Introduction to the Special Section on Global Perspectives in Public Policy and Marketing Steven W. Kopp and Kyung-Hoon Kim T he research in this special section represents papers that were presented during the 2016 Global Marketing Con- ference, held in Hong Kong. This was the first year for a “public policy and marketing” track at this conference; more than 30 papers were submitted to the track from many countries. The response and the variety of topics was encouraging. There were several motivations for the new conference track and for this special section of Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. One purpose is to promote submissions to JPP&M from international scholars; a second is to introduce JPP&M as the premier journal for public policy and marketing to an in- ternational audience; and a third is to encourage the JPP&M readership to consider perspectives and research problems from other countries. Reviewers for both the conference track and the JPP&M special section were scholars from over a dozen different countries, and some of these contributors were newly introduced to “public policy and marketing” as a research context. Indeed, over the course of the conference and review process, the question arose more than once: “What is public policy and marketing?” This became a thought-provoking question; for many of us who have been enmeshed in JPP&M over the past four decades, the response seems almost self-evident. However, the self-reference criterion was uncovered: with few exceptions, research ap- proaches to public policy and marketing tend to be very U.S.- and Western-centric. A definition proved helpful: research in “public policy and marketing” involves the use of marketing and consumer ap- proaches to inform decisions related to public policy, regu- lations, and law. Functionally, this scope has been extended to include ethics (both consumer and business), not-for-profit or nongovernmental organizations, social marketing and social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, and religion, all of which ultimately may include some aspect of consumer welfare. These have been generally viewed through the lens of more or less “free market” assumptions, and it seems difficult even for Western researchers to grasp how “public policy” may be conceived and implemented outside of Western contexts. Marketers who wish to offer products or services in multiple countries must all do the same fundamental work. A huge global consumer products maker like Nestl´ e may develop a new family of beverage brands to be sold in several countries in Africa, while a woman in a rural village in the Mekong delta of Vietnam may find that big-box retail consumers in the United States desire baskets that she makes from dried water hyacinth stems. Each of these businesses must find consumers who want what it makes. Furthermore, a constantly changing maze of legal re- strictions may exist with each geographical boundary encountered, and both marketers and those who regulate marketing activities must pay close attention to many domestic as well as international laws, including those that govern market entry, antitrust, product liability, consumer protection, and intellectual property rights. Technologies involving transportation, manufacturing, and communication may all play a role in facilitating and impeding the process for business entities as well as consumers, and cer- tainly governments and political entities can affect the devel- opment of those technologies. Similarly, we must consider the application of a cultural perspective to values held in another culture when designing “public policy and marketing” research in a foreign market. Identifying and addressing the cultural differences and mea- suring those differences from a viewpoint based on a foreign country’s religious, cultural, and political experiences would seem essential to any meaningful contribution to decision making. Yet what might be considered severely punishable bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the United States (15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1) could be considered illegal but “business as usual” in another country (Sethi 2014). What might be considered “an elegant offense” (Alford 1995) and perfectly acceptable in one culture could be considered a criminal act of piracy in the West (U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2017). Even among “Western” economies, there exist disagreements about the safety and availability of genetically modified food products and the privacy or ownership of consumers’ personal data, and these disagreements are founded in culture-bound interpretations of what is “right. ” For academic researchers, in addition to im- pediments posed by language and concept, laws in the United States that essentially prohibit the collection of consumer data in several countries (U.S. Department of the Treasury 2017) would prevent a truly global empirical understanding of commonly held beliefs about the relationship of public policy and consumer behavior. We can no longer simply consider a domestic culture as the only public policy influence on marketing decision making or on individual consumers, nor are we safe in assuming that regulations, laws, or consumer mores can be interpreted through a single world view. Regardless of the actions and decisions of individual gov- ernments, research in public policy and its relationships with marketing and consumer welfare will continue to grow in importance. We are grateful to the authors, reviewers, and con- ference participants for their patience and persistence in their efforts to actualize this research. We hope this special section serves as a continued call and encouragement for rigorous research that addresses global perspectives in public policy and marketing. Steven W. Kopp is Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Arkansas (email: skopp@uark.edu). Kyung-Hoon Kim is Professor of Marketing, Changwon National University (email: stride@changwon. ac.kr). © 2018, American Marketing Association Journal of Public Policy & Marketing ISSN: 0743-9156 (print) Vol. 37 (1) Spring 2018, 106–107 1547-7207 (electronic) DOI: 10.1509/jppm.37.501 106