In cross-cultural studies with social variables such as values or attitudes, it is often assumed that differences in scores can be compared at face value. However, response styles like acquiescence and extreme response style may affect answers, particularly on rating scales. In three sets of data from marketing studies, each with representative samples fromat least threeoutofsix countries(Greece,Italy, Spain,France,Germany, andthe United Kingdom), these two response styles were found to be more present in the Mediterranean than in Northwestern Europe. Evidence for response style effects was not only found in response distributions on rating scales, but also in discrepancies of these distributions with national consumer statistics and self-reported actual behavior.

Respondents can vary strongly in the way they use rating scales. Specifically, respondents can exhibit a variety of response styles, which threatens the validity of the responses. The purpose of this article is to investigate how response style and content of the items affect rating scale responses. The authors develop a novel model that accounts for different types of response styles, content of items, and background characteristics of respondents. By imposing a bilinear parameter structure on a multinomial logit model, the authors graphically distinguish the effects on the response behavior of the characteristics of a respondent and the content of an item. The authors combine this approach with finite mixture modeling, yielding two segmentations of the respondents: one for response style and one for item content. They apply this latent-class bilinear multinomial logit model to the well-known List of Values in a cross-national context. The results show large differences in the opinions and the response styles of respondents and reveal previously unknown response styles. Some response styles appear to be valid communication styles, whereas other response styles often concur with inconsistent opinions of the items and seem to be response bias.

Research on international marketing constructs, such as consumer ethnocentrism and country-of-origin effects, typically focuses on consumers’ initial evaluations of foreign products but ignores consumers’ emerging cross-border exchange relationships with foreign service providers. The influence of international marketing constructs on the development of these relationships also seems to be largely ignored. The authors call for new research on cross-border service relationships and integration of relationship marketing with international marketing models. They introduce an exploratory test and develop a research agenda that identifies several avenues for further research. The empirical test involves a study of German consumers who regularly cross the German–Dutch border to attend to their accounts with a foreign (i.e., Dutch) bank. Loyalty to the foreign financial service provider may be explained using substantive relational antecedents, such as satisfaction, trust, and value, and international marketing antecedents, such as consumer ethnocentrism and consumer beliefs about the industry. The results show that the international variables complement the relationship model. The authors discuss the managerial and research implications and provide avenues for further research.

In this article, the impact of strategic orientations on the use of digital marketing tactics and, subsequently, on the international business performance of small electronic retailers (e-retailers) in cross-border electronic commerce (e-commerce) is analysed. Furthermore, these relationships are compared between e-retailers originating in both developed and emerging e-commerce markets. Using a sample of 446 small business-to-consumer e-retailers from 20 European countries, we find that the deployment of digital marketing tactics has a positive effect on international business performance. Of the strategic orientations examined, foreign market orientation is most associated with the use of digital marketing tactics. Remarkably, growth orientation only has a positive effect on e-retailers from developed e-commerce markets, while customer orientation negatively affects e-retailers from emerging e-commerce markets. The differences between e-retailers from developed and emerging e-commerce markets are prominent and show that markets should not be considered as either uniform or generalisable.

The equivalence or comparability of survey data collected across countries is regarded as a basic issue in culture-comparative research. Despite the importance of bias, most culturecomparative studies in marketing and business research interpret differences at face value.Moreover, in commercial marketing research the issue is mostly neglected. In this article two general approaches found in the literature are presented, namely, an approach focussing more on the research process and an approach focussing more on measurement invariance. An integrated framework is presented as well as a case study showing it is useful to integrate both approaches to improve decision making in international marketing.3