Employing the resource-based view of the firm and the competitive forces perspective, the authors examine how brand equity (star power, director power, and brand extensions), financial resources, and competitive intensity serve both as antecedents to the length of global product rollout and as moderators of the effect of length of global product rollout on global product performance. The results, based on data from the motion picture industry, demonstrate that brand equity, financial resources, and competitive intensity result in shorter global product rollout and that shorter global product rollout enhances global product performance. They also find that brand equity and financial resources operate as moderators, magnifying the effect of length of global product rollout on global product performance. Implications for international marketing academics and practitioners are presented.

International new product launch speed is a crucial goal for firms, as it has major implications for their performance. The authors examine whether and how (1) the price and number of attributes of a new product, (2) the number of developed (emerging) countries in which it has been launched, and (3) the nature of the firm that originally launched it (i.e., multinational versus not) affect the new product's speed of launch from developed countries to emerging ones (i.e., trickle-down) or vice versa (i.e., reverse innovation). In order to test the hypotheses, the authors use data on new product launches in the global packaged food industry in 2001-2014. The results indicate that a lower price accelerates trickle-down, while a higher price and more attributes accelerate reverse innovation. Further, having been launched in more countries and having been launched by a multinational firm both accelerate trickle-down and reverse innovation.

Product recalls hurt the sales of non-recalled products in the category because of negative spillovers. Recently, there has been some evidence of positive spillovers from recalls on the sales of non-recalled products. We focus on spillovers from brand- (i.e., same brand), firm- (i.e., same firm, but not same brand), and country-level (i.e., same country-of-origin, but not same firm) recalls on the sales of non-recalled products. Furthermore, we examine how advertising and price of non-recalled products interact with brand-, firm-, and country-level recalls to affect their sales. We use data on 124 cars in the USA in 2006–2015. Results indicate that brand-level (country-level) recalls hurt (benefit) the sales of non-recalled products. Higher advertising and price of non-recalled products weaken the negative effect of brand-level recalls, while lower advertising and price strengthen the positive effect of country-level recalls. Finally, firm-level recalls result in positive spillovers when advertising is high.

While corporate political activity is increasing, its effects on firms’ marketing-relevant outcomes have been largely overlooked in the literature. We propose that corporate lobbying will decrease a firm’s emphasis on product safety and, in turn, increase its product recalls. We further propose that the positive indirect effect of corporate lobbying on a firm’s product recalls via lower emphasis on product safety will be moderated by the firm’s (a) CEO’s functional background and (b) focus on radical (vs. incremental) innovation. We provide empirical support for the proposed model using data on 86 U.S. medical device firms from 2005–2018. The findings extend the literature on the effects of non-market forces on firms’ marketing-relevant outcomes. They also extend the literature on the antecedents of product recalls, which has, hitherto, overlooked the role of non-market forces. The findings on the moderating roles of the firm’s marketing CEO and focus on radical (vs. incremental) innovation generate actionable managerial implications.

Globalization has resulted in an environment in which foreign markets constitute a large portion of new product sales. This is particularly the case in the movie industry. The movie industry is also pressured to increase the representation of ethnic minorities, especially in casting choices. We investigate how Black (1) male and (2) female actors affect the country-level international box-office of 788 US movies released in 2012–2019. The results show that Black male (female) actors increase (decrease) a movie’s box-office in a given country. Extending developments in the literature on intergroup contact, we examine how these effects are moderated by (a) actors’ star power, (b) the number of releases prior to release in the country, (c) the time-lag between worldwide release and release in the country, and (d) whether the country is emerging (vs. developed).