The external effect of international tourism on brand equity development process of multinational firms (MNFs)

Yan Feng (), Wen Cao (), Geon-Cheol Shin () and Yeujun Yoon ()
Additional contact information
Yan Feng: Peking University
Wen Cao: Peking University
Geon-Cheol Shin: Kyung-Hee University
Yeujun Yoon: Kyung-Hee University

Journal of Brand Management, 2021, vol. 28, issue 6, No 2, 578-595

Abstract: Abstract This study investigated a new role of tourism as a brand management tool for multinational firms (MNFs) whose country of origin is a tourist destination. Through an increased understanding of the external effect of international tourism at the firm level, important implications for MNF managers can be derived. To this end, we collected secondary historical data from various reliable sources, such as Interbrand, AdAge.com, World Bank, and Bloomberg. We proposed brand equity models for MNFs and employed an Arellano-Bond dynamic panel analysis for the estimation. We found that increased numbers of international tourists in an MNF’s country of origin significantly elevated the brand equity of the firm. This finding is interesting because it indicates a significant effect of international tourism on MNFs’ brand equity, even after other key brand drivers such as advertising, R&D, and the dynamic propensity of brand equity are controlled. The results also showed that international tourism is a highly effective tool for improving firms’ brand equity and that it is 2.5 times more effective than advertising. Furthermore, we found that international tourism can only influence firms’ financial performance (revenue and net income) through brand equity development.

Keywords: Global brand management; International branding; Multinational firms; International tourism; International marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41262-021-00245-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jobman:v:28:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1057_s41262-021-00245-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41262

DOI: 10.1057/s41262-021-00245-7

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Brand Management is currently edited by Joachim Kernstock, Shaun M. Powell, Mark Davies and Ur a Golob

More articles in Journal of Brand Management from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().