Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

Nearly 40% of the more than $270 billion spent on advertising throughout the world occurs in the United States and more than 25% more is spent in Europe (Adler 1996). Both the United States and European Union (EU) have a central government that is the source of marketwide law, as well as numerous states, each with its own individual laws. Although the EU drew on U.S. law when drafting its 1984 Directive on Misleading Advertising, many of its member states have legal traditions predating those of the United States, and they are reluctant to change. The author examines advertising law in both the United States and EU, specifically exploring the law of misleading, comparison, and unfair advertising. Differences between states in each market, the states and central government, and the United States and EU are analyzed to develop implications for both marketers and policy makers.

Western intellectual property protection is based on the twin premises that individual people can originate and own ideas. Because these premises are not universally accepted, differences in laws and enforcement exist in the global market. The authors present a framework for describing these differences and discuss it in terms of relations among developing nations, between developed and developing nations, and between all nations ant indigenous peoples. They conclude with a discussion of implications for marketers in several industrial sectors.

The authors discuss the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, which focus on the prevention and punishment of organizational misconduct. The guidelines have provisions that mitigate penalties for organizations that demonstrate due diligence and create an effective compliance program to prevent misconduct. A compliance program should assist marketers in developing strategy that aligns corporate objectives and standards with the legal, ethical, and societal expectations of various markets and countries. U.S. cooperative enforcement efforts with the European Union, NAFTA, and Japan extend the requirements for compliance beyond national boundaries.

The author proposes a framework for self-regulation in a global setting, concentrating on the industry level of economic activity. He first reviews industry self-regulation in a domestic setting and then extends the discussion to the global setting. He concludes with a discussion of his framework, which can serve as a springboard for further theory development and research.

Geopolitical events have forced many countries in Southeast Asia to transform from centrally planned to market-oriented economies. The authors review the literature and introduce a model to help explain the forces and factors that seem to affect the success of Southeast Asian transition policies. The authors submit that though Southeast Asian gradualism or constrained capitalism continues to produce positive macroeconomic results and consumption opportunities, more expansive reform policies eventually could be required if these transition economies are to continue to prosper and enhance the welfare of their people. They conclude by discussing marketing implications and directions for further research.

As international markets become increasingly more competitive, firms must employ innovative marketing strategies merely to survive. One such strategy is the use of international countertrade. Offering to countertrade or responding to countertrade offers not only can enable a firm to survive, but also can provide the firm with the opportunity to achieve its marketing objective. Because countertrading involves complex exchanges of widely disparate products with debatable values, the pricing strategy employed is an important factor. The authors develop and empirically test a model of the influence of marketing objectives on buyers’ price expectations and sellers’ pricing strategies in international countertrade. Qualitative interviews provide insight into the world of countertrading and assist the articulation of the model and research methodology. A mail survey involving 108 countertrade practitioners from 23 countries offers support for 22 of the 24 hypotheses. The authors develop implications for policymakers and managers.

The author contrasts two types of export controls: systematic regulation and economic sanctions. Updated information on the former shows considerable liberalization in the wake of widespread criticism during the past decade. Hypothetical and applied examples suggest that the impact of the two on exporters marketing their products abroad is very different, a difference that would presume a business preference for using systematic controls as the policy tool of choice.

The authors explore influences on Americans’ endorsement of free trade in general, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in particular. Work in the behavioral sciences suggests the value of using constructs that express the nature of persons’ orientation toward their own and other countries to explain their willingness to endorse these concepts. On this basis, the authors created a model that features paths of influence leading to the two Endorsement constructs. They subjected survey data from 240 respondents to structural equation analysis to test the model. The results, using total effects, show that Endorsement of free trade in general and NAFTA in particular are related negatively to Ethnocentrism, Nationalism, Prejudice, and Image of Mexicans, and positively related to Education. These findings hold implications for policymakers who seek to sway public opinion about international trade; they also suggest implications for further research into the subject.

In pursuit of the “good life, ” less affluent societies focus on the material—that is, consumption and economic development. The author discusses human and environmental consequences of this focus. She suggests alternative emergent ideologies, structures and processes, and practices to enable the enhancing potential of goods and thus move toward well-being, which she proposes to entail humane consumption embedded in human development.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in BMW v. Gore (1996) in May. This decision triggered another round of discussions regarding restraints on punitive damages as a part of the overall reform of the U.S. tort system. Here, the authors review the BMW decision and its immediate predecessors to illustrate the essential public policy issues that are associated with proposed limits on punitive damages.