Abstract
The importance and interest in individual cultural values have been increased considerably in recent years. Cultural values have been examined as the antecedent to many consumer behaviors and attitudes. The individual cultural values of consumers are shaping attitude and behavior and how that influence consumer animosity is less studied in the literature. To address the research gap, the current study proposes a theoretically and empirically tested framework based on value–attitude–behavior (VAB) model. This study aims to investigate the role of individual cultural values on consumer animosity in the context of 2018 China–United States (U.S.) trade war. The study also examines the relationship between consumer animosity and reluctance to buy (RTB) U.S. products by Chinese consumers. The hypothesized model is tested in China in the context of the ongoing political conflict initiated by United States over Donald Trump’s administration’s tariffs policy targeting China. A convenience sample of Chinese consumers ( n = 303) yielded a total of the questionnaire. The results point to a positive and significant relationship between collectivism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and consumer animosity and a negative relationship between power distance and consumer animosity. Moreover, result shows an insignificant association between long-term orientation and consumer animosity. Finally, the result of this study shows a positive relationship between consumer animosity and RTB U.S. products. The theoretical and practical implications of the proposed study are also discussed.
Highlights
To capitalize on the challenges and opportunities that are emerging for marketers as globalization expands, managers must develop sustainable strategies to respond and adapt to market changes. Klein, Ettenson, and Morris (1998) initiated the study of consumer animosity, developing a model for animosity and defining animosity as “antipathy related to previous or ongoing political, military, economic, or diplomatic events” (p. 90)
This study proposes the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 2 (H2): Chinese consumers with high masculinity values harbor a high degree of consumer animosity toward the United States
Our findings indicated that collectivism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance all had significant effects on consumer animosity (β = 0.153, p < .01; β = .192, p < .01; β = .211, p < .001, and β = −0.214, p < .001, respectively), so Hypothesis 1 (H1), H2, Hypothesis 3 (H3), and Hypothesis 4 (H4) were supported
Summary
To capitalize on the challenges and opportunities that are emerging for marketers as globalization expands, managers must develop sustainable strategies to respond and adapt to market changes. Klein, Ettenson, and Morris (1998) initiated the study of consumer animosity, developing a model for animosity and defining animosity as “antipathy related to previous or ongoing political, military, economic, or diplomatic events” (p. 90). This study focuses on the role of individual Chinese consumers’ cultural values as antecedents to their consumer animosity toward the United States, in relation to the recent trade war between the two countries. We use the VAB model to investigate the effects of the five dimensions of cultural values determined by Hofstede (2001), operationalized at the individual level (Yoo et al, 2011), on attitudes of consumer animosity and the effect of animosity on RTB products (behavioral response) from an offending country. The following hypothesis was adopted: Hypothesis 3 (H3): Chinese consumers with strong uncertainty avoidance values harbor a high degree of consumer animosity toward the United States. This study outlines the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 5 (H5): Chinese consumers with long-term orientation values harbor a low degree of consumer animosity toward the United States. Hypothesis 6 (H6): Consumer animosity toward the United States is positively related to an RTB U.S products
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