Accelerating anti-globalization challenges previously undisputed assumptions about the importance of a product’s globalness/localness in purchase decisions. Putting these assumptions to test, we conceptualize globalness/localness as a distinct product attribute and decompose its utility into weight and preference components. Subsequently, we offer an equity-theory-based prediction of the attribute’s declining relevance and quantify its tradeoffs with other attributes by calculating global/local price premiums. Conjoint experiments in two countries (Austria-India) reveal that (1) emerging (developed) market consumers exhibit relative preference for global (local) products, (2) emerging market consumers perceive higher preference inequity between global and local products than developed market consumers, and (3) the corresponding inequity triggers consumers’ cognitive inequity regulation (manifested through attribute trivialization in developed markets) and behavioral inequity regulation (manifested through asymmetrical willingness to pay for global/local products across developed/emerging markets). We also find that attribute trivialization and price premium tolerance are moderated by consumers’ spatial identities and price segment. The findings contribute to the theoretical debate on the relevance of product globalness/localness in de-globalizing times and inform competitive strategy, segmentation-targeting-positioning, and international pricing decisions.

This research replicates the study of Steenkamp, Batra, and Alden (2003) on perceived brand globalness (PBG) and provides a stringent test of their documented effects through (a) considering the impact of PBG on consumers' willingness to pay (WTP), and (b) experimentally manipulating brand globalness. Across four studies, the results suggest that consumers are willing to pay more for global brands as long as their globalness leads to a more favorable brand attitude. Testing a comprehensive set of consumer characteristics as moderators, we find that the increased tolerance towards global brand price premiums is robust across consumer segments.

Despite the well-documented importance of consumer-brand relationships, international branding research has not yet investigated whether a brand's perceived globalness and localness influence consumers' identification with the brand. Drawing on brand relationship theory and global/local branding literature, the present research theorizes on how perceived brand globalness and localness influence consumer-brand relationship building and discusses how these influences vary for brands of domestic versus foreign origin. Two studies in mature and emerging markets, using several brands across multiple product categories, reveal that both perceived brand globalness and localness have positive effects on consumer-brand identification. These effects (1) hold in both mature and emerging market settings, (2) are independent of brand quality assessments, (3) interact in a mutually-reinforcing way, and (4) are moderated by brand origin in a substitutional manner indicating that the relational effects of brand localness (globalness) are stronger for foreign (domestic) than for domestic (foreign) brands.

Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) has enjoyed increased popularity as an analytical method among Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) authors over the last years. Despite such popularity, many authors fail to understand the basic principles of the method and reviewers are frequently confronted with manuscripts suffering from erroneous applications, insufficient reporting and questionable interpretation of SEM-based findings. Addressing this issue, the present article presents – in non-technical language – the most basic concepts related to SEM, resolves common misconceptions about the method's application and provides hands-on advice to IMM authors and reviewers dealing with SEM-based manuscripts. Structured along ten fundamental questions, the article covers issues related to (1) latent variables and their scaling, (2) types of parameters in SEM, (3) unstandardized and standardized estimates, (4) model identification, (5) model constraints, (6) model fit, (7) independence and saturated models, (8) modification indices, (9) nested models, and (10) equivalent models. After illustrating these concepts with the use of examples, the article concludes with a list of guidelines addressed both to IMM authors crafting manuscripts using SEM and the peers reviewing them.