An Extended Model of Preference Formation between Global and Local Brands: The Roles of Identity Expressiveness, Trust, and Affect

Abstract

The authors propose an augmented conceptual model explaining consumer preferences for global brands versus local brands in emerging markets and test the model using data from a Chinese consumer sample. The model adds high brand-identity expressiveness as well as high trust and positive affect toward these brands. The results support these additions and replicate previous findings that brand quality and prestige are important links between perceived brand globalness (PBG) and perceived brand localness (PBL) and favorable behavioral intentions. The most novel finding is that both PBG and PBL can enhance a brand's identity expressiveness. The results establish the mediating roles of these additional variables between PBG/PBL and behavioral intentions and also identify the incremental explanatory value of these additional mediators, which have been neglected in previous global branding research. Furthermore, PBG—which affects behavioral intentions through pathways of brand prestige, trust, and affect—is more influential than PBL, which operates mainly through brand identity expressiveness.