Your task is to offer a detailed critique of a peer-reviewed article. In your critique, address the following questions: What are the main points and arguments of the author(s)? What is your opinion

Keywords cross-cultural marketing, influencer marketing, international marketing, social media, word of mouth The purpose of this research paper is to analyze, understand, and propose the impact of social media on international mar- keting. Similar to the impact of the internet and smartphones, social media is the next external driver of change, which has the potential to disrupt and transform international marketing as we know it today. More than 3.5 billion people are now connected by social media such as WeChat, Facebook, WhatsApp, Goo- gle, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Social media will become virtually universal as more nations invest in the infor- mation and communication technology infrastructure and pro- vide internet access to every citizen (Ortiz-Ospina 2019). Marketing is a context-driv en discipline and practice (Zinkhan and Hirschheim 1992). Context matters in market- ing, and it matters even more in international marketing. This is because there are more conte xtual factors that moderate, and sometimes mediate, the marketing efforts and plans in international markets. As suggested by Sheth and Sisodia (1999), many law-like generalizations in marketing such as laws of retail generaliza- tion or location-based distri bution and communication are being questioned with the advent of the internet and the digital revolution. All over the world, brick-and-mortar-anchored retailing has been disrupted significantly by online retailers such as Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart, and Tencent. It is estimated that in 2018 alone, 2,800 retail stores were closed down, and several large retailers (e.g., RadioShack, Toys ‘R’ Us, Sears) have gone out of business. Many other retail brands, including some luxury brands, are selectively closing stores (The Fashion Law 2019; Peterson 2019). Similarly, newspapers are declining in circulation in most advanced countries; most likely, they will not be sustainable as printed copies distributed in the morning and the afternoon at the subscriber’s doorsteps. All three major advertisers in local newspapers are shifting t heir expenditure to digital media, including social media. T hese include classified ads, department stores, and automobile dealers (Pew Research Center 2019). Context matters even more in international marketing. The old debate about standardization (Jain 1989) versus localiza- tion (Ghemawat 2001) is transcended by trade wars and tweets from global leaders. Who would have imagined that liberalization of trade and tariffs in the late 1980s and early 1990s to spark economic growth by establishing the World Trade Organization regime would be struggling for survival in less than 30 years? Similarly, given the rise of emerging markets (Sheth 2011) as the next growth engines and the aging populations of most advanced economies, researchers are beginning to shift their focus to markets of China, India, and Africa. The context of international marketing is not only dynamic and volatile but also affected by policy and regulation change with the rise of populism all over the world. For example, Brexit will affect not only local UK consumer and capital markets but also many global enterprises that do business in the United Kingdom, including the United States, Germany, France, and the Netherlands . Similarly, the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement treaty replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, bringing about changes in Jagdish N. Sheth is Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, USA (email: [email protected]). Journal of International Marketing 2020, Vol. 28(1) 3-12 ªAmerican Marketing Association 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1069031X19897044 journals.sagepub.com/home/jig the supply chain in North America. All over the world, global supply chains anchored to China as the manufacturing capital of the world are in turbulence. I first provide a typology of context for international mar- keting and then offe r definitions, dimensions, and factors resulting from worldwide growth of social media. This is fol- lowed by a discussion on the impact of social media on inter- national markets and its implications for the practices and the perspectives for international marketing.

