Study: Anti-American Sentiment Results in Higher Global Sales of American Brands

Two distinguished political scientists, Peter Katzenstein (from whom I took a class in introductory international relations half a lifetime ago) and Robert Keohane, set out to investigate whether American companies were suffering because of American policies. They’re editing a book, Anti-Americanism in World Politics, to be published this fall by Cornell University Press. In one chapter, they trot out anecdotal evidence of European hostility to U.S. products. “It is plausible to believe that people who feel hostile toward the United States would be reluctant to purchase products form American firms, especially those products associated strongly with the United States,” they write.
To put the hypothesis to the test, Katzenstein and Keohane examined 2000-2004 European sales figures of three major U.S.-based consumer products firms (Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Nike) and three major European-based consumer products firms competing in similar fields (Cadbury Schweppes, Nestlé, and adidas-Salomon). In the GMI report I wrote about last year, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s were squarely nestled in the problem quadrant—identified in the survey as companies that were seen as highly American and that European and Canadian consumers said they’d be likely to avoid. Nike barely avoided the problem quadrant.

In the time period studied, the European sales of all six firms rose. But the sales of the U.S. firms grew more rapidly. (SLATE)