The Impact of Chinese Consumer Animosity on the Country Image Effect

Abstract In recent years, more precisely from 1989 on, which was considered by a lot of experts the beginning of the second stage of globalization, nation branding campaigns have started to be launched in more and more countries in order to help developing nations image and reputation and to provide a competitive edge on economic, social and even political areas. Simon Anholt and Wally Olins are the two authors who studied the most nation branding phenomenon and came up with theories which were applied often by professionals when elaborating nation branding campaigns for different states. Nadia Kaneva, Keith Dinnie, Melissa Aronczyk, Luminita Nicolescu and Alina Dolea have also focused their researches on this theme and manage to contribute with new and interesting ideas to the field. This paper provides insight into the most important nation branding campaigns made by Romania starting from 1989 until present. Through a comparative analysis of those campaigns the paper tries to identify which was their impact on Romania’s image or reputation. How was Romania perceived (from the image perspective) before 1989 at international level? Did the image change after 1989? And what was the impact of the most important branding nation campaigns implemented after 1989 in the image of Romania and implicit in economy? These are the main questions this paper tries to answer. At the same time, the study also explores briefly the concept of globalization, nation branding, national image and national reputation. The conclusions of the paper will provide in the end a general background of all studied nation branding campaigns which will include the similarities and differences between them, but also both strong and weak points. Its aim is to contribute, among other existing papers, as a starting point for researchers or professionals who want to elaborate nation branding strategies for Romania or other countries.

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Consumer brand engagement on social media in the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of country-of-origin and consumer animosity

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing ◽

10.1108/jrim-03-2021-0065 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Tianfu Wang ◽

Yam B. Limbu ◽

Xing Fang

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Country Of Origin ◽

Least Square ◽

Activity Data ◽

Content Type ◽

Global Brands ◽

Brand Engagement ◽

Consumer Animosity ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

The Impact

PurposeThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic unprecedentedly shocks the market. Little is known about the impact of COVID-19 on brand engagement across country-of-origin (COO) and country-of-market (COM). To address the gap, this study examines how the spread of the COVID-19 affects consumer brand engagement on social media for global brands through the mechanisms of the COO and consumer animosity.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collect consumer engagement activity data from Facebook for eight global smartphone brands and match it with the COVID-19 statistics. Ordinary least square (OLS) models are used to estimate the impact on global brands brought by the spread of the COVID-19.FindingsThe results show that consumer brand engagement decreases for all brands in a COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the COM. Consumer brand engagement decreases for a brand across all COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the brand’s COO. If a brand’s COO is imputed for the pandemic, its consumer brand engagement will receive additional negative impacts across all COM.Originality/valueThis study enriches the COO literature by showing how the spread of a pandemic affects consumer brand engagement via COO and discovers the moderating role of consumer animosity.

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The impact of service category and brand positioning on consumer animosity in the service sector – a social identity signaling perspective

Journal of Product & Brand Management ◽

10.1108/jpbm-01-2020-2718 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Cher-Min Fong ◽

Hsing-Hua Stella Chang ◽

Pei-Chun Hsieh ◽

Hui-Wen Wang

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Service Sector ◽

Special Focus ◽

Content Type ◽

Service Category ◽

Consumer Animosity ◽

The Social ◽

Identity Signaling ◽

Cultural Symbolism ◽

The Impact

Purpose The present research responds to researchers’ calls for more research of consumer animosity on potential boundary conditions (e.g. product categories) and marketing strategies that may mitigate such negative impacts on marketers’ product and/or brand performance, with a special focus on the soft service sector. This paper aims to address the unique characteristics of service internationalization, i.e. cultural embeddedness, hybridized country origins and high consumption visibility, by proposing a social identity signaling model to explain consumer animosity effects in the soft service sector. Design/methodology/approach Two surveys (Pretest with 240 participants and Study 1 with 351 participants) and one experiment (Study 2 with 731 participants) were conducted to empirically test our hypotheses in the Japanese-Chinese relationship context. Findings The stronger the national/cultural symbolism and social expressiveness, the stronger the consumer avoidance for the service category. Then the consumer culture positioning strategy that can mitigate an offending country’s cultural symbolism can reduce consumer avoidance. Originality/value This research introduces two factors that could affect the negative social identity signaling capacity of service categories in the animosity context: the national/cultural symbolism reflecting an offending country and the social expressiveness communicating social identity. In line with the social identity signaling perspective, the present research specifically uses consumer avoidance as the dependent variable to capture the notion that consumers avoid consuming services because they wish to avoid being associated with an offending country that may threaten their in-group social identities.

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Investigating country image influences after a product-harm crisis

European Journal of Marketing ◽

10.1108/ejm-10-2018-0689 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Roberta Carolyn Crouch ◽

Vinh Nhat Lu ◽

Naser Pourazad ◽

Chen Ke

Keyword(s):

Crisis Response ◽

Purchase Intentions ◽

Response Strategy ◽

Country Image ◽

Content Type ◽

Response Options ◽

Two Samples ◽

Quasi Experimental ◽

Attribution Of Blame ◽

The Impact

Purpose Although international product-harm crises have become more common, the influence of the country image (CI) associated with foreign goods in such crises remains under researched. This study aims to investigate the extent to which the CI of a foreign made product influences consumers’ attribution of blame and trust and, ultimately, their future purchase intentions after the product is involved in a crisis. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (country) × 3 (crisis type) quasi experimental design was used, with data collected from Australia (n = 375) and China (n = 401). Findings CI can influence attribution of blame, subsequent levels of trust and likely purchase intentions. Australian and Chinese consumers have different views when it comes to trusting a company or placing blame, depending on the country of origin or the type of crisis. The direct and positive effect of CI on consumer purchase intentions following a product-harm crisis is sequentially mediated by attribution of blame and trust. Trust is the most powerful influence on future purchase intentions in both samples. Research limitations/implications In this research, only one type of crisis response strategy (no comment) was used. Thus, the results of this study must be viewed with caution when considering outcomes relating to other response options. Additionally, the testing was limited to only two samples, focussing on three countries (England, China, Vietnam), and one product context using a hypothetical brand. Further, despite our reasonable sample size (N = 776), the number of respondents represented in each cell would still be considered a limitation overall. Practical implications When developing crisis response strategies, managers should take into account the influence of a positive/negative source CI in driving attribution and trust. To minimize the impact of crisis on future purchasing decisions, organizations can leverage positive biases and mitigate negative ones, aiming to maintain or restore trust as a priority. Originality/value The study provides cross-country understanding about the significant role of CI during a product-harm crisis in relation to subsequent consumers’ blame attribution, their trust in the focal organization and ultimately their future purchase intentions.

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