Information asymmetry and imperfect information are common problems facing firms as they expand overseas. To overcome these problems, governments and their investment promotion agencies typically place country and market entry information online and in advertisements. To ensure this information is perceived as credible by potential investors, many governments use brand signals, such as slogans and logos, to communicate their expertise in the area and build trust. To understand how governments do this, we content analyze the slogans and logos found in 55 months of print advertising and 181 websites of countries engaged in foreign direct investment-seeking activities. We find that slogans and logos are frequently used across both samples but their use is greater in advertising than on the web, which is likely due to the greater effort required to develop an advertising program than to maintain a website. Regardless of medium, logo use is greater than slogan use. In both samples, slogans tended to be generic or undifferentiated and did not appear to facilitate brand credibility. However, logos appear to perform better as brand signals as they were better designed and incorporated elements of expertise and trust.
Sunday March 25, 2018 10:15am - 11:45am EDT
Financial 2
