Abstract

The effects of cultural identity on perceptions about and preference for global and local brands remain less understood. Using consumer cultural identity theory, this study tests assumptions that cultural identity drives perceived brand globalness and localness. It also examines how such perceptions shape brand value assessments and preference formation. The study draws on consumer data from two prominent emerging African markets, South Africa and Ghana, to test the hypothesized relations through structural equation modelling. The findings support predictions that individuals’ cultural identity drives their perceptions of brands as local/global. Specifically, global identity drives global brand preference in both countries, but local identity was a weak driver of local brand preference in Ghana. The perceived value of local brands impacts local brand preference more than foreign brand preference. The study highlights several contributions on the pathways to global or local brand preferences that should benefit international marketing scholars and branding professionals.

摘要

文化认同对全球和本地品牌的认知和偏好的影响仍然知之甚少。本研究使用消费者文化认同理论来检验文化认同驱动感知品牌全球性和本地性的假设。它还研究了这种看法如何影响品牌价值评估和偏好形成。该研究利用来自两个著名的非洲新兴市场南非和加纳的消费者数据，通过结构方程模型来检验假设的关系。调查结果支持预测，即个人的文化身份会推动他们对本地/全球品牌的看法。具体而言，全球认同推动了两国的全球品牌偏好，但本地认同是加纳本地品牌偏好的弱驱动力。与外国品牌偏好相比，本土品牌的感知价值对本土品牌偏好的影响更大。该研究强调了对全球或本地品牌偏好途径的一些贡献，这些贡献应该使国际营销学者和品牌专业人士受益。