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After over three decades of debate, the issue of international advertising standardisation versus adaptation has not resulted in clear conclusions. Previous research indicated that the practice of total standardisation was the exception rather than the rule. Therefore, it became apparent that analytical focus should be placed more firmly on modified forms of standardisation. To this end, a highly sensitive and objective model was developed and used to obtain detailed and precise comparisons between advertisements deployed in different national markets. The results of this study demonstrate that “standardisation” is a flexible policy that can be adapted to a range of circumstances and differing market conditions and not a niche policy that is only suitable for certain types of brands in certain types of market. The study also suggests that rather than focusing on the benefits of total adaptation or total standardisation, the debate should focus more on the benefits applicable to the exact forms of standardisation practiced.

This paper's objectives are firstly to systematically analyse patterns of research in international advertising standardisation (IAS) conducted among managers and secondly to suggest fruitful paths for future research in this area.

Content analysis of academic papers published in major marketing, advertising and international business journals.

Results show that overall future research would benefit from a unified definition of and measurement procedures for advertising standardisation as only these can ensure the advancement of knowledge in the field. Additionally, more research is needed in order to further explore process issues in advertising standardisation, especially a newly proposed perspective related to the implementation process of the standardisation decision. Finally, an interesting avenue for future research relates to the study of the subjectivity involved in the standardisation decision.

As with all literature reviews, this paper is limited to analysing works in a selection of the top academic journals in the field. However, a careful choice of the most important journals has been made, providing a good reflection of knowledge in the area.

This paper appears to be the first literature review focusing on manager studies in the field of IAS.

Cross‐national strategy as opposed to country‐by‐country strategy may take place on a regional or on a global basis. This paper examines the European regional office experience of 16 large U.S. firms in terms of (1) the types of responsibilities they handle and why, (2) the problems of removing control and/or duties from country subsidiaries, and (3) the relationship between a regional and global strategy and implementation. The companies' experiences have been quite diverse, thus highlighting multiple opportunities but the need to approach the development of regional operations cautiously. In spite of some problems, the future for European regional management seems bright.

Investigates the regional standardization issue in global advertising by comparing print advertising of the Pacific Basin countries of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. The findings of the study reveal similarities and differences in print advertising components across the countries. Similarities were identified with respect to the use of photographs, the number of products shown per advertisement, the use of symbolic appeals, the use of product association and the use of product comparison appeals. However, the number of differences between the countries casts doubt on the extent of regional standardization that is feasible.

In examining the issues relating to global marketing strategy, scholars have primarily focused on marketing opportunities in the developed world. Recently, rapid rates of growth in emerging market countries have resulted in a growing interest in the market potential of these countries. Developing a global marketing strategy to target these diverse types of markets suggests the need to develop divergent strategies for different types of markets rather than focusing on integrating strategies across markets. To date, however, little is known about how to achieve this effectively. This paper briefly reviews past approaches to these issues and then indicates critical topics for future research.

The purpose of the paper is to pay homage to Dorothy E. Smith (1926–2022), and her lifelong significance for organizational ethnography. Building on Smith, the empirical purpose of the paper is to analyze professional boundary setting on behalf of innovation management as it occurred in the recent International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committees (TC) 279 committee on innovation management.

The paper is an ethnographic study of the drafting and publication of a novel international management standard on innovation management, the ISO 56000-series published in 2019. It is based on fieldwork from the ISO committee and integrates relevant standardization documents, observations and interviews.

The paper analyzes four occasions for textual professional boundary work ranging from negotiations of content and choice of ISO standard formats to the unprecedented high-level liaison agreements across international organizations. In each instance, the analysis depicts distinct textual features related to ISO standardization. The analysis shows how the standard becomes positioned as extending and complementing the ISO 9001, not as a radical, freestanding alternative to quality management.

The paper presents original data from the ISO standardization committee. It develops Smith's general textual ontology into a theoretical framework for analyzing how professional boundary setting occurs in the textually structured context of ISO standardization. It gives attention to the implications of questions of objectification and standardization as these apply to contemporary research into innovation and organization.

Using a managerial cognition lens, we investigate the organizational design issues facing multinational corporation (MNC) managers. We apply concepts hitherto untested in the international management (IM) literature to a longitudinal study of reconfiguration efforts within a large, Asian MNC. We focus on how organizational design outcomes can be affected through mental interventions that provoke changes in senior executives’ mental representations of what the MNC is and can be to achieve a strategic redirection and redesign. We draw on extensive interview and other qualitative data. Our study contributes to the literatures on MNC design and to our understanding of the important, but largely neglected, micro-foundational role of cognition in IM. This field research on executive judgment and decision-making in real time offers unique insights into the dynamics of MNC design.

This paper investigates print advertising of the U.S.and the Pacific Rim countries of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The study empirically analyzes whether components of print advertisements are similar or dissimilaramong the four countries identified. This research offers valuable information and insight to international advertising practitioners and marketing academicians regarding the potential for regional standardization of advertising campaigns.

This paper aims to continue the discussion of the difficulties that librarians face in creating a relevant and useful collection of standards. For developing countries the magnitude of the available standards and the huge costs make this task daunting.

The types of standards, their role in ensuring that the World's structures, facilities, goods, etc. conform to ensure health and safety, the ranges and finally the needs of the University of the West Indies (UWI) are discussed. The UWI Main Library's approaches to grappling with the relevant issues are then explored.

The electronic age offers speedy access to information resources provided that there are financial resources. Electronic access to such documents as and when they are needed (just‐in‐time philosophy) seems the most viable option, given the cost constraints. Other options could be customised collections crafted to suit the needs of students and faculty, or electronic clearinghouses externally subsidised by a philanthropic body to obtain the articles via an Internet system. Any of these could be developed and ensure cost‐effective seamless access, so giving a world‐class service anywhere in the World. Of course, knowledgeable librarians and good abstracts are also essential.

The cost of these technical documents is prohibitive for a developing country library to be able to have a large collection of standards but, if there is good internet access and a sound database to obtain abstracts, and if sufficient funds are in place, an efficient procedure could be developed for “just‐in‐time” access.

The paper examines some of the best options available to the Main Library of The University of the West Indies to ensure that engineering students gain access to current standards.

This study introduces a hybrid approach to segmentation of global markets. It examines an integrated inventory of macro‐ and micro‐bases associated with segmentation of world markets. The paper calls for a universal perspective on market segmentation to aid global marketers in identifying similarities across national boundaries while assessing within‐country differences. The main conclusion of this research is augmentation of the argument that a hybrid/universal market segmentation strategy should serve as the conceptual link and action mechanism that provides substance and rationale to striking a trade‐off between the two indispensable global strategy ends of standardization and adaptation. This balanced relationship can only be created when focus is devoted to building brand equity through emphasizing a global consumer orientation.