Financial Development and Country-Level Advertising Spending: The Moderating Role of Economic Development and National Culture

Abstract

Firms invest in brand capital through advertising. Financial constraints hinder firms’ ability to fund their investment projects. Empirical studies in the finance literature suggest that firms’ access to external financial resources, labeled “financial development,” affects their investment behavior. The authors take the view of advertising spending as investment in brands and study the effect of financial development on advertising spending at the country level using a panel of 59 developing and developed countries during 1990–2016. The results suggest that financial development has a positive and significant effect on advertising spending, and this effect is stronger in countries with a low level of economic development. Furthermore, the authors investigate the role of national culture dimensions including uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, collectivism, masculinity, and power distance in the relationship between financial development and advertising. Overall, the results provide evidence that the impact of financial development on advertising spending depends on the national culture dimensions.