The Role of Economic Freedom in Explaining Penetration of Consumer Durables John B. Ford Kiran W. Karande Bruce M. Seifert This study examines the link between economic freedom (a measure of government intervention) and the penetration of three durable goods (televisions, radios and automobiles) across countries. After con- trolling for the influence of income, there is a signcficant relationship between greater amounts of eco- nomic freedom and durable penetration for these three products. Practical implications are provided for both governments and global marketers. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFED F rom an international business per- spective, there is little doubt that the development of an explanatory model for global product penetration is a worthwhile goal. The delivery of such a model, however, is a daunting task due to the problems inherent in getting comparable, timely and relevant data from a wide range of countries (Jain, 1996). In order to create such a penetra- tion model, it is necessary to utilize variables which affect all of the coun- tries included in a similar way with regard to penetration of consumer dura- bles. This is difficult since variables /ohn B. ford, Professor of Marketing, College oi Business and Public Administration, O/d Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529 <jbford@odu. edu>. Kiran W. Karande, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Old Dominion University. Bruce M. Seif- ert, Associate Professor of Finance, Old Dominion University. like energy consumption might affect different countries in different ways. ’ As Terpstra and Sarathy (1997) point out, most of the attempts aimed at mod- eling penetration have focused on the use of limited geographic areas with data that is out of date. International economists have tried to build on the work of Leontif (1966) with a series of Input-Output tables and models which attempt to analyze the industrial struc- ture within different countries and their impact on product penetration. Other international economists have focused on the work of Rostow (1971) to com- partmentalize countries into different levels of economic development and to analyze the potential impact on con- sumption patterns. International mar- keters have tried to focus on consumers in different countries using such focii as Economic Freedom and Durable Goods 69