ارزش برند جهانی در بازارهای توسعه یافته، در حال ظهور و کشورهای کمتر توسعه یافته Global brand value in developed, emerging, and least developed country markets

Introduction Within the past two decades, international marketers have been faced with a globalizing world and the emergence of a global consumer culture (Alden et al. 1999; Cleveland and Laroche 2007; Akaka and Alden 2010). This emergence has increased the importance of understanding the value of global brands. Understanding this dynamic, Steenkamp et al. (2003) sought out to investigate the value of global brands and found that a consumer’s perception of a brand’s globalness (PBG) creates value for the brand by positively influencing perceptions of the brand’s quality and prestige. These findings have undoubtedly advanced research and practice on global brands as Steenkamp et al.’s (2003) article has been cited over 650 times since its publication. However, most of the studies on global brands since Steenkamp et al.’s (2003) work have been conducted in developed or emerging markets. Consumers living in the world’s least developed countries have not been considered with respect to global brand value creation. To address this issue, the research reported here examines global brand values across three different market types: developed, emerging, and least developed countries. Why is this important? Leading researchers in international business and international marketing have heavily stressed the importance of understanding institutional differences between markets (e.g., Contractor et al. 2014; Zhang et al. 2011), and given the prominence of global brands, better understandings of global brand value creation across different institutional environments would prove valuable for international marketing theory and practice. Also, as the world’s least developed countries become increasingly attractive for foreign direct investment (World Bank 2014); consumers in these countries should be given consideration in the discussion of global brand value. Furthermore, little research investigates the relationship between perceived prestige and quality across different market types. Thus, this paper not only investigates how a brand’s globalness creates value within consumers from three different markets, bust also seeks to gain a better understanding of the relationship between perceived prestige and perceived quality across these markets. The following research questions are thus proposed: Research Question 1 How does PBG influence perceived brand quality in developed, emerging, and least developed countries? Research Question 2 How does PBG influence perceived brand prestige in developed, emerging, and least developed countries? Research Question 3 What is the relationship between perceived brand prestige and perceived brand quality in developed, emerging, and least developed countries? The following sections review the relevant literature, develop hypotheses on global brand value creation across markets, empirically test the hypotheses, and finally discuss the implications of this research.