Prominent travel platforms like Booking, TripAdvisor and Hotels.com increasingly publish electronic word of mouth (eWOM) worldwide, with reviewers' information including country of origin (COO). However, research that analyzes the role of culture in the context of e-WOM remains scarce. Our study addresses this gap by investigating the effects of reviewers' COO and the country stereotypes evoked – based on the degree of a nation's development and culture – on eWOM adoption. Two quantitative studies were conducted using a 3X2 between-subjects factorial design. The manipulated factors were reviewer category according to country-of-origin (COO) culture and level of development (same nationality, developed country with a different culture, developing country with a different culture) and positive or negative eWOM valence. In Study 1, 323 American participants were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions. Study 2 extends Study 1 by examining the moderating role of national identification with a sample of 303 British participants. Across both studies, the results demonstrate that for reviewers from other countries, COO positively influences perceptions of reviewer competence when the latter is from a developed country and is perceived as an outgroup member, thereby increasing eWOM adoption. Additionally, Study 2 shows that at higher levels of national identification, ingroup members are perceived as more competent than outgroup members from developed countries. These findings offer valuable insights for both marketing researchers and practitioners. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically examine how COO stereotypes shape perceptions of reviewer competence and eWOM adoption. It also breaks new ground by investigating the moderating role of national identification in shaping perceptions of reviewer competence.
Purpose - Why should transformative marketing be assumed to operate in the same way when it crosses national market boundaries? Existing research treats internationality as context rather than as a condition that shapes the meaning, legitimacy and consequences of transformation. This review addresses that gap by conceptualizing Transformative International Marketing (TIM) and developing a recursive framework that explains how cross-market discontinuities and interdependence condition the reconfiguration of international marketing and how those reconfigurations in turn transform stakeholders and market systems. Design/methodology/approach - The study employs a systematic literature review to examine the knowledge structure and development of TIM research. The review applies the Theory-Characteristics-Context-Methodology and planning, operationalizing, writing, embedding, and reflecting (POWER) frameworks to 129 studies published between 1994 and 2025 in Scopus and Web of Science. The corpus was subsequently examined through theoretical foundations, substantive characteristics, geographic and international contexts, and methodological patterns. Findings - The study reveals that transformative marketing has been theorized largely as a marketing phenomenon, overlooking how heterogeneous and interconnected markets alter transformation itself. It distinguishes whether change is transformative through depth, scope, durability and consequentiality, from how transformation unfolds through directionality, valence and normative contestation. It separates transformation of international marketing from transformation through it and specifies the boundary conditions under which TIM offers distinct explanatory value. Originality/value - The study's originality lies in repositioning internationality from a contextual backdrop to a constitutive element of transformative marketing theory. Rather than extending transformative marketing through additional firm-or stakeholder-level variables, it establishes TIM as a distinct and deliberately bounded domain of international marketing inquiry. The review also moves beyond importing general theories into international settings by integrating transformative marketing with international marketing mechanisms and market-system perspectives. In doing so, it provides a theoretically coherent foundation for studying transformative change under cross-market heterogeneity, interdependence, contested legitimacy and global-local tensions.
