Global Marketing Research: Gains, Gaps, and Guardrails

Global marketing research has grown up arguing with itself about standardization versus adaptation, global versus local brands, culture as constraint versus culture as resource, and methods that generalize across markets versus those that do not. While these arguments have advanced the field, they have also fostered settled habits of thinking. In response, this article takes a deliberately critical stance in its narrative review that revisits the field’s familiar arguments and default assumptions in order to highlight where accepted wisdom is fragile and to propose a forward agenda. To this end, the Journal of Global Marketing is inarguably the right venue for this conversation, as its mission is to advance research that addresses international marketing challenges and strategies worldwide.