If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Examines the use of warranty and warrantor reputations, which have been shown to be credible signals of product quality for uni-national products, to overcome consumers' negative perceptions about hybrid products. An experiment is conducted, in which the level of warranty coverage and the warrantor's reputation are manipulated. Results indicate that warranty strategies, in terms of warranty coverage and warrantor reputation, are effective in overcoming consumers' negative perception about the hybrid product's quality. Strategy implications for firms in the advanced and emerging economies are discussed.The research register for this journal is available at

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Parallel importing has traditionally been viewed as a consequence of the price discrimination practices undertaken by the manufacturers. This leads to prescriptions of antagonistic actions for both the manufacturers and the authorised distributors against the parallel importers, which may not be appropriate. In particular, prescriptions calling for the removal of the manufacturer's price discriminatory practices will not eliminate parallel importing if opportunity exists for the parallel importer to free-ride on the advertising and promotional efforts of the authorised distributor. We propose an alternative view of parallel importing, diagnosing it as a free-rider problem. This different perspective not only yields many useful insights into the parallel importing problem, but also provides marketing managers with decision rules as to how they should respond when confronted by this marketing phenomenon. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678.

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