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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Malaysian Malays attitude towards offensive advertising and the reasons that make these advertisements offensive. This paper aims to explore the role of religiosity on attitudes towards controversial advertisements and the reasons why they are controversial.

This paper consists of 279 randomly selected Malay participants. Data were analyzed using means, correlations, and ANOVA.

Results indicate that those high on religiosity differ on the nature and manner of controversial advertisements from those of low religiosity. Malay Muslims when compared on their degree of religiosity differ in terms of their evaluation of offensive nature of advertisement. More important they differ more on the reason that make these advertisement offensive compared to the nature of the products.

Respondents are somewhat more skewed towards a younger population causing concern that the results might not be a true indication of all Malaysian age groups.

The original value of the research lies in its effort to examine the results from the lens of religious theology and respondent degree of religiosity.

This paper sets out to extend current knowledge on advertising effects on those not targeted by noting unintended consequences on attitudinal, emotional, and behavioral reactions.

This paper tests these effects based on relevant theories in the communication and advertising literature on two distinct ethnic groups (Malay and Chinese) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia utilizing questionnaires based on a fictitious advertisement for the dominant and non‐dominant ethnic group in Malaysia. The advertisement used was for a fictitious can of drink and its design was common in Malaysia. Data collected were analyzed using Manova, General Linear Model, and Bonferoni.

There were negative attitudinal, emotional, and behavioral reactions by those not targeted who saw these advertisements.

One limitation is that the study used two different advertisements, but each respondent saw only one. The advertisement was also for a fictitious product. Future research will benefit from further improvements (impact of product type or advertisement format) and replication of other ethnic groups or targeted groups.

A practical implication is the importance of predetermining the appropriate use of language and dominance of the targeted group. Targeted communications strategy may not be the most effective method of communicating with a specific ethnic group in a plural society.

The major contribution of this paper consists of the determination of negative effects of advertising on those not targeted, and the finding that the level of dominance plays a role in consumers’ reactions towards targeted advertising. The paper is of value to advertisers, researchers in advertising, and social science scientists.

This paper seeks to develop and test the SERVQUAL model scale for measuring Malaysian private health service quality.

The study consists of 340 randomly selected participants visiting a private healthcare facility during a three‐month data collection period. Data were analyzed using means, correlations, principal component and confirmatory factor analysis to establish the modified SERVQUAL scale's reliability, underlying dimensionality and convergent, discriminant validity.

Results indicate a moderate negative quality gap for overall Malaysian private healthcare service quality. Results also indicate a moderate negative quality gap on each service quality scale dimension. However, scale development analysis yielded excellent results, which can be used in wider healthcare policy and practice.

Respondents were skewed towards a younger population, causing concern that the results might not represent all Malaysian age groups.

The study's major contribution is that it offers a way to assess private healthcare service quality. Second, it successfully develops a scale that can be used to measure health service quality in Malaysian contexts.

Whilst earlier studies of market entry success factors have mostly focused on large emerging markets such as China or India, limited attention has been given to smaller emerging markets. The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of firm-level (i.e. entry mode and firm size), country-level (i.e. market potential, country risk and openness) and cultural distance on successful market entry strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a smaller emerging country (Thailand).

Using archival data from 1996-2008 and a survey of 139 firms, the results reveal significant influence of both market potential and cultural distance on successful market entry.

Overall, the findings demonstrate a cautionary approach when generalizing the results of studies focusing on large emerging markets to smaller emerging markets. Smaller emerging markets such as Thailand offer very different market-space than large emerging markets and therefore the overall determinants of success may differ substantially.

Market potential appears to be the most significant variable in entering the Thai market. The findings also suggest a negative and significant relationship between cultural distance and market success in Thailand. This reveals that foreign firms that enter small emerging markets which are culturally close to their home countries can enjoy a greater possibility of success.

