DOES THE SUPPLIER AFFECTS CONSUMERS’ PRODUCT PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS? AN ANALYSIS ABOUT THE INNOVATIVENESS PERCEPTION

Abstract

The extent that a firm is perceived as innovative is crucial for competitiveness. Thus, companies constantly try to build a strong reputation for product innovation. One way to increase this reputation is to collaborate with highly reputed partners. In this respect, this study investigates ingredient branding alliances based on responsibility attributions theory. In particular, we show that there are various combinations of supplier and manufacturer reputation, but only one combination that finally leads to the desired increased intention to buy the joint offering. This particular combination is a collaboration where a highly reputed supplier promotes the offering of a manufacturer with a low reputation. This study makes a contribution to a better understanding of ingredient branding potential for increasing the innovativeness of manufacturers.