Political risk assessment by multinational corporations in African markets: A Nigerian perspective

Political risk assessment (PRA) is one of the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the competitiveness of multinational corporations (MNCs), yet little is known about its use in African markets. This study critically investigates the PRA techniques used by MNCs in Nigeria and their applicability. It uses a multimethod approach to analyze data collected from MNCs and the data set of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) PRA annual rating for Nigeria from 2011 to 2015. The findings reveal that most firms use qualitative, rather than quantitative, PRA techniques. Regional variations in the outcome of PRA within Nigeria could also contribute to the low use of quantitative techniques. This article identifies that firms are prepared to invest in Nigeria, in spite of high political risk, due to its economic and financial attractiveness. This article's findings offer some implications for practice with some suggestions on how it could influence firms’ internationalization and their conduct of PRA.     

Internationalization performance of Chinese multinational companies in the developed markets

This study investigates the relationship between prior cooperation experience with partners from the developed markets and internationalization performance of emerging multinational companies. Based on the knowledge-based view, this study sheds light on the crucial role of knowledge base, organizational learning in the home country, and acquisition possibility of knowledge in the host country. Employing a sample of Chinese international firms, this study demonstrates that international experience accumulated by learning through linkage with partners from the developed markets improves the performance of companies from the emerging market. Organizational learning in the home country and acquisition possibility of knowledge in the host country moderate the effect of international experience. The implications of these findings for theoretical development and future research are discussed.     

Internationalization of multinational banks: a study of foreign direct investment in seven Latin American countries

The article attempts to explore and contrast the different factors that influence the foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions of multinational banks. Employing eclectic theory, an estimation model with panel data from seven Latin American countries is set to test the proposed hypotheses. The results highlight an increase in foreign assets, removal of banking restriction, banking concentration, and capital cost differential in the local banking system as determinants of specific location advantages for attracting banking FDI. Other factors such as cultural proximity and crisis also have a significant impact on banking FDI. Discussions and implications are debated before conclusions are drawn for a future research agenda.     

Strategy and structure of service multinationals and their impact on linkages with local firms

Drawing on case studies of two leading UK service firms in five host countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea and Malaysia), we examine how the strategy and organization of service multinationals shape the development of linkages with local firms in host economies. We find that there is reduced autonomy of subsidiaries to engage with local firms as a result of relatively centralized strategies of multinationals. Because of global policies ensuring consistency of services or global sourcing policies to reduce costs, service multinationals tend to prefer global suppliers. Backward linkages occur in a few cases when the relationship can be a vehicle for market expansion for the multinational in a particular host market. Local governments play an important role in the cases where backward linkages are developed.     

Labor markets in Latin America: a look at the supply-side

This work asks whether there is a supply-side story to be told about labor market outcomes in Latin America. We present stylized facts about the connection between the demographic transition and changes in education (the size and quality of the labor force), with labor supply, inequality, and unemployment. The main conclusion is that the neglected topics of demographics and education improve our understanding of the overall decline in employment, the changing pattern of unemployment, and the rise in wage inequality. By adding them to the well-established demand and institutional factors behind these outcomes, we can obtain a clearer picture about labor markets in Latin America.     

Advertising in times of war: Themes in Argentine print advertising during the Malvinas/Falklands War

In the plethora of literature that investigates how the advertising industry reacts to changes in society, very few studies are concerned with regions outside of North America and Europe. For this study, we were interested in testing whether the conclusions of North American research in marketing communications would transfer to an understudied market. The ever-changing Argentine economy is a fertile ground to analyze changes in advertising strategies and tactics during times of turmoil. Thus, this study considered changes in appeals and strategies in print advertisements across two eras for the Latin American country: prewar (1981) and war (1982). With the advancement of the war efforts, results indicated that there were changes in (1) the tactical intent of the ads, (2) the nature of the advertiser, and (3) the products advertised. Additionally, our study shows that discursive strategies employed by advertisers were consistent with those emphasized by other media, such as television and print journalism.     

Explaining the use and effects of humour in advertising: an evolutionary perspective

Prior reviews have outlined the state of research of humour in advertising and showed that some findings deserve further explanations. This paper makes the point that evolutionary psychologists’ explanations of the functions of humour can provide new or alternative explanations for these findings and suggest new research avenues. The evolutionary functions of humour have been widely discussed in the literature, but advertising researchers have neglected biological nature and biological evolution as additional or alternative explanations for humour in advertising. The paper contributes to the advertising literature and broadens perspectives for research on humour in advertising by reviewing research on the evolutionary functions of humour, by showing how these functions can explain the use, effects, and moderators of humour in advertising beyond the explanations provided in prior literature, and by suggesting new propositions for future research on humour in advertising.     

