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The purpose of this paper is to build on Steenkamp’s reflections, and introduce emerging and important developments that are shaping the global landscape and influencing global consumer culture (GCC) and global brands (GBs).

The paper is a thought piece.

The implications for GCC and GBs are discussed in the context of digital networked technologies, new brands from emerging markets and the digitally connected bottom of the pyramid consumers.

The paper suggests areas where research value can be added within the GCC and global branding literatures.

My days in the Michigan State University (MSU) doctoral program were days filled with intellectual stimulation and long hours of work on various research projects. Starting from my first day on Campus, I was part of the Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER), which consisted only of Prof. Tamer Cavusgil and his assistant Kay Fitzgerald. Dr. Cavusgil's days were filled with writing research proposals to secure funding for the center. He was so good at this that the center grew rapidly. In my second year in the program, I was involved in the Marketing Expert Systems project. As part of this project, I worked with a team of doctoral students. The artificial intelligence brain of the project was Mike Mitri, a doctoral student at the Computer Engineering Department. Each doctoral student was assigned an application area in international marketing: I was assigned the Evaluation and Selection of an International Logistics Company.

Examines the extent to which MNCs in Turkey standardise their marketing activities. The findings suggest that, in general, MNCs pursue higher levels of standardisation when market conditions are similar among host and parent countries. The findings also suggest product category and industry, ownership structure and nationality of the parent as three factors underlying the degree of marketing standardisation.

The recent changes in the international forwarding environment have witnessed the emergence of “new forms” of forwarders incorporating a broad spectrum of services under one roof. Such total logistics companies are becoming a critical third party in obtaining a competitive advantage in foreign markets. Hence, the evaluation and selection of an international freight forwarder is no longer a simple operational decision but a strategic one. Presents and explains an expert systems tool to assist decision makers in selecting the freight forwarder which fits their needs best. The system, called FREIGHT, brings together international marketing, logistics and artificial intelligence knowledge.

Suggests that the field of international marketing is a new application area of expert systems in recent years. Presents a formal, systematic and rigorous methodology for validating and evaluating expert systems and, most specifically, two expert systems developed for international marketing. The CEVAL Validation Methodology is a sequential and multiple‐criteria process. It evaluates expert systems on the following dimensions: correctness of reasoning techniques, quality of decision/advice, and efficiency and effectiveness of the system.

The purpose of this paper is to present a response to papers written by Professors Samiee, Belk and Özsomer as commentary pieces on my original paper, “The uncertain future of globalization: implications for global consumer culture and global brands.”

The paper is in the form of an essay.

The commentaries highlight many areas of agreement with the overall thrust of the original paper, and also pinpoint novel and important additional avenues for reflection and research.

The paper builds on the commentaries, identifying additional ways forward for the field.

Innovative firms are generally more successful in both industrial and consumer markets. However, factors that make firms innovative are often elusive and complex. Looks at how strategic posture, organization structure, environmental hostility and uncertainty interact and how each factor contributes to an explanation of firm innovativeness. Suggests that strategic posture is a major factor determining the innovativeness of firms while organization structure mediates the effects of strategic posture, uncertainty, and hostility. Hence, for managers striving to make their firms more innovative, a prerequisite is to adopt a proactive strategic posture which gradually leads to a flexible organizations structure ‐ the two factors that have a direct effect in making firms more innovative.

States that it is critical that incumbent firms understand the processes that enhance or inhibit entry of new firms into their industry. A new entrant into an industry may create additional demand by legitimizing the technology/products, and/or may share the existing market by drawing buyers away from incumbents. An analysis of market entry rates is especially important in new, high technology industries where sub‐groups of firms pursue different technology and global market diversification strategies because such sub‐groups may have asymmetrical cross‐effects on entry rates of new firms. Suggests a community ecology approach to assessing the impact of industry density on new firm entry rates. The framework is demonstrated by applying it to the global personal computer industry during the period of 1977‐1992. Results suggest that density has a nonmonotonic positive effect, while the firm‐level variables of technological strategy and market expansion strategies have a monotonic positive effect on new firm entry rates.

Investigates the effects of technology standards on the changing nature of interdependence between competitors in a global industry. Drawing on the theory of organizational ecology, the effects of technology standards on the type of interplay among competitors are investigated as the underlying process affecting new firm entry. Empirical data from the global personal computer industry provide preliminary evidence that positive interdependence, or mutualism, characterizes the nature of competition before the establishment of a technology standard. Negative interdependence, or full competition, is found to prevail after a technology standard emerged. These findings suggest that the evolution of industries where compatibility and technological standards are critical can be analyzed in two different phases: the technological legitimation phase; and the market competition phase. A discussion of the underlying interdependencies in the two phases and their implications is also provided.

After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and teaching Advanced Calculus, Advanced Linear Algebra, and Statistics for over 3 years at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, my life took a major turn that forever changed my career path: I got an opportunity to join the MBA program at Michigan State University!