Modeling multiple forms of consumer animosity through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Purpose Consumer animosity toward a foreign country can affect negatively international brands. Existing international marketing research offers inconsistent accounts of the factors that explain product quality perceptions, negative word of mouth (NWOM) and product avoidance in animosity contexts. This paper aims to demonstrate that such inconsistency is caused by the fact that different explanations apply to different consumer subgroups. Searching for a single solution, thus, leads to erroneous predictions for sizable subgroups of consumers. Design/methodology/approach The study implements a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to two quantitative surveys examining Chinese consumers’ (n = 476) reactions to Japanese products and American consumers’ (n = 517) reactions to Chinese products. Findings The analysis yields novel explanations of the outcomes of animosity. Only in some causal configurations reduced quality evaluations explain product avoidance and NWOM, while in others negative behaviors co-exist with positive quality perceptions. Moreover, negative emotions’ role varies across forms of animosity. While anger is often associated with the behavioral outcomes of animosity, fear plays an important role in only a few specific combinations. Research limitations/implications General models of animosity need to be complemented with accounts that examine the multiple mechanisms underpinning animosity outcomes. Practical implications Marketers should identify which animosity model applies to their consumer segment(s) as different mechanisms require different marketing approaches. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study recognizing that the same animosity outcomes are explained by multiple mechanisms offering a more nuanced picture of the motivations associated with consumer animosity.

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

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.

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

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.

Rethinking Offshoring and International Marketing Strategies during the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT This teaching case focuses on the national and international expansion of IGT Motors, a Brazilian company operating in the market for twenty years that has moved most of its production to China since 2010. Nearly after the company started searching for new markets abroad and adapted its internal and communication processes to comply with other countries’ preferences and regulations, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led top management to rethink its production and marketing strategies, specifically hit by involving China, country of origin of the virus. The case is about how small companies in the midst of a global expansion can deal with unexpected scenarios and emerging crisis, engaging students to reflect upon the initiatives that might be taken to overcome issues such as consumer animosity, but also to make the company less susceptible to similar situations in the future.

Repensando Estratégias de Offshoring e Marketing Internacional Durante a Pandemia do COVID-19

ABSTRACT This teaching case focuses on the national and international expansion of IGT Motors, a Brazilian company operating in the market for twenty years that has moved most of its production to China since 2010. Nearly after the company started searching for new markets abroad and adapted its internal and communication processes to comply with other countries’ preferences and regulations, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led top management to rethink its production and marketing strategies, specifically hit by involving China, country of origin of the virus. The case is about how small companies in the midst of a global expansion can deal with unexpected scenarios and emerging crisis, engaging students to reflect upon the initiatives that might be taken to overcome issues such as consumer animosity, but also to make the company less susceptible to similar situations in the future.