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This chapter provides a survey of alternative methodologies for measuring and comparing productivity and efficiency of airlines, and reviews representative empirical studies. The survey shows the apparent shift from index procedures and traditional OLS estimation of production and cost functions to stochastic frontier methods and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods over the past three decades. Most of the airline productivity and efficiency studies over the last decade adopt some variant of DEA methods. Researchers in the 1980s and 1990s were mostly interested in the effects of deregulation and liberalization on airline productivity and efficiency as well as the effects of ownership and governance structure. Since the 2000s, however, studies tend to focus on how business models and management strategies affect the performance of airlines. Environmental efficiency now becomes an important area of airline productivity and efficiency studies, focusing on CO₂ emission as a negative or undesirable output. Despite the fact that quality of service is an important aspect of airline business, limited attempts have been made to incorporate quality of service in productivity and efficiency analysis.

Addresses the role national loyalty plays in determining international air carrier selection. Based on the literatures in country of origin, consumer ethnocentrism and social identity theory, develops a theoretical model which links social self‐identity with national loyalty and consumer ethnocentrism. Assesses respondent carrier preferences using an ordered probit analysis of a sample of 427 travellers at a large Canadian airport in 1994. The results indicate that national loyalty ranks next to price in terms of influencing the selection of air carrier among the sample of travellers.

The aim of this paper is to propose an approach to international market segmentation that identifies meaningful cross‐national consumer segments, which focuses on airline passengers in the NAFTA market.

A conjoint analysis is used to evaluate consumers' preferences for six flight attributes: price, in‐flight service, number of stops before destination, on‐time performance, frequent flyer programme, and country of airline. A cluster analysis based on the relative importance scores of each of the six flights attributes then identifies five segments that prioritize similar product attributes within each country.

A representative sample of 4,787 airline passengers from the three countries reveal that price is the most important attribute for consumers from the USA and Canada, while on‐time performance is the most important attribute for Mexican consumers. A cluster analysis identifies five segments that prioritize similar product attributes within each country. It is also found that there are five cross‐national consumer segments in the NAFTA market that are homogeneous in terms of consumer preferences but heterogeneous in terms of relative group size and demographic variables.

The study is based on a purposive sample, which limits the ability to generalize to the whole population with any known degree of precision.

The research produces practical operational information on each segment that is translatable into strategy, specifically in terms of positioning, promotion, and targeting of the airline service.

The paper sheds light on the nature of cross‐national segmentation in the NAFTA air passengers market and the resulting cross‐national segmentation will be highly relevant for international marketing management.

Individuals showing high consumer ethnocentrism (CE) prefer domestic over foreign-made products and their preferences may contribute to barriers to international market entry. Therefore, how to identify such consumers is an important question. Shankarmahesh’s (2006) review reveals inconsistencies in the literature with regard to CE and its antecedents. To shed theoretical and empirical light on these inconsistencies, the purpose of this paper is to contribute two new perspectives on CE: first, a typology that classifies ethnocentric consumers by the extent to which they support government-controlled protectionism and consumer-controlled protectionism; and second, a configurational (recipe) perspective on the antecedents.

The study applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of survey data from 3,859 consumers. The study contrasts the findings with findings using traditional statistical hypotheses testing via multiple regression analysis.

The results reveal several configurations of antecedents that are sufficient for consistently explaining three distinct types of CE. No single antecedent condition is necessary for high CE to occur.

The findings help global business strategists in their market entry decisions and in their targeting and segmentation efforts.

The authors show the value of asymmetrical thinking about the relationship between CE and its antecedents. The results expand understanding of CE and challenge conventional net-effects thinking about its antecedents.

This article reports a study using respondents from three different cultures – traditional Americans, Hispanics, and Taiwanese – to assess the reliabilities of measures assessing 29 consumer constructs used in various studies reported in major marketing journals. In general, these measures were designed for use with a traditional American sample and are not reported to have been used with other cultural samples. Results indicate that for respondents who demonstrate a certain level of English language fluency, regardless of where they are from, these measures perform reliably across cultures. Thus, under certain circumstances, the fears that researchers have about instrument reliability across cultures may be largely ungrounded.

This study examines country of origin (CO) and brand effects on consumers’ quality perceptions, attitudes, and purchase intentions with respect to a service‐industry product: international cruise‐line packages in Singapore. Star Cruise (Malaysia) and Royal Caribbean Lines (USA) were selected as the brands and countries for the study. Respondents provided quality, attitude and purchase intention ratings. Contrary to prior evidence, CO does appear to be an important informational cue for consumers of services; CO effects were found to be stronger than brand effects for quality and attitude ratings, while brand was more significantly correlated with purchase intentions. A positive CO image compensated for a weak brand, suggesting that, where applicable, marketing efforts should emphasize an association with a positive CO perception. Conversely, a strong brand was not found to compensate for a negative CO perception; in this case, it would be appropriate to change the associated CO to one with a more positive image, as at least one major cruise line has already done.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in‐depth examination of country‐of‐origin (COO) perceptions of consumers in a multinational setting. It shows how explanatory factors like demographics, familiarity with a country's products, purchase behaviour and psychological variables jointly work to explain consumers' COO perceptions.