Context of International Marketing As mentioned previously, the context of international market- ing is more complex. There are many factors that moderate and mediate between marketing plans and programs and desired outcomes such as growth, loyalty, market share, and margins (Katsikeas, Samiee, and Theodosiou 2006; Schilke, Reimann, and Thomas 2009). Figure 1 provides a typology of the context for international marketing based on two factors: market scope and external forces. It is a 2 2 typology of context; the market scope dimension reflects whether the market is domestic or global, and it categorizes the context into macro versus micro external forces. That creates four distinct contexts for international mar- keting: domestic-macro, global-macro, domestic-micro, and global-micro. I have provided some examples of each of these contextual situations for each cell. For example, at the bottom left (cell a), domestic-macro (aggregate-nation-level) context is represented by local compliance (regulations and laws), eco- nomic development, and domestic fiscal and monetary policy to which international marketing needs to be adjusted for stra- tegic fit. Similarly, in cell b, international marketing must be adjusted to domestic-micro (household-level) forces that are represented by demographics (including aging of population, working women, ethnic diversity, declining middle class, and living alone by choice) as well as by consumer culture (values and lifestyles) and unbranded competition (Prahalad and Hammond 2002; Sheth 2011). In cell c, representing the global-macro context, interna- tional marketing may be affected by the level of technological advances, concern for sustainability of the environment (Apte and Sheth, 2016), and development of capital markets in the specific market context. Finally, in cell d, which represents the global-micro context, international marketing strategies may need to be adjusted due to the rise of the new brand- conscious middle class, particularly in the emerging markets (Burgess and Steenkamp 2006); diffusion and development of global e-commerce; and the extent of use of social media by the people in specific international markets. The context of international marketing is complex, dynamic, and often unpredictable. Several international marketing scho- lars have attempted to provide context-based explanations and empirical support for why products flourish in one market and fizzle in another (Kashani 1989; Kernan and Sommers 1967; Yoder, Visich, and Rustambekov 1986).

Tsunami of Social Media In my view, the context of social media will be more disruptive and transformative than any other mass media (e.g., print, radio, television) in shaping the future of international market- ing. This is because social media, after all, is word of mouth (WOM) on steroids. Since the early days of communities, bazaars, international trade, and commerce, WOM has been a major influencer (Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006; Trusov, Buck- lin, and Pauwels 2009). According to Nielsen’s global t rust in advertising report (Grimes 2012), 92 % of consumers around the world say they still trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

“Recommendations from people I know” (92 %) is followed by “Consumer opinions posted online” (70 %). Historically, WOM influence was local (neighbors recommending neighbors) and oral. Social media has made WOM global with the richness of text and video communi- cation. Historically, WOM was a nchored to opinion leader- ship, in which a handful of local community leaders acted as either gatekeepers or influencers. In contrast, social media is more egalitarian and interactive. Today, through social media, what was once referred to as “six degrees of separation” has further reduced to two to three degrees of separation between two people anywhere in the world (Bha- gat et al. 2016; Christley 2017). The explosive growth of social media is simply mind numbing. As Figure 2 shows, the number of people on social media platforms (monthly active users) reached more than two billion in 2018 on Facebook alone. This will soon be followed by YouTube and WhatsApp in less than five years. A new nation has emerged, referred to as the “Facebook Nation”; it is larger in population than China and India and is truly trans- national (as opposed to international) and subject to less regu- lation of traditional jurisdictions. Social media seems to have developed a truly global village and global mindset, along with e-commerce marketplaces such as Alibaba and Amazon. The Technological advances Environmental sustainability Capital markets (c) Social media e-commerceEmerging markets (d) (a) Economic Development Public Policy (Fiscal and Monetary) Marketing Infrastructure (b) Demographics Culture Values and lifestyles Unbranded competition Markets Forces Global Domestic Macro Micro Figure 1. Typology of context of international marketing. 4 Journal of International Marketing 28(1) use and reach of social media in international markets is quite pervasive, as Figure 3 shows. Ironically, while social media is reducing the between-country differences, it is also increasing within-country differences since its use is diffused across all socioeconomic classes. In other words, international marketing is becoming more like domestic marketing, from a social media perspective. Traditionally, global marketing plans were developed in a brand’s headquarters and tailored to cater to the needs of large markets. More recently, the emergence of social media has led brands to embrace global marketing at a much deeper level.

