Consumers’ Emotional Bonds with Foreign Brands: Animosity, Affinity, and Ethnocentrism

Abstract

Emotions are recognized to be an important factor in the consumer decision-making process. Generally, consumers' motives are not utilitarian but are driven by hedonic benefit expectations. Especially in international markets, negative emotions about foreign countries (i.e. a product's country of origin) might be just as determinative of consumers' decisions. Negative bias about foreign countries can even prevent consumers from wanting to try their products. But if it is recognized that negative feelings about foreign countries are important identifiers of international consumer behavior, recently it has been claimed that positive feelings have a strong or even stronger effect on international consumer behavior. This study therefore aims to investigate the role of negative and positive feelings on international consumer decisions. It examines the influence of consumers' affinity, animosity, and ethnocentrism on foreign product purchase intention, alongside the moderating effect of the lack of alternative domestic products and the mediating effect of the brand image. Data were collected from Turkish consumers who have U.S. branded computers. Findings showed that affinity, ethnocentrism, and brand image affect foreign brand purchasing intention. Moreover, brand image has a mediating role in the relationship between affinity and purchase intention and the lack of alternative domestic products has a moderating role in the relationship between affinity and purchase intention.

The impacts of brand personality and self-congruity on consumers' intention to stay in a hotel: does consumer affinity matter?

“…Nes et al (2014) also pointed out that if a product or brand is associated with a country, then, according to the consumers' affinity, purchasing products from that country can have symbolic and self-impressive implications. Past studies have found that when consumers have affinity to a country and purchase the products or services of that country, they would develop a strong emotional bond with that country (Oberecker et al, 2008), thus strengthening their purchase intention or behavior (Aydin and € Unal, 2020;Bernard and Zarrouk-Karoui, 2014;Halim and Zulkarnain, 2017;Josiassen et al, 2020;Oberecker and Diamantopoulos, 2011). Based on the above, the following hypothesis is proposed:…”

“…Previous studies have shown that if consumers like, empathize with or are connected to a specific country, they are more apt to identify with the products of that country and prefer to buy them (Nes et al , 2014; Oberecker and Diamantopoulos, 2011; Oberecker et al , 2008). However, most existing research on the relationship between consumer affinity and consumers' purchase intention or behavior focuses on the influence of consumer affinity on its relationship with the visit intention of a specific tourist destination (Aydin and Ünal, 2020; Josiassen et al , 2020; Oberecker and Diamantopoulos, 2011), as well as with the purchase intention of automobiles, electronic products, food and clothing from a particular country (Bernard and Zarrouk-Karoui, 2014; Halim and Zulkarnain, 2017; Nes et al , 2014).…”

“…Can it strengthen consumers' purchase intention or behavior from the level of country-specific affect? Moreover, most past studies on consumer affinity focused on physical products to examine consumer affinity (Aydin and Ünal, 2020; Bernard and Zarrouk-Karoui, 2014; Halim and Zulkarnain, 2017; Josiassen et al , 2020; Oberecker and Diamantopoulos, 2011), while few studies in the hospitality field have explored their affinity toward service products or their affinity to hotels. This study focuses on filling the theoretical gap regarding whether consumer affinity can moderate the relationship between brand personality or self-congruity and consumers' intention to stay in a hotel.…”