Evaluates the impact of the ‘made in’ label on Finnish consumers' attitudes towards the products of selected countries, and they examine the implication of these attitudes for developing appropriate strategies for the Finnish market. States consumer attitudes frequently relate to specific...

Purpose – Widely accepted classifications of benchmarking distinguish between different levels of benchmarking. Strategic‐level benchmarking is considered to be of a higher sophistication than product‐level benchmarking. Such strategic benchmarking would be based on process information...

Purpose – Aims to view two key issues, the importance of country‐of‐origin (COO) and perceptions of individual brands across different segments of consumers, and whether price cutting helps overcome negative perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – Uses conjoint methods to investigate...

Reports a pilot study of the relative importance of import decision variables as rated by Australian managers. A systematic sample of 104 Australian managers representing different companies participated in the study. Australian importers rated product quality as the most important variable when...

Asymmetries in information, where sellers have more information than buyers about product qualities, may prevent firms from supplying some goods and services despite the fact that consumers are willing to pay adequately for them. The frequency and importance of such market failures is growing...

A brand exists through the values it reflects. These can be outlined in a brand character statement (BCS) to provide guidance to the brand’s speech. This article discusses the application of a tool from psychiatry for the development of a BCS. In addition, we present steps for implementing and...

Purpose – This paper aims to describe a pricing process that can aid companies in modifying their product strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The case describes an approach that uses grass roots data from franchisees to change pricing strategy effectively. Findings – The paper...

This case describes the situation surrounding the entrance of Starbucks International Coffee into the Kuwait marketplace. It requires students to consider relevant small business and entrepreneurship issues in determining an appropriate response. These issues include: international joint...

Deals with the relationship between cultural closeness and cultural affinity. The basis of the research is that a correlation exists between the level of affinity (or “liking”) executives feel for a foreign culture, and the extent to which they feel psychologically close to that culture....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the accelerated growth within the Australian do-it-yourself (DIY) market and discusses the factors and drivers affecting consumer motivations to engage in such assembly tasks. Design/methodology/approach – Using a case study approach,...