The lines between separate markets have become blurred. Digi- tal campaigns in one region inevitably “leak” to others through social media channels, as do the public comments, reactions, and opinions to them (whether positive or negative). In other words, it is becoming increasingly difficult for international brands to contain themselves within single markets as local issues seldom remain local (Berthon et al. 2012). There are several comparative advantages of social media compared with traditional mass media. Social media generates enormous user-generated content in text, voice, and video. The best example is YouTube, on which more than 500 hours of video content is posted every minute and over 5 billion videos are watched everyday (https://www.omnicoreagency.com/you tube-statistics/). Second, social media has significant network effects (Katona, Zubcsek, and Sarvary 2011; Liangfei, Tang, and Whinston 2015), which enables a given user-generated text or video message to go viral with millions of viewers within a short amount of time (Bonner 2013). All social media have global reach, whether it is friends on Facebook or messages on WhatsApp. Finally, social media is interactive and, there- fore, more engaging than traditional media. In the next section, I discuss the impact of social media on international marketing.

Five Dimensions of Value Creation in International Marketing Since the 1950s, there has been significant academic research in international marketing as more companies and industries (particularly from the United Sta tes) began to invest in foreign countries and became truly mu ltinational. Prior research on trade (exports) shifted to marketing as the United States began to invest in foreign markets with a focus on marketing com- munication, branding, and local distribution. From the 1960s through the 1990s, the focus was on international opportuni- ties and challenges. Books and a rticles were written on inter- national business blunders and marketing mistakes (Dalgic and Heijblom 1986; Ricks 2006). The classic debate was standardization versus localization, epitomized by Levitt (1983), on the one side, arguing that standardization is a better marketing strategy as it provide s efficiency and better finan- cial returns, and by Ghemawat (2001), on the other side, who argued that distance matters because of cultural, administra- tive, geographic, and economic development differences between countries. This led to a new hybrid model called “glocal” (“think global, act local”), first coined by Honda (Quelch and Hoff, 1986) and followed by most industrial manufacturers including General Electric, General Motors, and General Dynamics. More recently, with the rise of emerging markets as the growth engines, this debate has morphed into a third paradigm, called “Reverse Innovation,” in which advanced-country mul- tinationals innovate in emerging markets by focusing on affordability and accessibility challenges and then globally marketing the successful innovations in the underserved mar- kets of advanced countries. This has been especially the case in the medical device and prescription drug industries. Ultimately, the role of international marketing is to create value specific to each country or the region outside its domestic Figure 2. Exponential growth of social media. Source : Statista and TNW (2019). Figure 3. Use of social media in international markets. Sources : statista; statista DMO 2019 (https://www.statista.com/statis- tics/278341/number-of-social-network-users-in-selected-countries/).

Sheth 5 market. What works domestically may not work internation- ally. Adapting the 4As framework of Sheth and Sisodia (2012), I propose five dimensions of value creation for customers that account for differences between domestic and international markets (Figure 4): (1) access, (2) affordability, (3) acceptance, (4) awareness, and (5) activation differences. Access differences in international marketing have two dimensions: availability and convenience. Availability is directly related to more macro factors, including regulations (e.g., product safety, product st andards) and infrastructure (e.g., physical, financial, and informational technology). Com- mon examples are specialty chemicals, such as pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial chemicals, as well as automobiles and appliances for which there are cross-border differences. Convenience, in contrast, is more anchored to micro factors, such as ordering and delivery of products and services. This is especially true for services such as health care, education, and financial services offered across international markets. Affordability differences between markets have two dimensions: ability to pay and willingness to pay. In gen- eral, antecedents to ability to pay are measured by per capita income, savings, wealth, and borrowing power (credit) of household markets and comparable measures for the business markets. Anteced ents for willingness to pay are wants and desires (aspiration s) as well as personal values. They are more micro in nature. The third aspect of interna tional market differences is acceptance of the products and services. Again, there are two dimensions of acceptance: functional and psychological. Func- tional acceptance is represented by the quality, reliability, or performance of the product or service. The antecedents to these functional differences are generally embedded in countries’ safety standards, climate, and market competitiveness. In con- trast, psychological acceptance is driven by reference groups, feelings of nationalism, brand reputation, and emotional attach- ment to the brand. While functional acceptance is more anchored to macro factors, psychological acceptance is more anchored to the micro-level antecedents. The fourth cross-national difference is awareness . The two dimensions of awareness are product awareness and brand awareness. Again, more macro antecedents tend to generate heterogeneity between count ries, with respect to product awareness. For example, a product may not be allowed by regulation, or the country may have policy of isolationism from the world. This was the case with the Soviet Union, with its “Iron Curtain” policy, and seems to be true today for countries such as North Korea and Myanmar. Countries also vary with respect to brand awareness. For example, some countries have many domestic brands, of which the rest of the world is unaware. This seems to be especially true of nations with large domestic markets, such as the United States and India. Therefore, going global is often not necessary.