This is a quantitative study using a drop‐off and pick‐up survey among three samples of consumers in Canada, Morocco and Taiwan. The final sample size was comprised of 506 male consumers. The data were analyzed using factor analysis to group countries of origin and analyses of variance to relate COO perceptions to the explanatory variables.

The familiarity with products made in a country was the strongest predictor of country perceptions, followed by nationality and the manufacturing process and product complexity dimensions of country evaluation. Canadians had the highest propensity to distinguish between countries of origin on the basis of product technological complexity and manufacturing dimensions and Moroccans the least. Taiwanese appeared to show animosity towards China.

The study used an only‐male sample from a limited number of countries. Future research should seek to develop a multi‐dimensional scale for the familiarity construct. They should also explore the concept of consumer capacity to distinguish between COOs. Cross‐national studies using cognitive style scales should be carried out. A qualitative examination of Taiwanese's COO perceptions is also recommended.

It seems important to increase consumers' familiarity with a COO and its products to improve its overall perception. Products made in Latin American countries have the lowest level of familiarity in general. Thus, increasing familiarity with their products is particularly important to achieve export success.

This study contributes to the marketing and international business literatures and provides insights to international marketers by bringing valuable information that can help make decisions as to where to manufacture and how to promote global products. It provides guidance as to what types of nations are likely to require multi‐dimensional information about countries of origin.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the globalization (vs localization) of different cues (advertising copy, brand name, spokesperson, brand logo) influences consumers’ perceived brand globalness.

The authors conducted conjoint analyses for two products differing in product category involvement (chocolates vs computer) with 200 consumers from the Netherlands. Additionally, based on cluster analysis, the authors divide respondents into two groups: local vs global consumer culture individuals, and the authors compare the results of the conjoint analysis for these two clusters.

Advertising copy is most important in determining perceived brand globalness. The spokesperson and the brand logo determine perceived brand globalness more strongly for a low-involvement product, whereas the brand name is more important for a high-involvement product. Further, the spokesperson and the brand logo are relatively more important for global consumer culture individuals, while local consumer culture individuals find the brand name and advertising copy relatively more important.

The most important cue to position a brand as global is the advertising copy. Brand managers of a low-involvement product and/or targeting global-minded consumers should concentrate on the spokesperson and the brand logo to position their brand. Managers of a high-involvement product and/or targeting local-minded people should focus on the brand name.

While a number of researchers have emphasized the importance of perceived brand globalness for international consumer behavior, the present study is the first to the authors’ knowledge to investigate the relative importance of different cues in creating perceptions of brand globalness.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the simultaneous effects of country of origin (COO) and corporate reputation on initial trust in a transition economy, and to compare these effects across two service industries. The model broadens COO research by incorporating initial trust as a key driver of success in the context of services internationalization. Design/methodology/approach – Poland is the transition economy studied. A total of 184 respondents evaluated different service combinations (high vs low reputation/home country vs foreign country) in two different service categories (high risk vs low risk). Relationships between constructs are tested, employing a between‐subject experimental design. Findings – Both reputation and the risk level of service have a significant main effect on initial trust. Furthermore, results indicate a highly significant interaction effect: a positive COO effect leads to a higher level of initial trust only in the case of a risky service. Research limitations/implications – As with all laboratory studies, external validity is limited. Further research should focus on other instruments for gaining initial trust (e.g. warranties), especially in the case of a negative COO image. Practical implications – International marketers of services must carefully consider COO information as a means of building initial trust. Positive effects only apply in the case of high‐risk services. Originality/value – A major contribution is the introduction of initial trust as an important mediator in COO‐related international service marketing literature. As a second contribution, COO effects were compared across different service categories with respect to perceived risk. Furthermore, investigating COO effects in transition economies is of particular interest, as such markets are gaining attraction for international service providers.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the effect of country of origin on consumer perceptions of products and services. Results reveal that consumer perceptions differ significantly on the basis of product/service and country of origin. The country of origin may be an important element in the perceptions consumers have of products and services especially where little other information is known. However, the question of how much influence the country of origin provides in product and service evaluations remains unanswered and a number of other major issues have yet to be resolved. Directions for future research are developed.