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The objective of this study is to offer a longitudinal examination of country image, consumers’ brand origin recognition accuracy, and how their effects on brand evaluations have evolved over the last decade.

The authors compare data gathered in 2020 against data gathered in 2008. Each data set consists of more than 500 American consumers evaluating approximately 12 different brands from three separate industries (i.e. auto, television, and fashion).

The findings indicate that country image can evolve over time and that its effect on brand evaluation persists even when inaccurate brand origin associations are made. The study offers meaningful insights for managers in understanding how brands’ country associations affect corresponding brand attitudes.

Significant research attention has been focused on the effects of country image. However, longitudinal analysis of the same research questions has been rare. This study offers a valuable comparison of how several important country-image related issues have evolved over time.

This study examines how consumers' self-construal moderates consumers' buying behavior in situations requiring consumers to buy larger-than-expected clothing sizes. The authors explore the potential effectiveness of two distinct communication strategies – emotional versus informational ad appeals – to mitigate the negative effects of sizing discrepancies.

A total of three experiments were conducted to examine the proposed framework. Studies 1 and 2 investigate whether self-construal moderates the relationship between sizing discrepancy and purchasing intentions. Study 3 examines the effectiveness of communication strategies in reducing the detrimental effects of sizing discrepancy.

When encountering sizing discrepancies, the authors find that consumers with an interdependent self-construal have lower purchase intentions than those with an independent self-construal. The authors demonstrate that an emotional communication strategy is more effective for consumers with an interdependent self-construal, whereas an informational communication strategy is more effective for consumers with an independent self-construal.

With the lack of a universal sizing system, consumers often struggle to find clothes that fit as expected. However, extant research has not explored cross-cultural differences in how consumers respond to sizing discrepancies and how managers can reduce any potential negative effects.

This paper provides a perspective to the article by Cleveland and Bartsch in this issue. The purpose of this paper is to focus on examining objective global brand performance data in four industries and discuss the practicality of global vs country-level marketing strategy.

Drawing on data from Euromonitor, the analysis evaluates global brand performance in four industries over the last decade.

In most industries, global brands are less dominant than what is often assumed.

This commentary aims to bring a new perspective to the global consumer culture discussion and may spur valuable future research on the topic.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on the Strizhakova and Coulter article in this issue, with particular focus on the conceptualization of local and global identities.

Strizhakova and Coulter (2019) offer valuable service in their discussion of the conceptualization and measurement of local and global identities. The authors suggest that local identity should not always be reduced to a local-as-national identity, but may be relevant as a sub-national or regional identity. The authors also find that another relevant identity-relevant construct is that of consumer disidentification that represents active rejection of one’s national identity as opposed to the passive disinterest represented by the unengaged category.

This commentary offers a new perspective to the local-global identity discourse by integrating consumer disidentification as the active rejection of identity.

Global counterfeiting is escalating despite resistance by many parties. We identify three groups of stakeholders who have vested interests in either resisting or promoting counterfeiting. Among resistors to counterfeiting are national governments, international policymakers, and corporate intellectual property owners; among promoters are the counterfeiters themselves and many consumers. We argue that current supply‐side resistance approaches alone are inadequate; attention is also needed to resisting consumer promoters on the demand‐side of the market. Drawing from a review of the literature, we develop a new analytical framework which depicts complex interfaces between IP owners and consumers. A second framework presents actionable marketing strategies targeted to different consumer segments.

The purpose of this paper is to bring better understanding to how involving users in the development process of new mobile phone services can increase understanding of the overall service experience in a technology‐based service setting.

The paper is based on an experimental setting which aims to emulate the involvement of users in a service development process in order to provide information regarding the overall service experience. This is done by letting users evaluate both user‐ and company‐created services.

Users are found to be an important information source when it comes to understanding the overall service experience of technology‐based services. The paper shows that users are to some extent better at coming up with services regarding value in use. The findings show that some of the most important experience outcomes that are demanded, functionally related outcomes, are better met by user‐created services.

The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of a user perspective when it comes to understanding both the functional and emotional parts of the overall technology‐based service experience. The result of this paper implies a more advanced user focus during service development in order to be able to know what it is that creates value for technology‐based service users. Just how technology‐based services are functionally and emotionally experienced by their users is a fairly new research area and more empirical studies regarding this subject will be called for in the future.

This paper provides evidence of the importance of a user perspective when creating value propositions for technology‐based service users. From a managerial point of view, it is of interest to see whether it will be possible to learn more about the users' service experience of technology‐based services by involving them in the development process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two contextual factors with respect to the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. First, the authors examine the interplay between CSR messages and country image, and second, how consumers’ global identity affects their response to CSR signals.

The conceptual framework is examined in two samples of US consumers evaluating a new foreign entrant into the US market.

The empirical findings largely support the conceptual framework. Consistent with expectations, CSR and country image influence attitudes and purchase intentions. Most importantly, the authors also find a significant interaction effect between CSR and country of origin (COO). Further, consumers high on global identity are more responsive to positive CSR signals. These findings are confirmed in two complimentary studies.

CSR has become an important strategic priority for managers. This study allows managers to make more informed decisions regarding the CSR initiatives of their organizations.

This study connects the CSR literature with the COO literature, both of which are very important in the international marketing literature. Viewed through a signaling theory lens, this study provides new insights when, where, and how positive and negative CSR messages help or hurt the firm.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the value of being global brands is experienced differently based upon foreign versus domestic origin of a brand. The conceptual framework is tested on samples from three countries – United States, India, and China. The data are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The belief that global brands are of higher quality, more socially responsible, and deliver a sense of belongingness to a global community led to an orientation toward globally available consumption alternatives, or global consumption orientation (GCO). High GCO has been associated with preferences for global brands; however, we find that while this preference indeed extends to global brands based in foreign countries, it does not extend to global brands based in the home country. The study of global brands seldom distinguishes among types of global brands. This research examines global brands based on their foreign versus domestic origin; thus it offers a more nuanced understanding of the boundaries for the value of global brands.

The purpose of this paper is to present a rejoinder. The rejoinder is written in response to the commentaries provided by Saeed Samiee and Jean‐Claude Usunier on the authors’ original research piece: “‘What? I thought Samsung was Japanese’: accurate or not, perceived country of origin matters”.

The rejoinder is organized into three separate sections. The first section identifies areas of agreement between the authors, and Samiee and Usunier. The second section responds directly to the empirical and conceptual criticisms levied by Samiee and Usunier and clarifies the authors’ contribution. The rejoinder concludes by identifying areas of future research that may help further advance the field.

In addition to responding directly to the criticism of the original study, perhaps more importantly, the authors note several areas of common ground. First, there is agreement that future country‐of‐origin (COO) research designs must be careful to not artificially expose subjects to country cues that the consumer otherwise may not have considered. Second, in a globalizing world, brand origin perception appears to be more important than “made in” labels.

The authors do not consider the COO field outdated or irrelevant, but rather that it is a vibrant field of considerable interest to both practitioners and researchers. There is much still to be learned, and the authors hope the original research study and the ensuing debate have sparked fresh ideas and will lead to a continued effort in this interesting research field.