Outbreaks of animosity against the West in China: effects on local brand consumption

Abstract

Purpose Local brands in emerging markets suffer from fierce competition and chronic disadvantages. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if outbreaks of animosity against the West (AAW) might benefit local brands by raising consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to buy (WTB). Design/methodology/approach The study employed 2 methods: structural equation modeling (n=244 Chinese students); and experiment, multiple regression (n=676 Chinese students, different sample than those included in study 1). Findings AAW is different from ethnocentrism and the measurement has good validity and reliability. After an outbreak of animosity, AAW increases Chinese consumers’ WTB local products. The WTP is also enhanced by AAW in such a situation. Under “normal” circumstances, there is no effect of AAW on the WTP. This might be due to the cost of substituting western goods for local ones (e.g. inferior perceived quality and other-signaling value). An outbreak of animosity presents a risk to consumers and thus lowers their overall WTP. Originality/value The study introduces the construct “AAW,” which stretches the animosity construct to an inter-regional level. On such a level, it is possible to find consequences of animosity on local brand consumption, which have not been the focus of previous studies. Additionally, this research introduces the concept of WTP to animosity research. The measurement is built on a real economic exchange and better represents the cost aspects of substituting one brand for another.

The role of subnational cultural value on animosity: the China-South Korea THAAD crisis

“…According to these previous studies, situational animosity due to the THAAD deployment may not have a negative impact on quality evaluation because it comprises purely national animosity caused by a political conflict between countries, not personal animosity formed by personal experience (KITA, 2017a(KITA, , 2017bEttenson & Klein, 2005;Heinberg, 2017;Lee, 2018;Leong et al, 2008). However, stable animosity is an overall form of animosity based on various backgrounds in the past and is a mixture of national and personal animosity (Hoffmann et al, 2011); therefore, it is likely to deter quality evaluation.…”

“…However, if product evaluation is defined as a mixture of cognitive and emotional factors, other results may emerge. Further, a few studies suggest that some of the animosity dimensions positively affect quality evaluation (Ahn, 2014(Ahn, , 2015Ahn et al, 2014;Eren, 2013;Heinberg, 2017;Lee, 2018 Second, future studies can draw on the literature on country-of-origin (c.f., Shi, Wang, & Liu, 2018) or "brand origin" to account for the fact that many brands, both local and foreign, manufacture their wares in countries other than which they are based using components from other countries (Papadopoulos et al, 2018).…”

Personality Traits, Consumer Animosity, and Foreign Product Avoidance: The Moderating Role of Individual Cultural Characteristics

“…Many recent investigations (e.g., Funk et al, 2010;Ganideh and Elahee 2018;Maher and Mady 2010) similarly found a negative link between consumer animosity and willingness to buy products from the disliked nation, while a few others suggested that consumer antipathy also influences product judgments (Huang, Phau, and Lin 2010;Ishii 2009), preference for domestic products/products from one's in-group (Heinberg 2017;Shimp, Dunn, and Klein 2004), willingness to pay a price premium for products from one's in-group (Shimp, Dunn, and Klein 2004), and country-of-origin image (Hoffmann, Mai, and Smirnova 2011). Notably, some studies (e.g., Klein, Ettenson, and Morris 1998;Klein 2002;Mostafa 2010) examined the effect of willingness to buy on product ownership and reported their strong association.…”

The Influence of Contemporary Negative Political Relations on Ethnic Dining Choices

“…Then, behaviors occur in response to induced emotions, and the recognition of this has led to the emergence and widespread acceptance of the cognitive appraisal approach to emotions in consumer behavior studies as a theoretical construct to understand emotional responses (Song & Qu, 2017). While the original theory does not study the direct influence of personal beliefs on behavioral responses, previous animosity studies have reported significant influence of consumer animosity on their purchase intention (Heinberg, 2017;Kim, 2019;Sánchez et al, 2016;Q. Yang et al, 2015).…”