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1 – 10 of over 84000This paper aims to present the issue of glocalization in transnational advertising and to investigate various patterns of global‐local fusion in the discursive construction of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the issue of glocalization in transnational advertising and to investigate various patterns of global‐local fusion in the discursive construction of automobile advertisements in People's Republic of China.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 110 web ads is collected between 2004 and 2005, representing product branding from the local enterprises, the joint‐venture enterprises, and the foreign enterprises in the automobile industry in People's Republic of China. A tripartite framework is developed to examine the patterns of global‐local fusion in the ads along three dimensions: value appeals, language appeals, and visual appeals.
Findings
The paper finds that the global appeals tend to be used more frequently in the value dimension while the local appeals tend to be used more frequently in the language dimension, while there is not much difference in the frequency of distribution in the global versus the local appeals in the visual dimension. Furthermore, a large number of the multinational advertisers tend to hybridize both the global and the local elements and there are three possible patterns as representing the scenarios of the global and local fusion in the discourse of Chinese advertising: weak globalization but strong localization, strong globalization but weak localization, and a balanced correspondence between the global and local elements.
Originality/value
The paper has developed a tripartite framework for systematically examining the phenomenon of global‐local hybridity in the discourse of Chinese advertising and calls for attention to the process as well as products of glocalization in the other forms of transnational corporate practice.
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Stephane Girod, Joshua B. Bellin and Kumar S. Ranjan
Multinationals have always needed an operating model that works – an effective plan for executing their most important activities at the right levels of their organization…
Abstract
Purpose
Multinationals have always needed an operating model that works – an effective plan for executing their most important activities at the right levels of their organization, whether globally, regionally or locally. The choices involved in these decisions have never been obvious, since international firms have consistently faced trade‐offs between tailoring approaches for diverse local markets and leveraging their global scale. This paper seeks a more in‐depth understanding of how successful firms manage the global‐local trade‐off in a multipolar world.
Design methodology/approach
This paper utilizes a case study approach based on in‐depth senior executive interviews at several telecommunications companies including Tata Communications. The interviews probed the operating models of the companies we studied, focusing on their approaches to organization structure, management processes, management technologies (including information technology (IT)) and people/talent.
Findings
Successful companies balance global‐local trade‐offs by taking a flexible and tailored approach toward their operating‐model decisions. The paper finds that successful companies, including Tata Communications, which is profiled in‐depth, are breaking up the global‐local conundrum into a set of more manageable strategic problems – what the authors call “pressure points” – which they identify by assessing their most important activities and capabilities and determining the global and local challenges associated with them. They then design a different operating model solution for each pressure point, and repeat this process as new strategic developments emerge. By doing so they not only enhance their agility, but they also continually calibrate that crucial balance between global efficiency and local responsiveness.
Originality/value
This paper takes a unique approach to operating model design, finding that an operating model is better viewed as several distinct solutions to specific “pressure points” rather than a single and inflexible model that addresses all challenges equally. Now more than ever, developing the right operating model is at the top of multinational executives' priorities, and an area of increasing concern; the international business arena has changed drastically, requiring thoughtfulness and flexibility instead of standard formulas for operating internationally. Old adages like “think global and act local” no longer provide the universal guidance they once seemed to.
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A. Sellitto, R. Borrelli, F. Caputo, A. Riccio and F. Scaramuzzino
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and to assess the capabilities of the most common finite element (FE)‐based tools to deal with global‐local analysis. Two kinds of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and to assess the capabilities of the most common finite element (FE)‐based tools to deal with global‐local analysis. Two kinds of coupling were investigated: shell to shell and shell to solid.
Design/methodology/approach
The issue of connecting non‐matching FE global and local models, characterized by different mesh refinements and/or different element types, was addressed by introducing appropriate kinematic constraints on the nodes at the interfaces. The coupling techniques available in the three FE‐based codes (ABAQUS®, NASTRAN® and ANSYS®), were assessed by applying them on a common numerical test case (non‐linear buckling analysis of a square plate). Results of the global‐local simulations were compared to the results obtained for relevant reference solutions.