This study is a first step towards sensitizing corporations and policy makers in understanding the differences in market entry success factors between larger and smaller emerging markets and strategizing accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to show that culture has differential effects on purchase intent, using respondents from four very different cultural groups within Indonesia, and two different advertisements (one ethical, another unethical).

The study uses survey methods and a highly structured questionnaire to collect data from respondents in four cultural groups. In total, 100 responses were received from each of these groups within Indonesia (Bali, Batak, Java, and Minang). Data were analyzed using partial least squares.

The results suggest that when advertising to culturally conservative groups, caution is required. Such groups have lower purchase intent when they do not like the advertisement. Moreover, other variables such as attitude towards the advertiser may become salient drivers of purchase intent for such groups if the advertisement is perceived to be unethical. Importantly, neither of these factors are salient for more permissive cultures, regardless of whether the advertisement is perceived to be ethical or unethical. In addition the authors identify a set of “universal paths” by which advertisement-related factors, and company-related factors indirectly influence purchase intent for both permissive and conservative cultures, regardless of the perceived ethicality of the advertisement.

The research uses four samples, with 100 respondents per group. Future research could verify these results using larger samples. In addition, the study only uses low involvement consumer products, hence future research could test the model on higher involvement products.

Managers should test their advertising messages on target audiences to assess whether they are likeable, as advertisement likeability can influence purchase intent. In addition, whilst factors such as ethicality (and likeability, and attitude towards the advertiser) tend to not affect purchase intent directly except in specific circumstances, these antecedent variables do have strong effects on each other via the universal paths.

This is the first study which has examined the effects of ethical/unethical advertisements across four different cultures in Indonesia. The results also reveal an important set of relationships between the model variables, which the authors refer to as the “universal paths.” These paths have important implications for advertisers and their clients in their attempts to build brand equity and increase purchase intent.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the direct and indirect influence of brand experience on a customer's brand attitude, brand credibility and customer-based brand equity. Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from 400 users of mobile hand sets, using convenience sampling technique. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling procedure to test the proposed relationships in the model. Findings

The results indicate that the data were a good fit to the proposed model. All the paths in the model remained statistically significant. Although, Chi square test was not significant (6.10, df, 2, p

This research investigates the proposed model for a single product category. Future researchers can test the model for other product and service categories. Also, this research only explores the three most critical outcomes of brand experience; however future researchers can incorporate satisfaction, loyalty and commitment as the possible outcome of brand experience.

This study demonstrates that brand experience can directly and indirectly influence some of the most important concepts in branding literature. This model will help managers to understand how investments in different aspects of branding process lead towards brand differentiation.

This research is the first of its type that incorporates brand credibility, attitude and equity as the consequences of brand experience in a single causal model.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cultural assimilation influence on family purchase decision making of Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand, and in Chinese families living in China.

The data were collected from 200 respondents. In total, 100 families have been chosen from each of these countries. The data were collected by the snowball sampling method across 11 different products and four decision-making stages.

The results of this research show that cultural assimilation does have an influence on parental perceptions of teen's influence on family decision making. Chinese immigrants' teenage children in New Zealand were perceived as having more influence within the family than their peers in Chinese families living in China.

The research used a sample size of only 100 respondents from each country. Furthermore, it used snowball sampling and mid-income group families only.

These findings help marketers to gain a better understanding of the influence of cultural assimilation, and use specific marketing communication and promotion strategies.

The paper empirically demonstrates that Chinese parents living in China and Chinese immigrant parents living in New Zealand perceive their children's involvement in family purchase decision differently. Chinese immigrant parents perceive that their children are becoming assimilated with New Zealand culture. This is the first ever study done on Chinese Immigrant families living in New Zealand and Chinese families living in China by collecting and using the cross-culture data from New Zealand and China.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors which influence Taiwanese students' destination choice for their overseas postgraduate studies. Constructs elicited from the literature were overall perception of education quality, available information, country characteristics and accrual of potential benefits.

