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The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of brand associations on brand loyalty of fans toward professional football clubs in developed and emerging football markets (EFM). In particular, the following research questions are answered: how important are different determinants of brand associations for fans from developed football markets (DFM) and EFM? Are there any major differences in the importance of different brand associations and their influence on brand loyalty between fans from DFM and EFM?

Based on the customer-based brand equity framework the impact of brand associations on brand loyalty is tested with a sample of 3,587 fans from DFM – Germany, England, Spain, Italy, and France (2,032) – as well as fans from EFM – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the USA (1,555).

Structural equation modeling is applied and shows a negative impact of brand attributes on attitudinal loyalty, whereas brand benefits positively impact attitudinal loyalty. Furthermore, significant differences between fans from developed and EFM are revealed. Implications for the management of football teams and for research on brand management are derived.

This study extends the work of Gladden and Funk (2001) by expanding the model used to assess brand loyalty and analyzes it empirically in different football markets. When looking to foster attitudinal loyalty, marketers should concentrate on benefit associations instead of attribute associations. Most importantly, marketers should be aware that when focusing on developing brand loyalty amongst EFM fans, they should not simply apply the same strategies that proved to be effective in DFM and vice versa.

Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) often causes negative public responses, particularly in western industrialized countries. An important instrument of Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) to overcome these concerns is the use of political strategies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Based on institutionalist theory, the author formulates research hypotheses and tests them with a sample of 611 subsidiaries of Chinese MNCs in Germany.

The study shows that CEO political connection is positively associated with the use of the information and financial incentives strategies, while state ownership influences the use of the financial incentives and reputation-building strategies. Also, moderating effects of subsidiary age on these three political strategies are revealed.

The author derives implications for the literature on corporate political strategies as well as for research on Chinese OFDI, institutional theory and international management theory.

International human resource management research has only recently started to recognize the many millions of people who engage with the international labor market as low-skilled self-initiated expatriates. In contrast to company-assigned expatriates, they predominantly come from less-developed countries (often from rural areas) and independently decide to pursue an international career. The aim of this study is apply an expatriate-centered perspective and explore how expatriates at the base of the pyramid perceive the conditions of their international employment.

The paper is based on a qualitative study among self-initiated expatriates in the tourism and hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Two theoretical categories that reflect the evaluation of expatriate employment were identified, namely the social comparison with friends and family who stayed at home as well as with other expatriates and locals and the temporal comparison to the situation before the expatriation and the prospective situation after the expatriation. Both categories largely differ from the concepts and categories prevalent in the expatriate literature.

The study contributes to the understanding of the temporal and transitory dimensions of expatriation, which have been barely addressed in the academic literature. It shows that self-initiated expatriation often represents a break in the professional and personal biography. It is less perceived as linear continuation of a steadily advancing career path than a restart or springboard to the future. The results are situated in the tourism and hospitality sector in the UAE and cannot be generalized to other countries and industries.

The study emphasizes the relevance of social inclusion, equal opportunities, a safe work environment and a relaxed corporate culture for expatriates at the base of the pyramid.

While research about self-initiated expatriates usually compares them with company-backed assignees, this comparison is not salient in the narratives of the interviewees in this study. Instead, low-skilled self-initiated expatriates predominately compare their current foreign assignment with the situation in their home country. This social comparison reflects their perceived reality of life better than a fictional comparison with highly skilled and company-assigned expatriates that is prevalent in the academic expatriation literature. By emphasizing an expatriate-centered perspective, the study supports and extends Piore's (1979) application of segmented labor market theory.

This paper aims to examine how future top managers in India develop their corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation. Based on socialization theory, this paper investigates how individual determinants influence CSR orientation by focusing on the two main drivers of CSR in India – the philanthropic and strategic imperatives.

A survey of 204 students currently enrolled in a post-graduation program at an Indian Institute of Management was conducted via an online questionnaire. By applying a logistic regression analysis, determinants of CSR orientation are revealed.

The results of the study indicate the influence of different factors of primary and secondary socialization on an individual’s CSR orientation. The study finds that women and younger individuals have a tendency toward a strategic CSR orientation. Alternatively, religiousness and emotional stability predict a philanthropic CSR orientation. Furthermore, business school education leads to a strategic CSR orientation.

The study focuses on a number of determinants that were evaluated to be important. Future research should broaden the scope and include additional, and more sensitive, factors.

The study provides insights that organizations can incorporate in their recruiting processes to strengthen their CSRO development.

The study addresses the gap that exists in current literature on CSRO in India by not just describing but diving deeper and investigating the demographic and psychographic determinants of individuals’ CSRO. A step further is taken to identify individuals’ inclinations toward either a strategic or a philanthropic approach to CSR.

