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Previous research on the internationalization of retailing typically focused on retail companies crossing borders to enter other countries. Yet, a large number of people cross country borders to outshop in neighboring countries. This form of inward retail internationalization has received little attention in the literature. To address this void, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategies of retailers in a border zone setting.

The authors collected data from 109 US retailers on the USA–Mexico border. The survey instrument included questions that captured the participants’ opinions regarding the importance of Mexican consumers, retail mix strategies, performance issues and overall retailer characteristics.

The findings show that US retailers perceive cross-border consumers as important to their performance. Interestingly, the findings also suggest that border zone retailers do not adapt their retail mix strategies with this target market in mind.

The research was conducted at one particular border zone with its own unique characteristics. It is not clear whether the authors’ findings would apply in other inward internationalization contexts (e.g. medical tourism) or border zones. Future research should delve much more deeply into understanding outshopping motivations in border zones, but also the reasons why retailers do not actively engage in marketing their establishments to this target market.

The authors’ findings have interesting implications for retail managers in border zones. While exogenous and uncontrollable advantages on one side of the border may attract customers away from the other side of the border, retail mix customization under the control of retail managers may actually stimulate similar or better results. Border zone retailers are encouraged to engage in efforts to understand the border zone consumer and engage in programs directly targeted at them.

The study is grounded in theory and empirically assesses the retailers’ own contributions to enhancing their inward internationalization performance. By using the model of secondary boundary effects developed by Clark (1994) as their theoretical prism, the authors have put forward hypotheses, which address the aforementioned issues.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between global and specific attitudes of unfair police treatment towards Mexican Americans and how attitudes towards the police vary with socio‐demographic characteristics, victim status, linguistic barriers, group consciousness and socially disorganized contexts.

Data from the 2006 National Latino Survey, which is a representative random sample of 1,815 self‐identified persons of Mexican‐origin born in the USA were used to investigate three research questions: What is the prevalence in which Mexican‐Americans claim to be treated unfairly by the police?; What is the prevalence in which Mexican‐Americans perceive unfair treatment toward their ethnic group?; and Do cultural factors and/or heightened group consciousness and identity contribute to Mexican‐Americans perceptions of either specific or more generalized unfair police treatment? A structural equation model was developed to explore the relationship between global and specific measures of unfair police treatment and variables measuring socio‐demographic and linguistic characteristics, as well as socially disorganized contexts, group consciousness and identity.

Mexican‐Americans residing in socially disorganized contexts are significantly more likely to have positive global assessments of the police. The relationship between both social disorganization and specific and global attitudes was statistically significant. Individuals who have a strong sense of linked fate, possess a shared sense of common purpose and interest, and identify strongly with their ethnic group are significantly more likely to perceive that the police treat their group unfairly.

The current investigation is limited by the nature of the data, which is based wholly on self‐report. In addition, while the frequency and nature of police contact plays a role in influencing negative perceptions of police encounters, it was not possible to assess those influences here. Finally, the current analysis is limited by the cross‐sectional nature of the data and no inferences regarding causality can be made.

This study has implications for the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and will help criminal justice actors understand the broader implications of police‐citizen interactions.

The paper shows how social interactions are affected by group membership.

No study to date explores the relationship between group‐based identity, group consciousness and perceptions of unfair treatment by the police. These studies are usually limited to the political science literature.

In this article, information needed for potential US wine exporters to Mexico is provided. The opportunities for US wines in the Mexican market are closely examined in addition to essential facts vital to a US wine producer interested in exporting wines to Mexico. With the increase of wine culture in Mexico, the recovery of the Mexican economy, and the increased demand for US wines in the Mexican market, the potential to increase market share in the Mexican market is enormous. In 1996, responding to a US tariff increase on Mexican brooms, Mexico greatly increased its wine tariffs. The US saw its wine market share in Mexico decrease by more than 50%. However, with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) there will be a zero‐tax on US wines by the year 2003. The substantially lower prices of US wines and the increased demand for wines in Mexico should give US wine producers a very attractive market in Mexico. This article also informs potential exporters about label and packaging requirements needed to export wines into Mexico as well as the wine distribution channels in Mexico.