The antecedents for brand awareness tend to be more micro factors associated with individual customers. One would expect greater variance between countries with respect to brand awareness compared with product awareness. The fifth and final dimension on which countries vary is activation . Activation has two dimensions: offers and engage- ment. Offers include sales promotions and event-based dis- counts such as Black Friday in the United States, Christmas in Europe, Singles’ Day in China, and Diwali in India. Again, the antecedents to activation offers often tend to be more macro, such as government policy and national holidays. In contrast, engagement activation, which includes social media activity, viral campaigns, and customer experience, is usually more anchored to micro factors such as a household’s brand loyalty and level of social media participation. Overall, social media can cause a groundswell of support in international markets by not only shaping views and public opinion but also creating value on all five dimensions. For exam- ple, social media can provide access value by informing cus- tomers in foreign markets about the availability of products and services; offer convenience of faster, easier, and on-demand access during micro-moments of need, especially when custom- ers want to know, want to go, want to do, want to say, or want to buy. Social media addresses the immediacy versus context needs of customers and integrates access with experiences.

Overall, it creates more simplicity in access for customers. Affordability value is achieved through both precision mar- keting to identify the relevant target audience that has the ability to pay and creating wants and desires among this audience, thereby affecting willingness to pay. The social contagion effect on willingness to pay is accentuated through social media engage- ments, particularly through reviews and recommendations that assure customers that the price is worth the value being offered. Both the functional and psychological acceptance of prod- ucts and services are accentuated when potential customers are able to see their reference groups use a product or when they are emotionally attached to a brand. The value-in-use demonstration of a product among social media mem- bers—who may be geographica lly separated by thousands of miles but are emotionally connected to one another—has 1 2 3 4 5 Access (Availability and Convenience) Affordability (Ability andWillingness toPay) Acceptance (Functional and Psychological) Aw areness (Product and Brand Aw areness) Activation (Offers and Engagements) Figure 4. Five characteristics of international marketing differences. 6 Journal of International Marketing 28(1) the power to bridge the psychic distance often talked about in international marketing. It is more powerful than general advertising, which tries to make cultural and subcultural adjustments in a mass media message across nations. In particular, images and videos of products’ and services’ value-in-use shared on social media energize friends across foreign (and domestic) mar kets. An example of this is Airbnb, which encourages sharing of experiences and neigh- borhood happenings wherever people are visiting to create social acceptance for the places and properties that friends or other social media members have been to. Through buzz feed content marketing and contextual adver- tising (including within-app ad vertising), social media can quickly build awareness for products and brands across domes- tic and global markets. By tapping into potential customer net- works and amplifying the WOM effect through engagement (likes, comments, posts, shares, retweets, sentiment emojis, and reviews and recommendations), international marketers can create awareness value in desired international markets. Beha- vioral targeting and retargeting, as well as identifying similar audience lookalikes, is made possible through social media platforms, thus making awareness value creation more precise, effective and efficient. Many firms have used social media to effectively create activation value as well. For example, many brands and com- panies (e.g., Reynolds, Ziploc, Unilever, Procter & Gamble) have activated market entry and launched new products on e-commerce and social media sites even before bringing their products into the traditional retail channels in some foreign markets. The social media platform makes it both more con- venient and less expensive to launch the sales promotion activ- ity for targeted customers. It also allows for personalization and customization of offerings and messages. In fact, personalized experiences for existing and new customers can be easily achieved through social media and precision marketing. Social media also provides the ability to target promotions according to customer life cycles (e.g., children growing up with fast- changing needs for diapers, young adults’ changing economic status and life-stage financial needs). In addition to events and sales promotion, activation value can also be created by engaging customers in collaborative activities that help build the enterprise—for example, inviting customers to collaborate for cocreation, codesign, codevelop- ment, and comarketing in foreign markets. Several companies have succeeded in creating groundswell in both domestic and international markets by leveraging social technologies to talk, listen, help, energize, and embrace existing and potential cus- tomers on social media (Li and Bernoff 2011). Carefully planned activities can yield very significant results in value creation.

