The roles of consumer ethnocentrism, animosity, and cosmopolitanism in sponsorship effects

Abstract

Using latent growth modelling (LGM) to disentangle the static and dynamic components of brand affect and brand trust, this longitudinal study examines the impacts of consumer ethnocentrism, animosity, and cosmopolitanism on the effects of sponsorships on brand affect and brand trust. Design/Methodology An online panel of U.K. participants reported their perceptions of a French sponsor at three successive points (before, during, and at the end of the 2012 London Olympics). Of the 903 respondents at T1, 694 remained at T2 (76.8%) and 577 (63.9%) remained at T3. Another 302 respondents only at T3 controlled for potential mere measurement effects. The data were analysed using LGM techniques. Findings Due to sponsorship effects, brand affect and brand trust increased linearly over time. However, consumer ethnocentrism and animosity negatively moderated these increases. Cosmopolitanism enhanced brand affect but not brand trust. Research Implications As market globalisation exposes foreign firms to potential backlash from consumer nationalistic orientations toward their products, sponsorship strategies must consider the interplay between these nationalistic sentiments and sponsorship effects. While foreign sponsors are typically preoccupied with determining the fit between their brand and a local event, they must also consider individual-level nationalistic sentiments. The success of companies in foreign markets depends on creating favourable country-directed consumer attitudes. Originality/Value Beyond demonstrating the application of LGM to individual-level longitudinal analyses, this study extends sponsorship research by considering a previously unexplored area with key academic and managerial contributions, namely, the role of consumer nationalism in sponsorship effects. The strategic uses and outcomes of international sponsorship must be considered in conjunction with consumers' perceptions of foreign brands from a nationalistic perspective.

U.K. consumers' perceived risk of buying products from emerging economies: A moderated mediation model

“…Also, regarding Western consumers' attitude towards Eastern products, research on the factors related to the brand needs further investigation. Indeed, although consumers' national identification, cultural sensitivity, and ethnocentrism may influence consumers' purchase intentions or behaviour, branding issues may influence or interact with them (Lee & Mazodier, ); therefore, future research should explore how branding issues; for example, brand identity may interact with those factors on products from emerging economies. In addition, considering many brand products are designed in one country but made in another (e.g., Apple iPhone and Adidas), future research may also explore different issues on country of origin (e.g., country of manufacture, country of assembly, country of design, and cultural brand origin) in consumers' evaluation of foreign products or brands.…”

Inconsistencies in the behavioural effects of consumer ethnocentrism

“…Furthermore, the majority of the studies concentrate on different forms of aggregate measures rather than specific outcomes (e.g., purchase of a specific brand). For example, empirical research has examined the effects of CET on the evaluations of foreign and domestic products (Durvasula et al, 1997;Huddleston et al, 2001;Poon et al, 2010;Sharma et al, 1995;Shimp and Sharma, 1987;Verlegh, 2007;Wang and Chen, 2004;Zeugner-Roth et al, 2015), brand affect (Lee and Mazodier, 2015), willingness to purchase foreign or domestic products (Kwak et al, 2006;Ranjbarian et al, 2010;Verlegh, 2007;Wang and Chen, 2004;Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser, 2002), and preferences (Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004;Kesić et al, 2004;Ranjbarian et al, 2010).…”

COVID-19: a pandemic to tourism guest-host relationship in India

“…Such hostile situations which tourists face during their visit generally makes them to avoid the services and products of such nations toward which they feel animosity (Anastasopoulos, 1992;Klein et al, 1998;Jung et al, 2002;Chan et al, 2010;Stepchenkova et al, 2019). According to the study conducted by Smith et al (2004), hostile people tend to endorse social conflict and put a question mark over others and in fact may influence the trust of consumers over service providers (Jimé nez and Martin, 2010;Lee and Mazodier, 2015;Loureiro and Jesus, 2019). This has been observed to be much rampant in crisis (situational and economic), war and conflict destinations (Klein et al, 1998;Huang et al, 2010;Jimé nez and San Martín, 2010;Nes et al, 2012;Stepchenkova et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2020).…”