Will you speak up for me? Inducing retail store managers’ engagement with MNCs’ brands across cultures

Many consumer goods multinational companies (MNCs) operate host-market subsidiaries that are responsible for managing relationships with local retailers. These retailers often follow a decentralized approach by formally involving their store managers in key decision-making processes related to the MNCs’ brands. While store managers play a key role in the success of MNCs’ brands, two key questions remain unanswered: (1) what drives a store manager’s psychological engagement with MNCs’ brands across cultures, and (2) do cultural differences matter to translating store managers’ psychological brand engagement into constructive brand voice behavior? We answer these questions using a multilevel dataset spanning nine Latin American countries/MNC subsidiaries, five data sources, and three time periods. The findings reveal that uncertainty avoidance exerts a differing moderating influence on the relationship of MNC–retailer relationship investment and the store managers' MNC brand knowledge with psychological brand engagement, whereas individualism and uncertainty avoidance positively moderate the effect of MNC’s extra-contractual incentives on store managers' psychological brand engagement. Also, psychological brand engagement takes on a more important role in leading store managers to speak up, at lower levels of long-term orientation. Finally, we show that inducing store managers to engage in constructive brand voice behavior increases time-lagged, objective data on MNC’s salesperson performance.