The effects of perceived brand globalness on consumer responses to brand failures

Abstract

The Effects of Perceived Brand Globalness on Consumer Responses to BrandFailures by GAO Xue Master of PhilosophyEven big companies cannot guarantee their brands never ever fail customers. Recently the brand failures of Toyota taught us a vivid lesson that a brand takes decades to be built up but to be ruined overnight. Although, the advantages of building global brands are well recognized in literature, the superiorities of global brands in brand failure context are not yet studied.This study aims to investigate the effects of perceived brand globalness (PBG) on consumer affective and behavioral responses to brand failures. Global brands are perceived superior to local brands due to factors like higher quality perceptions and prestige feelings. Based on attribution theory, consumers are expected to have less negative responses to the failure of a brand which has a higher (vs. lower) PBG.Two studies were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Both studies were 2 (high PBG vs. low PBG brand) × 2 (failure present vs. absent) between subjects factorial designs. More than 200 respondents participated in the experiments. Study 1 examined the effects of PBG on consumer responses to fictitious brands. In order to increase the generalizability of research, Study 2 used established brands to find out the effects of PBG on consumer responses while controlling the confounding variables of brand familiarity and brand equity of the selected established brands.The results indicate that the more a brand is perceived global, the less negative responses consumers have toward the failures. Moreover, this thesis examines the moderating role of consumer ethnocentrism on the relationship between PBG and consumer responses. The proposed hypotheses are generally supported. The findings enrich the literature and benefit the marketing practitioners by broadening their views of building global brands. DECLARATION