Rethinking International Marketing As discussed previously, the impact of social media on inter- national marketing will be transformative. In the process, it will generate new research opportunities. In Figure 5, I have provided a list of several new areas of research as marketing practic e shifts from international to transnational and from physical (brick and mortar) to digital marketing.

International Marketing Goes Domestic Most of the research in international marketing is to identify cultural, infrastructural, and administrative factors and how they influence the marketing of products abroad. The five char- acteristics of value creation in international marketing differ- ences (access, affordability, acceptance, awareness, and activation) are today equally important in many domestic mar- kets that are becoming increasingly heterogeneous with respect to faith, income, and lifestyles. This is manifested today in mainstream supermarkets and big box stores that carry prod- ucts from all over the world. Thus, the divide between interna- tional and domestic marketing is not clearly visible. In particular, the rise of social media and its ability to engage people across geographies in unique and multifaceted customer networks is reducing the distinct international differences, at least between nationalities and regions.

WOM Goes Viral Both WOM and opinion leadership theories were anchored to local and rural communities in which the local neighbors pro- vided advice, recommendation, and information. Today, WOM anchored to personal experiences has generated a large and almost unlimited number of influencers whose opinions, advice, and recommendations travel globally. Influencer mar- keting is one of the fastest-growing areas of advertising and sponsorship. According to Business Insider Intelligence, it has ballooned from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $8 billion in 2019 and is estimated to cross $15 billion mark by 2022. As e-commerce and social media converge, the influencers are becoming vital connects between the brands and the consumers. In fact, there 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Policy-Driven Deconsumption Think Local, Act Global International Marketing Goes Domestic WOM Goes Viral (Influencer Marketing) Online First Global Virtual Communities Cocreation of Value Value in Use Figure 5. Rethinking international marketing. Sheth 7 are some new emerging influencer types with considerable impact, such as “kidfluencers,” gaming influencers, and virtual influencers (Schomer 2019).

Think Local, Act Global The next frontier of research and practice will be “think local, act global.” It will replace the axiom “think global, act local” (the glocal perspective). Many of the ancient grains and heri- tage street foods embedded in local cultures are today available on global e-commerce and market exchanges. For example, the most popular convenient food in the United Kingdom today is Indian tikka masala curry, which has displaced traditional fish and chips. This is not limited to foods and fashion; Eastern spiritual traditions such as yoga and meditation have experi- enced similar globalization. Finally, today there is reverse innovation (Immelt, Govindra jan, and Trimble 2009) from emerging markets to advanced markets, especially in the con- text of medicine and medical devices invented to overcome the affordability and the accessibility barriers in emerging markets.

As consumption cultures expand beyond borders and local becomes more global, international marketing will need a sub- stantive rethink in its orientation.

Online First Social media, even more than the internet and smartphones, has prompted consumers and customers to think online first. What was peripheral in marketing is becoming the core, and what is core today (physical stores and shopping centers) is becoming peripheral due to lack of access in rural areas or due to the hassle of physical shopping in metro areas. Online first, by definition, bl urs the jurisdictional bound- aries of nations and markets. Online first is becoming the new normal, with respect to searching for information (Google search), conversations (social media), commerce (Amazon and Alibaba), and consumption (user reviews and ratings).