As has been widely recognized in the literature, the post‐war economic boom which drew to a close by the early 1970s has been followed by an intense period of industrial restructuring characterized by marked instability in all three major spheres of economic activity: production, distribution, and finance. This process has taken place both at the global level and at the level of national economies (Cardenas, 1990). It reflects a profound change in the mode of capitalist accumulation. Prior to the current round of restructuring, accumulation was taken to be principally the inward‐oriented task of each nation's own economy. Now, it seems that successful capital accumulation (i.e. development) depends most upon a nation's competitive integration into the world market for goods and services (Garrido, 1995). The present mode of accumulation implies an opening of national economies to international trade in commodities and capital, both among the advanced industrial nations and between the industrialized and the newly‐industrializing countries. This has generated a heightened degree of competition among countries and among firms, given that the easy movement of capital, goods, and services has allowed for real competition to emerge among dispersed places around the globe based upon their comparative financial and productive advantages.

The purpose of this paper is to account for the remarkable proliferation of Mexican restaurants and tequila bars in contemporary urban Australia, in the absence of any geographical contiguity, historical connection or cultural proximity between Australia and Mexico.

The paper traces how the particularities of direct cultural contact, interpersonal networks and grass-roots entrepreneurism can open up new markets, and how the ground is, thus, prepared for subsequent large-scale international corporate entry to those markets. This research is based on interviews with key figures in the development of the Mexican food industry in Australia, interpreted in terms of the extant literature on cultural globalisation. The first-hand accounts of these participants have been interpreted in the light of available secondary sources and relevant theory.

The most striking theme to emerge in the study is the relative absence of Mexicans, or even Mexico-experienced Australians, in the making of a market for Mexican food in Australia. Rather, initially, Americans were prominent, as entrepreneurs and in forming a consumer market, while in later decades, entrepreneurs and consumers alike have been Australians whose experience of Mexican food has been formed in the United States, not Mexico. The role of hipster subculture and travel is seen as instrumental. Also of interest is the manner in which the personal experiences and interrelationships of the Americans and Australians have shaped the development of the Mexican food industry. This is not to ignore the much more recent participation of a new wave of immigrants from Mexico.

While the scope of the study is national, the sharper focus is on the experience of Melbourne; it would be useful for future researchers to investigate other major cities, even if Melbourne has been the most pivotal of Australian cities in the history of Mexican food in Australia. The study has conceptual and theoretical implications for debates around cultural globalisation and “Americanisation”.

The paper provides a close-grained and suitably theorised account of how a particular consumer trend has become extended on a global basis, with particular attention to both individual experience and agency, and corporate activity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contributions of both successors and incumbent leaders to family firm continuity, using insights from the family business succession literature and cultural dimensions theory.

In a qualitative study, the succession practices of 19 Mexican-American family firms were examined.

The findings are encapsulated by seven propositions and a model of Mexican-American family firm generational contributions and constraints to family business continuity.

In-depth interviews with immigrant and second generation family firm leaders revealed both traditional family firm succession patterns and atypical succession patterns, including generational inversion and equals across generations.

Based on an analysis of Mexican industrial history, the objective of this study was to identify the historical events and factors which shaped the international business perspectives and management strategies of Mexican industrial groups (MIGs). To this end, the evolution of MIGs is traced over the course of 170 years and through three distinct phases of Mexican political and economic history: pre‐industrial era (1821‐1940); industrial boom (1940‐1970); and economic crisis and reform (1970‐1990). The subsequent analysis indicates a combination of historical factors resulting in two conditions ‐ domestic orientation and dependent development ‐ which caused MIGs to focus almost exclusively on the Mexican market and to shun international markets and competition.

Previous research on global marketing has typically focussed on marketing strategies across national markets. Yet, the cross‐national mobility of individuals has increased heterogeneity within country markets. The purpose of this study is to examine how immigrant consumers perceive advertising appeals in the context of the consumer acculturation process. Specifically, our study focusses on the reactions of Mexican, American, and Mexican‐American consumers to puffery‐laden advertisements.

