Abstract:

The marketing literature lacks a thorough understanding of how emotions change purchase intentions of ethnocentric consumers' when there are two different nationality signals about the product evaluated (i.e., product nationality signal vs brand nationality signal). To address this gap, we focus on how ethnocentric consumers' purchase intentions for national icon products (product nationality signal) change due to emotional states. Drawing on signaling theory, social identity theory, and the psychology literature on emotions, we carried out an empirical study (mixed-design ANOVA) with ethnocentric consumers to test whether anger and sadness change purchasing intentions for fictitious brands across two different product types (national icon product vs non-national icon product). The regression analysis indicates that when ethnocentric consumers are induced to feel anger, their purchase intentions for national icon products decrease significantly when the product has a foreign brand image. Because incidental anger triggers stereotypical reasoning, angry ethnocentric consumers seem to focus on brand image rather than the product class (i.e., national icon products) signaling a nation’s heritage. Our study displays the powerful impact of the incidental emotions on the ethnocentric consumer judgment and decision making regarding the brand quality and purchase intention for brands with foreign vs domestic images.

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