means to transform into internationalization resources. We extend effectuation theory by showing how different means transform into internationalization resources and contribute to research at the intersection of institutional theory and international entrepreneurship by expanding our understanding of universally-enabling and context-binding internationalization resources. In so doing, we identify a boundary condition to international entrepreneurship theories that emphasize the role of individual resources during venture internationalization by revealing a context in which certain traits exhibit nonstandard relationships with internationalization.     

Gender,entrepreneurial characteristics,and success: Evidence from Ethiopia

Africa‐based research on gender and entrepreneurship is very limited. This study compares the characteristics and relative successes of men and women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia with a view of isolating the unique hurdles encountered by female entrepreneurs. While both genders in this sample were pulled, rather than pushed, toward entrepreneurship, women were more influenced by family factors. With regard to personality traits, men entrepreneurs in this study were generally more confident in their ability to succeed, whereas women exhibited higher fear of failure and external locus of control. Women entrepreneurs also reported lower business and entrepreneurial skills and relied more on government funding. Furthermore, male entrepreneurs outperformed females in terms of sales, employment growth, and profitability. The study identifies areas in which the skills and competencies of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs can be developed through targeted training programs to enable them to more clearly recognize entrepreneurial opportunities and achieve business growth. The findings of this study and the concrete suggestions it offers to strengthen the success of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs may be relevant to other African countries as well.     

Firm heterogeneity,sunk costs,spatial characteristics and export market participation: Evidence from China

This paper develops a dynamic discrete-choice model to analyze the exporting decisions of Chinese firms in Zhejiang province. The results show that sunk costs are found to be significant and prior export experience, productivity, scale, FDI, export spillovers, coastal area and economic zones are all positively related with the propensity of exporting while state ownership concentration has a negative impact. The export behavior of firms varies with country-specific characteristics.     

Managerial power,perquisite consumption and the efficiency of property right system: Evidence from Chinese listed companies

This research uses data of Chinese listed companies during 2001–2004 to test the effects of managerial power on perquisite consumption and firm performance from the perspectives of CEO duality, ownership dispersion and long-term tenure of top executives. Results show that companies with higher managerial power tend to incur higher perquisite consumption, while their performance does not improve accordingly. Moreover, perquisite consumption fails to offer effective incentives to managers, and non-state-controlled listed companies have greater managerial power, higher perquisite consumption, and worse performance than that of their state-controlled peers. Results also show that managerial power is an important factor influencing compensation incentive.     

Institutional and transaction cost influences on MNEs’ ownership strategies of their affiliates: Evidence from an emerging market

This paper examines the impact of institutional, and transaction cost specific variables on MNEs’ choice of equity ownership in their foreign affiliates. We consider the determinants of the choice of foreign investors between full ownership (setting up a wholly owned greenfield subsidiary or engaging in a full acquisition) and sharing ownership with a local firm (establishing a greenfield joint venture or making a partial acquisition). Drawing on both transaction cost and institutional theories, a number of hypotheses are developed. Based on a dataset of 6838 foreign affiliates in Turkey, the empirical analysis reveals that institutional variables are important in explaining the equity composition of foreign affiliates. Particularly important in determining equity ownership were found to be political risk, cultural distance, linguistic distance, agglomeration, location and the size of the affiliate. A distinguishing feature of the paper is that we examine the marginal effects of the independent variables in explaining ownership patterns of MNEs.     

Supermarket self-checkout service quality,customer satisfaction,and loyalty: Empirical evidence from an emerging market

Supermarket shoppers around the world are increasingly encountering and using self-service technologies (SSTs) during their shopping process. The SSTs are mainly offered to reduce retailer costs and enhance customer's experience. Among the many different SSTs available, self-checkout systems (SCS) have become an extremely popular choice of supermarkets around the world. Although some of the main motivations of the supermarkets for offering SCSs are cost cutting, speed, and convenience, supermarkets are also assuming that these services would enhance customer experience, satisfaction, and ultimately loyalty. However, empirical evidence is needed to better understand customer expectations of SCS service quality and how technology based service quality impacts retail patronage. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the service quality of supermarket/grocery store SCSs and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty in an emerging market, namely Turkey. Using the SSTQUAL scale (Lin and Hsieh, 2011), data (n=275) for the study is collected from shoppers who had just completed going through the self-checkout counter in a large supermarket chain. The results of this study show that SCS service quality positively influences loyalty through the customer satisfaction path. Managerial and research implications of the findings are discussed.