Using two‐factor theory as our theoretical prism, the study offers salient hypotheses regarding consumer perceptions of puffery‐laden advertising appeals, which are then tested in a cross‐national experiment in the USA and Mexico.

The results show that Mexican consumers are more susceptible to puffery‐laden claims than Americans. In contrast, American consumers are more susceptible to advertising that does not contain puffery‐laden claims than their Mexican counterparts. Interestingly, the findings also reveal that Mexican immigrants are highly susceptible to both, puffery‐laden and no puffery appeals. The mixed results show that recent Mexican immigrants struggle as they transition to the dominant American consumer culture. First and second generations of Mexican‐Americans, however, react to puffery‐laden advertisements just as typical American consumers.

The paper discusses relevant implications not only for the study of puffery and acculturation of immigrant minority groups, but also for companies engaged in global advertising campaigns in countries with diverse immigrant communities.

The paper offers a worthwhile and unique examination of consumer acculturation in an international cross‐cultural setting and puts forward interesting insights regarding the application of international advertising strategies.

Understanding how managers in position of leadership experience culture is essential to avoid instability and poor performance in international strategic alliances. This study tests the proposition that national culture, top management team culture, and manager's personality influence leadership and shapes intercultural fit through the predominant management style in US‐Mexican strategic alliances.

Strategic leadership and personality theories constitute the framework for this study. Managers from the US‐Mexican strategic alliances which partners hold an equity position were surveyed and provided data to test the hypotheses.

Findings show that American and Mexican managers construct their own social reality with rules and norms bounded primarily by the existing organizational culture in the alliance. Both managers' management styles are similar and converge into a participative “consultative” style emerging as a “third culture” characterized by task innovation and emotional concern as American managers' input and task support and social relationships as Mexican managers' contribution. This study suggests that if adequately balanced, individualism‐collectivism is a source of intercultural fit while building shared leadership.

Managers of international alliances may reconfigure individual and cultural orientations and styles of alliance partners in the design of management teams to build high levels of social effectiveness. The innovator style of American managers supports the dynamics of change for the alliance to advance while the adaptor style of Mexican managers builds stability, order, and maintains group cohesion and cooperation.

Intercultural fit in international strategic alliances is achieved through designing organizational cultures that incorporate partners' cognitive diversity into the relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical background of the tomato dispute, review the USA trade law and its effect on the tomato trade, discuss the role of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other supply and demand factors on increased tomato imports from Mexico and present a conceptual analysis of the effects of a Suspension Agreement (a form of Voluntary Export Restraint) on the USA and Mexico. In 1996, the USA and Mexico signed the Suspension Agreement which sets a guaranteed minimum price for Mexican tomato imports.

Conceptual analysis graphically illustrates how the Suspension Agreement affects the tomato trade for the USA and Mexico and shows the benefits and losses of consumers and producers in these two countries.

There is no consensus regarding whether Mexico dumps tomatoes onto the US market. However, US trade law favors domestic producers, leading to the signing of the Suspension Agreement. It is shown here that this agreement has substantial welfare effects in both Mexico and the USA. While it was designed to protect US producers, it also aids Mexican consumers and may potentially improve Mexican producer surplus as well. Only US consumers unambiguously suffer a loss.

As the theoretical model indicates, the Suspension Agreement’s minimum price does help Floridian farmers but, if the rents are large enough, may also aid Mexican producers. If Mexican producers do gain, then quota rent is shifted from tomato consumers to Mexican producers. On the other hand, US consumers are hurt as well as tomato processing plants because they purchase fresh tomatoes for use as inputs. The higher price minimum after the 2013 agreement will likely intensify the welfare effects, and the addition of different categories with distinct prices is likely to have additional consequences for both welfare and trade distortions.

As the USA and Mexico recently signed a new Suspension Agreement, this paper deals with a very timely and contentious trade dispute and contributes to the area of research international trade war. The literature on Suspension Agreements is also expanded by providing welfare analysis of both producers and consumers.