Management practices in U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms: Are “they” just like “Us”?

Despite considerable debate about foreign direct investment in the United States, little research has examined the inner workings of U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms. This study examines the management practices in 249 U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms. Findings show that practices in marketing, human resource management, and manufacturing tend to more closely resemble the practices of local competitors than those of the foreign parent, whereas for practices in financial control the dominant resemblance is to the parent. Furthermore, findings reveal that affiliates are comprised overwhelmingly of Americans, not only at lower levels of the organization but also in key executive positions, although affiliates of Japanese firms stand apart in their greater reliance on expatriates. Foreign affiliates of multinational firms are revealed as differentiated sets of practices, shaped by the interplay of local responsiveness and internal consistency. The findings also make plain that U.S. affiliates of foreign-owned firms are in many ways very much like American firms. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The “Ethics of Social Ideas” Versus The “Ethics of Marketing Social Ideas”

Can the public make a distinction between the “ethics of social ideas” versus the “ethics of marketing social ideas”? This question was empirically assessed via a survey research design. The evidence strongly suggests that individuals cannot totally separate the social idea from the marketing technique used to promote the idea. Also it was found that some social issues are more likely to foster strong ethical concerns than others. The implications of this research are discussed.     

Advertising “like a girl”: Toward a better understanding of “femvertising” and its effects

This paper investigates the impact of femvertising (female empowerment advertising). More specifically, it hypothesizes that femvertising (vs. traditional portrayals of females in advertising) will reduce ad reactance among a female target audience, and that this in turn will enhance ad and brand attitudes. The results of three experimental studies indicate that this is indeed the case, and that the results hold across print and digital media, for five different product categories, and for femvertising focusing on challenging female stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics as well as the roles and occupations used to portray women in advertising. Although previous studies of the effects of female portrayals tend to focus on social comparison and self‐identity, the current paper considers the role of psychological reactance to (more or less) stereotypical portrayals in explaining these effects. The results suggest that marketers have much to gain from adapting a more proactive and mindful approach to the female portrayals they use in their ads.     

Children's relationships with brands: “True love” or “one‐night” stand?

Group and individual interviews were conducted to examine relationships developed between children and brands in the family setting. Children's stories about brands suggest that they develop relationships with a wide range of brands and these relationships are imbedded in the social environment where children live and grow. Interpersonal relationship metaphors were utilized to describe different forms of child–brand relationships. The article concludes that children's relationships with brands serve important functions in their lives and have significant implications for marketers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

“Me” versus “We” in moral dilemmas: Group composition and social influence effects on group utilitarianism

The paper is one of the first empirical attempts that builds on the moral dilemmas and group rationality literature to explore the way in which group composition with respect to group members’ individual choices in moral dilemmas and social influence processes impact on group moral choices. First individually and then, in small groups, 221 participants were asked to decide on 10 moral dilemmas. Our results show that emergent group level utilitarianism is higher than the average individual utilitarianism, yet, lower than the highest individual utilitarianism within groups. We also show that average individual utilitarianism positively predicts group utilitarianism while group fragmentation in individual utilitarianism has a negative effect on group utilitarianism. Next to group composition, minority influence processes explain additional variance in group utilitarianism, cognitive dissent having a positive influence, while normative deviance a negative influence on group utilitarianism. Majority influence has no significant influence on group utilitarianism. Finally, our results show that the relationship between group fragmentation in individual utilitarianism and emergent group utilitarianism is mediated by the two forms of minority influence.     

“Made in Country” Versus “Made in County”: Effects of Local Manufacturing Origins on Price Perceptions

Consumers often use an array of extrinsic and intrinsic attributes to infer product quality and to assess monetary sacrifice. However, literature reveals little about how and if consumers would use information on product's manufacturing origins differently if it was national rather than local. In two studies, the role played by uncertainty in judgments of the quality of locally made products is examined. It is shown that when consumers are motivated to process information and quality ratings are high, local identity effects are elicited and monetary sacrifice perceptions are diminished. These results suggest that favorable quality ratings need to be prominently featured when promoting locally made products, and that locally made products are preferred to national ones only when quality is not a concern.     

Financial Knowledge and “Don't Know” Response

We investigate the effect of group characteristics and educational interventions on young respondents' objective financial knowledge level. We examine six questions about personal finance and covariates selected from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study. Because these questions include “Don't Know” or “Refuse” (DK/RF) responses, a simple regression model could cause researchers to reach misleading conclusions if DK/RF responses are not random. Thus, we suggest a binomial‐latent regression model to evaluate the effect of educational interventions and group differences that are hidden in DK/RF responses. The estimation result shows that rejecting financial education opportunities is disadvantageous to obtaining proper financial knowledge. In addition, both formal and informal financial education are less effective in improving objective financial knowledge in our preferred model. We also find few or no gender, income, and age differences in young adults' objective financial knowledge level after controlling for financial education interventions.