The paper takes the form of a literature review, from which the authors identified four constructs: quality of available information; overseas country characteristics; potential benefits; and perceptions of overall education quality. The data required for this research were collected by means of a consumer-type survey. A questionnaire was developed with 40 items adapted from previously validated scales. A non-probabilistic sampling procedure, i.e. convenience sampling, was adopted owing to the unavailability of a satisfactory sampling frame. Final-year undergraduate students from four universities in Taiwan were targeted. There was upfront a screening question which eliminated students who were not knowledgeable about overseas postgraduate education from continuing the survey. A total of 312 survey questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers, during a two-week period, and 301 completed questionnaires were collected.

The research findings revealed that the overall perception of education quality in host country influences the choice of the destination country. Path analysis has shown the catalytic need for intermediation by potential benefits accrued. Postgraduate Taiwanese students, having a better appreciation of western acculturation and potential migration and job prospects, together with the constructs of quality of information and country characteristics, have a better overall perception of education quality of destination country.

Universities targeting Taiwanese postgraduate students need to highlight aspects of potential benefits in their marketing literature and promotional materials. The results of this study will certainly benefit overseas educational institutions and their marketing departments.

This is one of the very few studies which uses partial least squares to address a complex situation associated with the hierarchy of determinants in the selection of a foreign university.

The purpose of this paper is to address the globalisation/culture issue by comparing two Asian countries in which there has been limited prior research regarding their respective supermarket industries, namely, Singapore and Malaysia.

The research design adopted a case-study approach, with two general cases (the New Singaporean and Malaysian supermarket retail industries), made up of two embedded cases each (retailers and manufacturers operating within each country).

The overall finding is that despite prior assumptions that suitability is reliant on product type or country choice, there are a number of sales promotion techniques that are inherently suited to the supermarket industry as a whole. The majority of these “inherently suitable” techniques are price-based and the conclusion is then that these techniques can be used globally. Value-added techniques, on the other hand, should be localised to fit with the market in which they are being applied.

Tools best suited to the grocery product sales environment appear to be price-based or linked to price reductions (i.e. price discounting and discount-linked point-of-purchase (P-O-P) or end-of-aisle (E-O-A) displays combination and volume offers), suggesting that those tools which are inherently suitable to the industry are likely to meet retailers' shorter-term objectives rather than manufacturers' longer-term ones. The difficulty faced by manufacturers, then, is aligning their sales promotion objectives with the tools that are best able to achieve results in the supermarket environment.

Globalisation of the supermarket industry has also meant that marketers continue to need a better understanding of cross-cultural issues and their effect and national culture frameworks can be used to develop marketing theories which are suited to a particular region. The current research identifies preferences for different sales promotion techniques in the two nationally similar, yet ethnically diverse, countries under study, as well as examining application of these techniques in the retail environment.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on testing hypotheses derived from theories presented by leading scholars regarding possible sources of differences in reliability coefficients, using cross-sectional data from Japan and Malaysia.

A survey was conducted in Malaysia and Japan, both of them characterized as having collectivist values. Convenience sampling and the same method of survey administration, personal interviews by trained interviewers, was used in both countries.

The tests of the hypotheses regarding cultural, subcultural, and aging effects provide some results in line with the hypotheses, but they raise additional concerns about the possible sources of measurement differences and the applicability of theories and measures developed in one country to other countries and subcultures within countries. The major findings include the alpha reliability coefficient of the self-esteem scale (SSE) which is hypothesised to be lower than the alpha for the material value scale (MVS) and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) in the Malaysian and Japanese samples, but this difference only occurs for the Japanese sample.

The study findings highlight the challenges that researchers confront when conducting cross-cultural studies.

The present study systematically tests the reliability of measures developed in the West and employed in different countries (especially Asian countries). Although several assumptions and speculations have been made regarding the sources of potential bias in measures used when studying cultural and subcultural differences, little empirical work supports these views. Our study fills this gap.