It is estimated that in most markets, more than 75 % of con- sumers do research and comparisons of products and prices online first before they visit an automobile dealer. The “webrooming” process of checking online first before visiting a store is now a prevalent consu mer practice around the world. Its opposite practice, “showrooming,” in which a customer first visits the store to determin e their product choice and then buys online for the cheaper price and convenience, is also becoming a norm in many countries ( Business Today 2019; Kang 2018). Both are due to incre asing omnichannel presence by brands as well as the high propensity of digital natives to easily switch between channels and apps; thus, webrooming and showrooming are happening simultaneously across mar- kets and even national borders.

Growth of Global Virtual Communities A major impact of social media platforms is the spectacular growth of transnational virtual communities (Sheth and Solomon, 2014). A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact th rough a specific social medium on topics of mutual interest crossing geographic boundaries.

As society shifts from “kinship” (tribal/family bonding) to “friendship” relationships, virtual communities are increas- ingly shifting from the local to the global areas for sensory interaction and participation. In China, wang hun , or online marriage, is a good example of a phenomenon in which people become online friends, then online lovers, and, finally, have an online wedding—all with- out meeting in person (Sheth 2018). There are also several thriving virtual global communities, such as Second Life and Farmville , which enable users to access a virtual life and satisfy real human emotions and desires in the process. Professional executives have been known to rush home to milk their virtual cows in time on Farmville . Finally, in a classic article, Belk (1988) articulates how possessions (e.g., art objects, stamp collections, home decor) reflect the extended self on the physical world. Now, it is increasingly popular to extend the self in the digital world through avatars and digital objects as collections.

This can also occur across national borders and boundaries.

Lamberton and Stephen (2016) observe that one of the most prominent themes of scholarly research between 2000 and 2015 is on digital, social media, and mobile marketing relatedtoself-expression.Thetrendislikelytocontinue, as digital self-expression is more satisfying than physical expression to many because it enhances their self-image, and social media provides a glob al platform to create self- image and identity. Friends and acquaintances form opi- nions about a person on the basis of their social media activity. It represents the curr ent connected global life that can be lived from one’s own cubicle.

Cocreation of Value Marketing is all about creating value for the customer. There are three dimensions of a customer: a customer is a user, a buyer, and a payer. In business-to-business markets, each role is specialized by a department (i.e., production, procurement, and finance). The user looks for performance value. This is achieved by total quality management, mass customization, service differentiations, and product innovation. The payer is looking for price value. This is delivered by the marketer through financing credit and price discounts (economic value).

Finally, a customer is also a buyer and the buyer seeks service value. Service value is often offered through easy access, easy- to-do business, and personalization. In addition, social media can be leveraged to create augmented value by providing information value (market or product use information); devel- opmental value (product, market, or skill development); social-emotional value (through recognition and rewards); and strategic partnering value (access to potential customers or new markets) as in the case of key account or loyalty programs. Value creation is also shifting to value cocreation between the marketer and the customer. Companies such as Nike 8 Journal of International Marketing 28(1) provide online tools to their customers to design their own sneakers. Cocreation is not limited to product design but extends to marketing campaigns. Recently, Converse per- suaded a large number of loyal customers to come up with their own video advertisements for the brand. Similarly, Frito-Lay has successfully crowdsourced advertisements for its Super Bowl commercials. Cocreation enables brands to leverage con- sumers to do things that are both free both to promote and free to produce; yet, the product ownership remains intact. In a world of social media without borders, cocreation of value is destined to grow on a global basis. Cross-cultural creativity on a global basis is likely to be an excellent area of research in international marketing.

Value in Use Marketing’s foundation has been value in exchange between the buyer and the seller through market transactions. In the process, marketing and selling are often perceived to be syno- nyms, and their boundaries are blurred. Digital technology in general, and social media in particular, shifts the focus of mar- keting to users and their postpurchase consumption and experi- ences. A product or service generates significant value in use.

In fact, user-generated content in social media often takes the form of sharing experiences of ongoing consumption. User- generated content is also manifested in user ratings. Value in use is increasingly becoming global, thanks to the popularity of social media. Because social media usage data are often in the public domain, it is easier to do research on how cross-cultural and cross-national differences affect value in use. Social rating sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and even specific brand communities, such as Beauty Insider by Sephora, have global reach and influence in helping other cus- tomers determine their forthcoming choices based on value in use to others.