Virtual assignments, in which the virtual assignees do not relocate to host locations, but work remotely, have several advantages compared to traditional international assignments, such as enhanced flexibility, cost-efficiency and the possibility that virtual assignees can stay in their home communities. However, it is open to question whether virtual assignments are as effective as traditional assignments. The purpose of this study is to compare the ability of virtual vs traditional assignees to bridge the distance between headquarters and subsidiaries.

Based on a survey among virtual and traditional assignees, the ability to bridge multiple facets of distance is examined.

The results indicate that virtual and traditional assignees have similar abilities to bridge geographic, cultural, functional and language distance. However, traditional assignees have a higher ability to bridge emotional and temporal distance.

By applying the distance framework to virtual assignments, a new theoretical perspective is introduced and the importance of clearly disentangling distance-bridging abilities is highlighted. One practical recommendation is that, due to lower costs and reduced coordination efforts required for virtual assignments, this assignment type is preferable if the cultural, language, functional and geographic distances are the most problematic ones during international assignments.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the attitudes of Russian managers are affected by personal attributes, environmental conditions and also cognitive processes.

Based on social cognitive theory, the authors developed hypotheses and tested them against data collected from 173 Russian managers via an online survey. A linear regression analysis revealed several determinants of ethical attitudes within the Russian context.

The findings suggest that personal values (i.e. political orientation), environmental conditions (i.e. hierarchical level, ownership – state-owned versus private – of the current employer, industry in which a manager works) as well as cognitive processes (i.e. the presence (absence) of multilingualism at the workplace) strongly affect ethical attitudes of Russian managers in several issues related to both job ethics (relations inside the organization) and business ethics (relations outside the organization).

Revealing a positive effect of multilingualism as cognitive process on managers' ethical attitudes, this study calls for incorporating a second lingua franca, for example, English, within the working context.

The study provides an in-depth investigation of the determinants of ethical attitudes in Russia. Conducting a single-country study, the authors are able to reveal locally meaningful determinants that may otherwise be overlooked.

Blockchain technology has extended beyond the border of cryptocurrency and taken hold in various areas of international business. This study aims to analyze the impacts of blockchain on international business and the resulting challenges and implications for global governance.

The analysis of multiple blockchain applications in international finance, banking and insurance, supply chain management and logistics and marketing and advertising shows that the use of blockchain in international business has different impacts on global governance.

Although the protection of property rights can be improved and transaction costs can be reduced, the effects on other functions of global governance are more ambivalent.

As a recommendation for future studies, the need for more multidisciplinary and empirical research is proposed.

As the technology disrupts business activities, it also affects the governance of these activities on a global scale. Suggestions for the future regulation of blockchain applications in international business are developed.

Blockchain technology has extended beyond the border of cryptocurrency and taken hold in various areas of international business. This study aims to analyze the impacts of blockchain on international business and the resulting challenges and implications for global governance. The application of blockchain technology in international business across multiple industries is explored in order to draw conclusions about its impacts on global governance. It is determined that blockchain brings about both challenges and benefits for global governance.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of inpatriates’ abilities, motivation and opportunities on knowledge sharing and the moderating role of boundary spanning in this context.

By integrating the ability–motivation–opportunity framework with the concept of boundary spanning four hypotheses are developed, which are tested against the data of 187 inpatriates working in Germany.

The study reveals that inpatriates’ motivation and certain opportunities are positively related to knowledge sharing, whereas inpatriates’ abilities do not show a positive effect. Moreover, it is shown that inpatriate boundary spanning has a moderating effect on this relationship.

Based on the results, the study enhances the current literature by introducing the concept of reputation asymmetry. Moreover, requirements of how inpatriates’ assignments should be designed and implications for further research are outlined.

International assignments rely on interactions between host country nationals (HCNs) and an international assignee (IA). These interactions are significantly determined by the reputation that the IA holds among HCNs. However, reputation has only scarcely been addressed in extant mobility research, and there is a lack of understanding about how the reputation of an IA shifts among HCNs during the course of an assignment. The purpose of this paper is to understand the development of an individual's reputation as well as the interactions between an IA and HCNs in the context of international assignments.

This is a conceptual paper that builds upon the central idea in extant research of individual reputation as a social construction and draws on sensemaking theory to develop its conceptual model.

As extant research argues for both a temporal and dynamic dimension of reputation, the authors introduce time and reputational richness as central model elements. Furthermore, the conceptual model proposes reputational events as the principal triggers for reputational shifts. Reputational events reveal quantitatively and qualitatively new informational cues about the IA to HCNs, who then use these cues to incrementally construct the IA's reputation in sensemaking processes. In addition, contextual factors of reputational shifts, namely accelerators and amplifiers, are discussed. The authors argue that these contextual factors may affect both the timing and the strength of reputational shifts.

The study introduces a novel conceptual model and contributes to the understanding of individual reputation development as well as the interactions between an IA and HCNs in international assignments.