ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the relationships between reputation, brands, trademarks, and export performance. The study of brands and trademarks has traditionally been regarded as an aspect of research in marketing, but recently economists have taken an increasing interest in the subject (for a survey of the links between marketing and economics, see Carter, Casson and Suneja 1998). In economic theory, brands are regarded as an important mechanism for overcoming ‘market failures’ caused by ‘information asymmetries’ (Balasubranyam and Salisu 1994). An important difference between the economic and marketing approaches to brands is that the former operates with an explicit ‘rational action’ model of human behaviour, whereas the latter adopts a more pluralistic and interdisciplinary approach. It is the economic approach that is the basis of this chapter.