Findings
The continuity of displacements and stresses across the interface between global and local models and the influence of the presence of the local model on the global model solution were used as parameters to test the quality of the results. It was observed that the tools implemented in the different codes provide different results. The results characterized by a higher quality were found by using the Multi Point Constraint available in ABAQUS®.
Originality/value
When dealing with complex structures, multi‐scale (global‐local) approaches are commonly adopted to optimize the computational cost by increasing mesh refinements and/or introducing elements with different formulations in specific region of the structures identified as “local model”. In this paper an overview of the coupling tools available in the main commercial FE code is given.
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Stanford A. Westjohn and Peter Magnusson
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
This commentary offers a new perspective to the local-global identity discourse by integrating consumer disidentification as the active rejection of identity.
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Aviva Bashan and Sigal Kordova
The complex processes of global organizations poses significant challenges for the global quality management systems (QMSs) responsible for their coordination and effective…
Abstract
Purpose
The complex processes of global organizations poses significant challenges for the global quality management systems (QMSs) responsible for their coordination and effective management. This includes meeting local customers' needs, as well as being responsible for global operational effectiveness, aggregate capacity utilization, cost reduction and standardization. This study examines how all of these ends can be accomplished. Regulating local and global needs emerges as a key issue, but one that lacks clarity. Therefore, this article outlines an approach for developing a coherent, strategic approach.
Design/methodology/approach
A field study of eighteen multinational companies (MNCs) examined and mapped the activity of their QMS, defined representative profiles and compared these profiles to strategic, operational and marketing needs.
Findings
The data analysis shows several gaps in the approach to global quality management. The lack of coherence and considerable vagueness in addressing inter-organizational processes leads to behavior that fluctuates between absolute autonomy and specific initiatives aimed at reaching the necessary level of integration needed to achieve operational effectiveness.
Originality/value
The innovative mapping process and analysis of the current study provide a tool for differentiating between the local and global needs of MNCs' quality systems, identifying gaps and defining activities aimed at regulating responses while increasing global added value from the QMS. This provides deeper insight into the business needs of global and local QMSs to enhance the value derived from coordination and regulation.
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The competitive international environment of the twenty‐first century is said to require greater collaboration between the multinational corporation (MNC) units, where local…
Abstract
The competitive international environment of the twenty‐first century is said to require greater collaboration between the multinational corporation (MNC) units, where local employees work toward global as well as local goals. What does it take to motivate local employees to go the extra mile for the sake of the MNC as a whole? This article reports the results of a study conducted among 317 local managers at the Indian and Pakistani subsidiaries of a British MNC in the consumer products industry. Organisational identification, or a psychological bonding with the organisation, was one of several factors contributing to the willingness of local managers to exert extra effort toward organisational goals. Implications of the findings are drawn for expatriate managers who work alongside local managers, and for international human resource management.
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Rafael Morais Pereira, Felipe Mendes Borini, Leandro Lima Santos and Moacir de Miranda Oliveira Jr
The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of environmental conditions of the subsidiaries’ host country in the process of developing global innovation. It is argued…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of environmental conditions of the subsidiaries’ host country in the process of developing global innovation. It is argued that, even though the local environment in which subsidiaries are placed must be taken into account, this is not the only important factor to directly create global innovation, but it also becomes necessary for the subsidiaries to be endowed with autonomy, in this sense allowing them to enjoy the local conditions for innovation purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach is opted for the research development, while the hypotheses were evaluated from the analysis of the relationship between four constructs: global innovation, local market conditions, local competitive dynamics and autonomy to innovate. The structural equation modeling technique is applied, using data from 172 foreign subsidiaries located in Brazil.
Findings
The validity and reliability parameters analyzed in the proposed model were suitable (average variance extracted, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability and discriminant validity). H1 (the better the market conditions of the host country, the greater the subsidiary’s autonomy to innovate) was not supported. However, both H2 and H3 were supported, suggesting the influence of local competitive dynamics on autonomy to innovate, and also the influence of autonomy to innovate on global innovation, respectively.
Originality/value
This paper provides some contributions for the advance in researches about the global innovation management, considering the subsidiaries’ perspective, showing the relevance of the subsidiary’s autonomy for the development of global innovation given a favorable local competitive dynamic.
