Hierarchical Linear Modeling in International Marketing Research: A Review with an Application on Innovation and Export in China

While much of international marketing research involves two or more levels, limited work in the international marketing literature uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine different level effects. This study conducts a thorough literature review on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) in 28 international marketing papers that employed HLM from 2005-2014 and evaluates the use of HLM in these papers on the objects, operating levels, and other issues. We call for more applications of HLM in international marketing research, particularly for research on emerging markets with significant sub-national and institutional variations. The paper provides an illustrative empirical study that employs HLM to test the moderating role of industry-level government subsidies in the relationship between firm innovation and exporter performance in China.