A shift in perspective? The role of emotional branding in shaping born globals’ performance

Branding strategies have been at the core of marketing and strategy literatures for decades. Global brands are known for their positive influence in increasing customer trust and confidence, thus reducing the risks associated with foreign operations from the firms’ standpoint. These positive effects of global brands have led to research exploring brand image while emphasizing its relevance in positioning, gaining competitive advantage, and facilitating firms’ international business. Born-global firms (BGs) can mostly benefit from harnessing brand image, mainly by reducing market-related uncertainties while establishing a brand-based reputation and thus enhance their international expansion. However, very few attempts have been made to investigate the role of branding in advancing BG performance. Through a survey-based study including 147 Israeli BGs, complemented by 11 in-depth interviews with BG managers, we investigated the distinct role of functional and emotional brand-image aspects. The findings demonstrate that emotional branding bears a significant impact on BG performance. This impact reaches beyond the influence of innovativeness and marketing intelligence on BG performance. Surprisingly, while functional branding was enhanced by firms’ innovativeness, it showed no significant impact on international performance.