Corporate crisis advertising: A framework examining the use and effects of corporate advertising before and after crises

While corporate advertising has been widely studied as a promotional tool, few studies have examined how it can be used in a corporate crisis situation. In 2013, Kim proposed a conceptual framework for examining stakeholders’ evaluation of pre-crisis corporate advertising, using the inoculation and reactance theory. The framework, published in Journal of Marketing Communications, suggested that pre-crisis advertising can increase audience resistance towards negative news of an organization and decrease audience resistance towards future corporate advertisements from the organization. The present study expands on Kim’s work to develop the corporate crisis advertising (CCA) framework. In addition to the inoculation and reactance effects discussed in Kim’s model, CCA aims to discuss the effects of corporate advertising on improving organization’s prior reputation based on halo effect, and how post-crisis advertising messages can be evaluated based on crisis theories. Our proposed framework provides a comprehensive view of the use of corporate advertising both before and after a crisis and is useful for organizations to understand the impact of corporate advertising on stakeholders’ evaluation of the organization in a crisis situation. Potential applications of CCA are discussed and directions for future research suggested.     

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.     

Looking in through outdoor: a socio-cultural and historical perspective on the evolution of advertising humour

This study examines the evolving acceptance and use of humour in advertising over the past century. Sociologists point to humour as an expression of the macro-societal mood. Consistent with this thesis, we analyse two data sets of outdoor advertisements that span over 100 years. We use a socio-cultural and historical perspective to understand the underlying drivers and changes in humour use at both the macro-cultural level and at the micro-industry level in the US. The results reveal the contextual interplay that led to changes in the acceptance of humorous advertisements as well as the evolution of humour styles and elements.     

International Capital and the Environment in Latin America

Summary

This century's end has been witnessing an increase in environmental concern. While initially a subject of developed countries, developing countries began to realize that the trade off between developing and conserving the environment has to be equated to give present and future generations a chance of success in their development efforts. Thus far, the approach taken by both developed and developing countries towards correcting environmental problems has been primarily dominated by command and control type of regulations, whose success is clearly a function of the regulator's enforcement capacity. Yet, there are signs that this approach is changing towards a more participatory mixed environmental policy model. This change has further stimulated the growing “environmental industry,” in which international capital plays a major role. This paper discusses these recent trends in the context of the conservation of the Latin America and the Caribbean environment.     

The unbearable lightness of advertising: culture,media and the rise of advertising in socialist Bulgaria

This article offers a historical analysis of the conceptualization of advertising both as a propaganda tool and as a means of encouraging consumption in socialist Bulgaria. By exploring the public discourse on the function and importance of advertising in the popular media over the last 50 years, it seeks to explore the approach used to define the need for advertising, offering an insight into the complex ways in which socialist ideologies recognized the “inevitable” logic of the market – on one hand, acknowledging the need for consumption and on the other, recognizing the utility of advertising, which promotes and supports this very consumption as it sustains the operation of a commercially viable social system.     

Unexpected Effects of the Washington Consensus: Trade Liberalization and Migration Flows in Latin America

The traditional theory of international trade assumes that there is a substitution relationship between international trade and migration flows. However, trade liberalization in Latin America has come with an increase in emigration. This article, based on an econometric analysis for the period 1981–2002, shows that there is a complementary relationship between trade and international migration. One explanation is related to the Washington Consensus. In particular, higher labor market flexibility, in the context of trade openness, has resulted in higher levels of unemployment. Therefore, emigration represents a safety valve that reduces the pressure on Latin American labor markets.     

Language and advertising effectiveness: code-switching in the Korean marketplace

Using two languages within an advertisement is increasing across many markets, throughout the world. By investigating code-switching effects between the Korean and English languages, this study is the first to directly test the Markedness Model perspective in the Korean marketplace. Furthermore, this study introduces a new type of code-switching (transliterated code-switching) between two alphabetic languages and assesses the impact of code-switching on advertising effectiveness across the different types. The results of Study 1 indicate that Korean–English (KE) code-switching and transliterated Korean–English (TL-KE) code-switching were significantly higher in attitude toward the slogan and product evaluation than English–Korean (EK) code-switching. However, there was no significant difference in the dependent variables between TL-KE and KE slogans. Study 2 tested the role of the perceived difficulty of the English words as a moderating variable. It was found that the KE slogan was more effective than the TL-KE slogan when difficult English words were embedded in the slogans, whereas no difference was found between the two slogans when the English words were perceived as easy. Implications for advertisers are presented and future research areas are discussed.     