Policy-Mandated Consumption and Deconsumption The final area of research opportunity in international market- ing is the impact of public policy on consumption of societally good products and practices, and the deconsumption of socie- tally and personally harmful products and practices. Market failures, especially in emerging markets, have resulted in the use of public policy to develop markets through mandatory consumption. Examples include online payment systems such as M-Pesa in Kenya and other African countries, or India’s mobile phone platform Aadhaar, which is linked to an individ- ual’s bank account. There are of course, many more illustra- tions of mandatory deconsumption such as alcohol; cigarette smoking; opioid use; and, more recently, vaping. In interna- tional marketing, academic research on developing and shaping the market through public policy is limited. Research is also limited because public policy is treated as either a mediator or a moderator variable, and not as the antecedent. With the rise of the emerging markets, public policy is bound to have an increasing role in developing and directing the markets for questionable goods and services (Kotler 2019). Increasing uni- versality of social media and digital technology will enable policy-driven market development.

Implications for Practice Social media without borders will have significant implications for the future of international marketing practice. First, it will require unlearning previous marketing practices such as gloca- lization and local branding of products and services. Most of the knowledge anchored to brick-and-mortar marketing across borders may not be generalizable in the world of social media.

For example, the traditional methods and measures of segmen- tation, targeting, and positioning anchored to economic criteria such as per capita income or standard of living may be less useful in the future. Instead, segmenting customers on the basis of their social media behavior may be necessary. Social media has democratized, and will continue to democratize, access to information, communication, and influence. It will also reduce differences related to access, affordability, acceptance, aware- ness, and activation between countries. Marketing managers will have to think about pan-national markets first and segment the market on a different set of criteria (especially noneco- nomic) as well as invest in virtual communities. In fact, truly multinational companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Tata, Haier, Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart can create their own virtual communities and develop large followers of loyal customers across the world. WeChat and Amazon Prime are early indicators of this trend. Second, just as television, including cable television, has replaced print media, social media will replace television as we know it today. Consequently, the prophetic prediction by Marshall McLuhan (1964, 1967) that “medium is the message” is becoming increasingly relevant as media channels are becom- ing limitless in the YouTube age. Today, anybody can have their own YouTube channel or Twitter presence. In other words, just as print media shaped society to be more individualistic, social media will amplify it with a vengeance. Indeed, many consumers are also becoming brand ambassadors through their social media channels and marketing activities. As McLuhan predicted, the world will become a “global v illage” where social groups (tribes) will become more prevalent and displace the nation- states. International marketing managers will have to target their communication and campaigns to these global villages in the new world of social media tribes. Fortunately, it is more feasible and measurable to analyze and segment the market today than through the traditional methods of country-by-country analysis. This is because mea- sures and definitions are standardized by technology, and all the demographic and psychographic indicators allow for a bet- ter count (census) of each tribal group. This is especially true if one is looking for transnational tribes or social groups. Finally, international marketing managers can learn to use public policy for developing markets, especially in countries where market forces are likely to fail. As mentioned previ- ously, it is possible to mandate good consumption (e.g., school Sheth 9 meal programs, sex education, meditation) and ban bad con- sumption (e.g., vaping, drinking and driving, drug abuse). In India, there is a mandatory requirement for each company to spend at least 2 % of its net profits on corporate social respon- sibility activities. In 2018, India was estimated to have gener- ated more than $5 billion dollars allocated to well-defined categories of corporate social responsibility programs ranging from employee training and preventative health to environmen- tal protection and community development.

Implications for Research Social media will also have dramatic impact on scholarly work.

