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Beyond anger: A deeper look at consumer animosity

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Abstract

Grounded in cognitive-affective theories of emotion, an extended conceptual framework of consumer animosity is developed that (1) distinguishes between consumers’ cognitive appraisal of the international dispute and the resulting emotional response, (2) expands from a valence-based approach to consider the differential effects of agonistic (i.e., anger) and retreat emotions (i.e., fear), and (3) examines three distinct consumer coping processes (product avoidance, negative word of mouth (NWOM), product quality judgment). A cross-cultural test of the framework among Chinese (toward Japan) and American (toward Russia) consumers supports the mediational role of emotions, and finds that agonistic emotions are related to NWOM and product avoidance, but not product quality judgment. In contrast, retreat emotions are related to product avoidance and product quality judgment, but not NWOM. The findings provide guidance for international brand managers on recognizing and detecting adverse sentiments toward their country of origin and accordingly modify their international brand strategy.

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Notes

  1. This is not surprising given US’ limited economic dependence on Russia. In contrast, economic animosity beliefs would probably be more relevant in many European countries, which are highly dependent on Russian oil and gas.

  2. We included a measure for economic animosity beliefs in the survey. Consistent with our pre-test and expectations, economic animosity was relevant in the China–Japan context and the results were consistent if animosity was modeled as a second-order construct incorporating both war and economic beliefs. However, the measure for economic beliefs did not pass standard validity and reliability tests, indicating that US consumers had a difficult time assessing economic animosity beliefs toward Russia.

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Acknowledgements

Financial disclosure: This research was partially funded by the Boeing Institute of International Business, John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Florida International University. The authors gratefully acknowledge Paul Miniard, Jonathan Hasford, Dan Baack, Peter Dickson, Doug Dow, Alexandra Aguirre-Rodriquez, Editor Daniel Bello, and the three anonymous JIBS reviewers for their valuable guidance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

    Colleen M Harmeling

  2. Culverhouse College of Commerce, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA

    Peter Magnusson

  3. The Boeing Institute of International Business, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, USA

    Nitish Singh

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  1. Colleen M Harmeling
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  2. Peter Magnusson
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Correspondence to Colleen M Harmeling.

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Accepted by Daniel Bello, Area Editor, 2 December 2014. This article has been with the authors for two revisions.

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Harmeling, C., Magnusson, P. & Singh, N. Beyond anger: A deeper look at consumer animosity. J Int Bus Stud 46, 676–693 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2014.74

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