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Eline L.E. De Vries and Bob M. Fennis
Using food brands as a case in point, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between a local vs global brand positioning strategy and buying impulsivity, as well…
Abstract
Purpose
Using food brands as a case in point, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between a local vs global brand positioning strategy and buying impulsivity, as well as the mediating role of construal level. The findings add a psychological argument to the array of reasons for firms to opt for a local instead of a global brand positioning strategy: local food brands promote higher levels of buying impulsivity than global brands by lowering consumers’ level of construal.
Design/methodology/approach
Five experiments use student and nonstudent samples, different construal level indices and generic and brand-specific buying impulsivity measures to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Local food brands promote higher levels of buying impulsivity than global brands by lowering consumers’ level of construal. Because local brands are proximal to consumers’ lifestyles, values, preferences and behaviors, they decrease the psychological distance between the brand and the consumer, compared with global brands. The smaller psychological distance lowers consumers’ construal level and renders the immediate, concrete, appetitive attributes of the product more salient, thus making consumers more prone to impulsively buy a local brand than a global one.
Practical implications
For the choice between a global or local brand positioning strategy, this paper argues in favor of the latter. Local (food) branding is a concrete brand positioning mechanism that can influence and benefit from consumers’ buying impulsivity.
Originality/value
The research reveals heretofore unknown but important implications of local vs global brand positioning strategies for consumers’ construal level and buying impulsivity.
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Sarah De Meulenaer, Nathalie Dens and Patrick De Pelsmacker
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the globalization (vs localization) of different cues (advertising copy, brand name, spokesperson, brand logo) influences…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the globalization (vs localization) of different cues (advertising copy, brand name, spokesperson, brand logo) influences consumers’ perceived brand globalness.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted conjoint analyses for two products differing in product category involvement (chocolates vs computer) with 200 consumers from the Netherlands. Additionally, based on cluster analysis, the authors divide respondents into two groups: local vs global consumer culture individuals, and the authors compare the results of the conjoint analysis for these two clusters.
Findings
Advertising copy is most important in determining perceived brand globalness. The spokesperson and the brand logo determine perceived brand globalness more strongly for a low-involvement product, whereas the brand name is more important for a high-involvement product. Further, the spokesperson and the brand logo are relatively more important for global consumer culture individuals, while local consumer culture individuals find the brand name and advertising copy relatively more important.
Practical implications
The most important cue to position a brand as global is the advertising copy. Brand managers of a low-involvement product and/or targeting global-minded consumers should concentrate on the spokesperson and the brand logo to position their brand. Managers of a high-involvement product and/or targeting local-minded people should focus on the brand name.
Originality/value
While a number of researchers have emphasized the importance of perceived brand globalness for international consumer behavior, the present study is the first to the authors’ knowledge to investigate the relative importance of different cues in creating perceptions of brand globalness.
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The successful identification and management of environmental risks remains one of the most important challenges facing mankind. The global nature of environmental risks makes the…
Abstract
Purpose
The successful identification and management of environmental risks remains one of the most important challenges facing mankind. The global nature of environmental risks makes the assumption and practice of environmental responsibility difficult. This paper aims to examine the nature of this difficulty, arguing that although environmental responsibility remains global, it is situated and practiced at the local level.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a case study methodology, the paper examines three family dairy farms in Belsize, New South Wales, Australia. Repeated interviews with adult members of the farming families explored their perspectives of the past, present and future of the farm, eliciting rich narratives about relationships between farm, environment, community and individual, and the role that responsibility plays in negotiating these relationships.
Findings
Environmental responsibility is established as multi‐faceted, and negotiated between social actors as one of myriad other, competing responsibilities. Responsibility is positioned as a critical factor in the generation and maintenance of social relationships, but one which is often mobilized as a mechanism of governance. The paper argues that this can result in tension for some social actors.
Originality/value
This paper positions responsibility generally, and environmental responsibility in particular, as situated on the junction between local and global networks. This occurs as a result of the intrusion of the global into the local, and the corresponding need for individuals to act on the global stage through the medium of their local contexts. In managing the changes in behavior and identity necessary to do this successfully, responsibility is identified as one means of establishing social identity and group members, and a way of defining specific social roles.
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