ABSTRACT

While there is an increasing number of local brand acquisitions by firms originating from emerging markets, there have been limited studies on consumers’ responses to their acquisition strategies. In addition, little is known about whether and how the country of origin (CoO) effect interacts with perceived brand localness (i.e., the acquired local brand is recognized as a local image) in influencing the perceived brand value of acquired local brands. This study fills these gaps in the literature and provides insights on how firms from emerging markets should promote their acquisition strategies to customers. Using an experimental research design, this study aims to explore whether and how the country of origin of emerging-market firms affect consumers’ responses to their acquisitions of brands overseas. This study reveals that the negative effect of an acquirer’s less favorable CoO becomes stronger when the perceived brand localness of the acquired brand is high. On the other hand, there is no significant evidence of the CoO effects on the acquired local brand with low perceived localness. This study demonstrates important insights on the country of origin effect and its interaction with perceived brand localness in determining how consumers respond to emerging firms’ acquisitions of local brands.

摘要

虽然来自新兴市场的公司越来越多地收购本地品牌，但关于消费者对其收购策略的反应的研究却很有限。此外，关于原产国 (CoO) 效应是否以及如何与感知品牌本地性（即，所收购的本地品牌被视为本地形象）在影响所收购本地品牌的感知品牌价值方面的相互作用知之甚少。本研究填补了文献中的这些空白，并提供了有关新兴市场公司应如何向客户推广其收购策略的见解。本研究采用实验性研究设计，旨在探讨新兴市场公司的原产国是否以及如何影响消费者对海外品牌收购的反应。本研究表明，当被收购品牌的感知品牌本地化程度高时，收购方不太有利的 CoO 的负面影响变得更强。另一方面，没有明显的证据表明 CoO 对所收购的本地品牌的影响较低。本研究展示了关于原产国效应及其与感知品牌本地性的相互作用在决定消费者如何响应新兴公司收购本地品牌方面的重要见解。