Whereas previous research has been based on large surveys, which are usually ad hoc and cross-sectional, social media will encourage researchers in international markets to learn data mining, natural language processing, block chain, and analysis of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in different contexts and countries. One such area of future research is exploring how WOM goes viral. There are no accepted theories or constructs about international WOM, whether it is social media driven or in person. Today, we have access to longitudinal data on Twitter, Facebook, and WeChat that are mostly in the public domain and therefore accessible for research. Second, value in use will, by definition, vary from country to country because local infrastructure and policy mandates will influence consu mption. In some countries, the value in use may be anchored to the family; in other countries, it may be anchored to the community. This may be especially true of postconsumption waste disposal and conservation efforts through recycling, reuse, and reducing consumption. The role and effect of social media on fostering more mindful con- sumption and postconsumption behavior would be of great research interest. A third area of research opportunity is the impact of AI on marketing of products and services. This includes robots as personal assistants in stores (Lowe’s has experimented with greeting robots) and at ho me. Will consumers consider robots with AI to be great companions? Will branded robots bond better with consumers? No one knows for sure. How- ever, it is not difficult to conduct a large-scale experimental study internationally and disc over the differences. Social media would be a good platform to gather both research data and market intelligence o n consumer feelings, senti- ments, and intentions. Finally, cross-cultural research on the impact of policy deci- sions on marketing is limited. We need a theory of market development through public–private partnerships. Indeed, a trilateral partnership between academic universities, govern- ments, and industry is increasingly becoming a reality in health and education. In a world of environmental concerns due to climate change, the study of partnerships between business, community, and local governments is elevated. The recent Paris Agreement is one such example. In addition, the Millen- nium Development Goals established by the United Nations (profit, planet, and people) constitute another area of signifi- cant research opportunity. It is interesting to note that while marketing is perceived negatively in for-profit companies, it is considered a positive force in the nonprofit sector. There are some good experiments going on at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and at nongovernmen- tal organizations focused on market development. The latter includes Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Habitat for Humanity all over the world, and several initiatives funded by the World Bank and several United Nations agencies. Marketing tools and techniques seem to be extremely valuable if utilized in the nonbusiness settings. These and other nonprofit organizations and government institutions are increasingly utilizing social media marketing tools to promote their projects and ideas.

Final Thoughts The tsunami of social media is real. It will affect international marketing more dramatically and far sooner than we all antici- pated. The sheer numbers are staggering: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram each have a billion or more users. As mentioned previously, the largest nations in population are no longer China and India; they are Facebook and YouTube. Users today transcend not only geographic and jurisdictional bound- aries but also social, cultural, and economic boundaries among consumers and customers. The connected consumers have their own customer networks, which in turn have their own market power. Consumers can give or block access to these networks and may amplify the marketing messages for a brand within their own networks through information sharing. With a high degree of richness and reach, the network effect of social media can be an effective branding tool (Gao et al. 2018). Therefore, although the five dimensions of value creation (access, affordability, acceptance, awareness, and activation) are anchored to local cultures and regulations, consumer aspirations are now converging globally. This will result in blurring of domestic versus international markets and market- ing practices. Surprisingly, international marketing, which studies differ- ences between countries, will be more useful in domestic mar- kets, which are becoming more heterogeneous with respect to income, wealth, and lifestyles. Similarly, WOM, which was historically local (neighbors talking to neighbors), will go glo- bal and viral. Therefore, it will be important to study influen- cerswhohaveglobalreachonsocialmediainsteadofthe traditional local opinion leaders. In addition, what was peripheral (online search and com- merce) will become core as society transforms itself into digital natives. What is core (physical shopping) today will become peripheral. Showrooming may give way to webrooming. Finally, we need to study the growth of global virtual com- munities such as Second Life and Farmville .Theyaresome- times more emotionally satisf ying to people than the real world. This phenomenon of people “living” more in virtual communities than in local communities will have significant 10 Journal of International Marketing 28(1) impact on marketing in general (branding, communications, and service), and not just international marketing. The research opportunities in inter national marke ting, and espe- cially in international media and communication, are price- less. Fortunately, access to l arge-scale data and highly automated analytics will make th is research less challenging and more productive.

Acknowledgments The author thanks the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. He is particularly grateful to Atul Parvatiyar (Texas Tech) for revising the article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- ship, and/or publication of this article.

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