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In services marketing, the employee plays a central role in attracting, building and maintaining relationships with customers. The recognition of the central role of employees in service marketing has given rise to “internal marketing” programs strongly oriented to employee development. This paper explores the linkage between internal marketing activities (directed at employee recruitment, training, motivation, communication, and retention) and the more traditional external marketing activities (e.g., pricing, advertising, and personal selling). An examination of the relationship between the key elements of the services marketing management model (internal and external marketing, employee attitudes and behavior, and customer attitudes and behavior) demonstrates how service managers can enhance customer loyalty, satisfaction and perception of quality.

The increasing economic importance and the number of born global firms make it worthwhile to study what leads to their success in the international market. To better understand this international business phenomenon, we conducted in‐depth interviews with managers, coupled with public database and Web site searches. Research propositions were developed based on an extensive qualitative method. The relationship between organizational culture, information technology capability, and performance is proposed in the context of born global firms, based on viewing the concept of IT capability from the resource‐based view. We further provide recommendations for managers, theoretical contributions and suggestions for future research.

Building on the entrepreneurship, marketing and strategic management literature, we propose a conceptual model to investigate the effects of entrepreneurial strategic posture (ESP), perceived environmental uncertainty and international diversifi cation strategy on performance. The ESP‐International diversification‐Performance relationship is investigated using a contingency framework. Entrepreneurial strategic posture is postulated to influence the use of international diversifi cation strategy of entrepreneurial fi rms. Moreover, perceived environmental uncertainty is hypothesized to strengthen the relationship between a firm’s entrepreneurial strategic posture and international diversification strategy, which ultimately affect the firm’s performance. Propositions for further empirical studies are provided in addition to managerial and theoretical contributions.

Do consumers in countries that differ widely in cultural values and in economic development also differ in their resistance to innovations? And, if so, why? Addressing these questions will help international marketing managers formulate an appropriate strategy for a successful product introduction in diverse foreign markets. In this five‐country study, the cultural values of fatalism, traditionalism, and religious commitment were found to explain cross‐cultural variation in innovation resistance in Senegal and in the United States, but not in India, South Korea, or Thailand. Even though the results were different for every country, fatalism was generally associated with less willingness to try new non‐technical products and with higher levels of perceived product risk. Differences were found to be related to entertainment and media innovations as opposed to technical or fashion‐oriented innovations. The results do not support the contention that a global, standardised marketing strategy may be appropriate for the introduction of new products in foreign markets.

Concepts of internal marketing and external marketing in the context of service firms are here discussed and examined for their effects on consumer satisfaction. These concepts in the context of foreign and domestic banks in Thailand are focused upon. The results show differences between banks and a strong relationship between internal marketing and consumer satisfaction. The effective practice of internal marketing appears to influence the effectiveness of external marketing programmes influencing customer satisfaction.

Sales promotion is an important element of marketing communication strategy which accounts for more promotional expenditures than advertising in some countries. However, sales promotion has been generally ignored by researchers. This article briefly reviews the criteria used in the US to evaluate sales promotions and these criteria are found inadequate to guide the formulation of sales promotion internationally. Environmental sensitivity factors are identified which are overlooked in domestic sales promotions and an audit approach to planning and evaluating cross‐national sales promotion strategy is presented.

Market researchers often treat Asian consumers as a single entity and compare them with their Western counterparts. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast consumers in two Asian countries, Thailand and Turkey. Since global and local brands co‐exist in many regions of the world today, this study, by examining two Asian cultures, examines the impact of personality traits and values on individuals' intentions to purchase global versus local brands. The authors also investigate the role of priming (local versus global cues) in the relationship between these individual traits and purchase intentions.

The study involves a series of pretests and an experiment conducted among 240 participants from Thailand and 142 participants from Turkey. Though exploratory in nature, content analysis also suggests interesting avenues for future research.

The findings suggest that although both societies are perceived as traditional and collective, consumers from both Thai and Turkish cultures exhibit some striking differences. There were differences in the ways in which individual traits and values impacted global vs local brand purchase intentions. For instance, while it was discovered that traditionalism and susceptibility were important among Thai individuals, ethnocentrism and materialism were at similar levels in both samples. Traditionalism had an important effect on intentions to purchase local brands in Thailand, while it did not have a very meaningful impact among Turks. Similarly, in Thailand, susceptibility affected global brand purchase intentions. However, a similar pattern was not seen among Turks.

The research is valuable in understanding that two seemingly similar Asian cultures (Thailand and Turkey) are – in effect – dissimilar on key variables such as traditionalism and ethnocentrism and that impacts how these two cultures perceive global and local brands. As marketers aim to satisfy consumer's needs by offering goods and services, it is extremely important to understand consumers' evaluations of these brands and how these perceptions are formed in the first place. Such an understanding will help marketers in their positioning strategies as well as marketing communications design.

Offers a parsimonious conceptual framework to provide a more systematic assessment of cross‐cultural business gift practices. Uses the high and low context classification of cultures to compare gift giving and to provide factors explaining possible differences. Then offers research propositions to guide future research and to assist international business managers when making gift‐giving decisions. Also provides a manager′s checklist to guide cross‐cultural gift‐giving decisions.

Offers a fresh outlook for managing the delicate interaction between the customer and the contact employee in the service environment. Emphasizes that the quality of the customer‐employee interfacehas a great effect on customers′ perceptions of the quality and value of the service, as well as on their satisfaction. Suggests a model of how companies can improve this interface by treating employees ascustomers and customers as employees, thus developing lower cost and higher quality services and also higher levels of satisfaction on the part of both customers and employees. Recommends various steps for management to take.

This paper attempts to provide an understanding of gift‐giving for a more systematic assessment of relationship building to succeed in an Asian realm. This study proposes to examine the underlying linkage between the intensity of gift‐giving and constructing relationships. The goal is to provide both researchers and businesses an insight into how to successfully manage profitable relationships in a culture‐rich environment that is growing ever more demanding and complicated. Gift‐giving is seen as an act of reciprocity, and often misconstrued as bribery by Westerners, yet it appears to be an important constituent of the Asian culture and can be seen as a form of relationship investment, that if cultivated well, can uplift interactions between businesses.