Purpose- This study seeks to expand the current understanding of perceived social media agility (PSMA) within the dynamic capabilities perspective by exploring its influence on positive electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) across culturally diverse settings. Specifically, it examines how cultural orientation (collectivist versus individualistic) and self-presentation behaviors moderate the relationship between PSMA and positive e-WOM. Design/methodology/approach- Three experimental studies were conducted using online adult samples to test the research hypotheses. Studies 1 and 2 utilized a cross-national design with participants drawn from T & uuml;rkiye (representing a collectivist culture) and the United Kingdom (representing an individualistic culture). In these studies, standard linear regression was used to evaluate the primary baseline relationship, while the PROCESS macro in SPSS (Models 1 and 3) was employed to test moderation and moderated moderation structures, exploring the conditional effects and interaction patterns among PSMA, self-presentation, and cultural context. Additionally, a post hoc analysis was performed to validate the use of nationality as a proxy for cultural orientation. Finally, Study 3 was conducted within a single-country framework (the United Kingdom) to rigorously evaluate and replicate the model at the individual psychographic level, utilizing a refined experimental design, an alternative operationalization of PSMA, and an individual-level measure of collectivism. Findings- The findings across all three studies demonstrate that PSMA consistently and significantly enhances consumers' intentions to engage in positive e-WOM. In the cross-national framework (Studies 1 and 2), this main effect is heavily conditioned by cultural context and self-presentation tendencies. Specifically, the positive impact of PSMA on e-WOM is greater for Turkish participants than for UK participants, and a significant three-way interaction reveals that self-presentation behaviors play a more pronounced moderating role for UK consumers. Crucially, the single-country framework of Study 3 successfully replicates this cultural boundary condition at the micro-psychological level within an individualistic market, revealing a statistically significant interaction between brand agility and individual-level collectivism. Johnson-Neyman threshold analysis further demonstrates that even within an individualistic society, the positive returns of brand agility are significantly unlocked and amplified once a consumer's individual collectivism score crosses a critical activation baseline. Originality/value- This research advances the literature on social media agility by positioning PSMA within the dynamic capabilities perspective, incorporating a psychological perspective through the lens of self-presentation, and addressing the scarcity of cross-cultural comparative studies through an explicit integration of cultural analysis. It offers a multilayered, cross-level framework that highlights culture not merely as contextual background, but as a central interpretive lens through which consumers understand and evaluate agile brand behavior on social media. In this way, the study provides robust multi-method validation demonstrating how both macro-level national culture and micro-level individual cultural traits systematically shape consumers' engagement with agile brands.
Purpose-This study examines the concept of consumer perceived extension authenticity and the extent to which the launch of a luxury downward (masstige) extension can affect the parent brand status signaling and parent brand purchase intentions with consumer-perceived extension fit and consumer attitude toward the extension as mediating variables. Design/methodology/approach-Using a large sample of luxury consumers in the United States, France and China, we apply structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the spillover effect of luxury downward (masstige) on the parent brand status signaling. The main measurement constructs being extension authenticity (brand heritage dimension), consumer-perceived extension fit and consumer attitude toward the extension. Findings-Findings demonstrate that a luxury downward (masstige) extension negatively affects its luxury parent brand status signaling and purchase intentions and is more common among cultures with higher Motivation toward Achievement and Success (MAS) (e.g. the US and China) than among those with lower MAS (e.g. France). By contrast, when the relationship is partially mediated by consumer-perceived extension fit and attitude, luxury downward (masstige) extension authenticity (brand heritage) has a significant spillover effect on luxury parent brand status signaling for countries with lower Uncertainty Avoidance (UA)-(e.g. the US and China) but not for countries with higher UA (e.g. France). Originality/value-Numerous luxury brand manufacturers have been encouraged to capitalize on the rapidly growing masstige trend by introducing their own downward extension masstige extensions. However, such extensions that are inherently develop "downward" face the risk diluting the luxury parent status signaling. The goal of this study is to scientifically and empirically demonstrate this important luxury branding issue through a cross-national comparison.
Purpose Although the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technology on firms' strategic choices and performance has attracted considerable scholarly attention, how it influences firm export performance and how top management team (TMT) human capital moderates this relationship remain to be systematically explored. This study aims to integrate the competency-based view and upper echelons theory to address these critical research questions. Design/methodology/approach On the basis of the empirical data of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2023 (involving 1,404 listed companies and 7,580 years-firm observations), we empirically examine our theoretical viewpoints using the fixed effects model. Findings First, we find that AI technology enhances firms' export performance. Second, both the overseas background and the digital background of the TMT strengthen the positive impact of AI technology on firms' export performance. Surprisingly, but interestingly, the TMT's education level has no moderating effect on this relationship. Originality/value This study introduces TMT human capital as a moderating variable to explore the relationship between AI technology and firms' export performance in depth. From this perspective, we not only reveal the strategic significance of TMT human capital in the implementation of AI technology and its correlation with export performance but also provide an analytical framework that integrates technological capabilities and TMT characteristics in the field of international marketing.