Advertising Spending Efficiency of Beauty-Care Product Companies: Comparison Between Local Companies and Multinational Companies in the U.S. Market

ABSTRACT

In this study, the authors apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the financial efficiency of U.S. beauty-care companies and foreign companies based on their media advertising expenditures in eight key media outlets (i.e., magazines, newspapers, outdoor, network TV, spot TV, syndication TV, cable TV, and radio) and their revenues in the U.S. market. The analyses revealed that 47.4% of the companies examined advertised efficiently. Companies that advertised inefficiently could save, on average, 75% of their advertising spending. The results also indicated that although U.S. companies are more efficient overall than are non-U.S. companies in terms of advertising spending, the competitiveness of non-U.S. companies should not be underestimated because some of them advertised efficiently (e.g., Kao Corporation from Japan) or almost efficiently.     

Hispanic agencies and profits of distinction: an examination of the advertising industry as a field of cultural production

This project examines the advertising industry as a self-governing space that is guided by its own internal logics, but is nonetheless influenced by social dynamics at play in the larger social space. Using Bourdieu's theory of practice as a theoretical and analytical framework, this study explores the relationship between cultural capital and economic capital. Specifically, I examine the degree to which Hispanic practitioners have leveraged their knowledge of Latina(o) culture and their proficiency in Spanish as profits of distinction within the marketplace. Qualitative interviews conducted with Hispanic ad agents, general market ad agents and clients reveal that the position that Latinas(os) occupy within the social hierarchy has created both opportunities and boundaries for Hispanic agencies. This paper focuses on the practices that allow Hispanic agencies to isolate Latinas(os) from other consumers, distinguishing them institutionally and entitling them to dedicated marketing resources, but I also discuss the limitations to these practices and how such a narrow expression of the Hispanic agency's cultural capital ultimately limits their access to economic capital.     

Productivity and impact in advertising research since the millennium: a profiling and investigation of drivers of impact

What does it take to become a top advertising scholar in productivity? What drives impact in advertising research? This article sets out to answer these two questions by assessing the productivity and impact among scholars and their work in advertising since the millennium. As a two-part study, we begin by benchmarking and profiling the top 1% scholars in the field based on their research publications in the three top advertising journals (Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and International Journal of Advertising). Next, we employ a three-perspective conceptual model to identify the salient drivers of impact in advertising research. By content analyzing 1443 articles in the three journals published between 2000 and 2014, we show that certain universalistic and particularistic factors (to a lesser extent) significantly predict paper citations. Our findings reveal how advertising academia is advancing and showing signs of internationalization in the new millennium, which provides implications for the field's advancement and scholarship.     

Bridging the Digital Divide in Malaysia: An Empirical Analysis of Technological Transformation and Implications for E-development

This article uses research from the fields of international business, economics and industrial relations to investigate how the context of multinational corporations affects the bargaining power of shop-floor workers and senior management. It is set in the context of the Asia Pacific region. Senior executives negotiate their salaries from positions of strength, especially when their subsidiaries fulfil important strategic roles. In contrast, shop-floor workers can face threats to ‘move the plant to Asia’ when negotiating wages. These dissimilar negotiating positions provide the context in which wages are negotiated in the region. It is anticipated that the study will assist managers of multinational corporations and their employees’ representatives as they approach wage negotiations.     

Mapping the impact of home‐ and host‐country institutions on human resource management in emerging market multinational companies: A conceptual framework

While there is a growing literature concerned with multinational companies from emerging markets (EMNCs), it does not contain a robust conception of how institutions shape human resource (HR) practices in such firms. We contribute to filling this gap through developing a framework of how institutions create a range of constraints and opportunities for EMNCs. Specifically, our framework contains three key elements of how MNCs from emerging markets interact with institutions: EMNCs develop approaches that to some extent reflect the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the institutions in the home country (institutional conditioning); the strategies of actors in EMNCs can overcome the weaknesses of the home country by drawing on institutions in other countries (institutional arbitrage); and the actions of EMNCs can reinforce, or create pressures for change in, the institutional context in the countries in which they operate (institutional change/consolidation). By mapping this set of strategies of EMNCs, we contribute to a fuller understanding of the relationship between institutions and HR practices, and we outline how the rise of EMNCs reshapes the global landscape by adding new kinds of firm behavior to capitalist diversity.     

Comedic violence in advertising: the role of normative beliefs and intensity of violence

Interest in the use of comedic violence in advertising has risen, but the research on this topic has been limited. Past studies have found positive effects of comedic violence in ads, with higher levels of violence increasing positive responses. However, given that the violence depicted in these ads is a violation of social norms, following the Social Norms Theory, it is proposed that individual norm beliefs about violence in advertising could be a significant factor in influencing ad outcome. Using an online panel of general consumers across two experiments, this study revealed that norm beliefs had a positive influence on comedic violence ad responses. In addition, when violence intensities of the ads were varied, individuals with lower norm beliefs responded more positively to low violence ads than high violence ads, whereas individuals with higher norm beliefs did not exhibit different responses to the two violence intensities. Mediation analyses were conducted to test for the underlying mechanisms. As comedic violence advertising may offend audiences, the findings provide targeting and design implications for advertisers interested in this strategy.