تمایل مصرف کنندگان برای کشورهای خارجی: ساختار توسعه، عواقب رفتار خرید و تضاد خصومت

Purpose Our purpose is to extend affinity theory in construct domain, scale development, model testing and by discerning affinity and animosity. Design/methodology/approach We carry out exploratory and empirical research in order to explore the domain and to test the factor structure and the hypotheses through confirmatory analysis. Findings We find (1) four target country affinity dimensions, (2) consumer affinity impacts micro country image, buying intentions and actual product ownership, and (3) affinity and animosity are distinct constructs with partly shared and partly unique dimensions. Originality/value The study is the first to empirically test the four dimensions, the first to establish a positive relationship with actual product ownership and micro country image, and the first to contrast the role of the dimensions in affinity and animosity.

While many scholars have drawn attention to international business inhibiting constructs like animosity (Klein, Ettenson, & Morris, 1998), consumer ethnocentrism (Shimp & Sharma, 1987), and liability of foreignness (Slangen, Beugelsdijk, & Hennart, 2011), the impact of positive country affection and devotion on international business is much less understood. For example, anti-Americanism and Francophobia and their negative business effects have been studied (Amine, 2008). However, there is also an international Francophile community that loves French cuisine and French culture, and consumes French products as a way of expressing their identity. Our study provides new insights into consumer affinity, which are feelings of liking and fondness for a specific foreign country. The objectives of the study are to further develop the conceptual basis for consumer affinity and its domain and measurement scales, to provide insights into how general consumer affinity and its dimensions relate to intentional and actual buying behavior, to test whether consumer affinity and consumer animosity are unique constructs or just bipolar opposites of the same construct, and to discuss the potential role of consumer affinity in international business. We endeavor to achieve the objectives through a series of qualitative and empirical studies. The paper proceeds as follows. First, we review the literature on affinity and related concepts. Next, we present the findings of qualitative studies, followed by quantitative studies for scale development and verification of constructs. Measurement scales are finalized and hypotheses of causal relationships are developed and tested in a final study.

In this study, we contribute to affinity theory in several ways. Oberecker and Diamantopoulos (2011) modeled general affinity, and they suggested it is a higher-order construct with two first-order dimensions (sympathy and attachment). We extend the understanding of general affinity by developing the four dimensions and their scales. Building on cognitive appraisal theories of emotion (Ellsworth and Scherer, 2003 and Silvia, 2005) we suggest that consumer affinity comes from appraisal of events, concerning the culture and landscape, the people, the music and entertainment and/or the politics of the affinity target country. The dimensions explained almost all (92%) of the variance in general affinity. Oberecker and Diamantopoulos (2011) found general affinity has an impact on buying intentions. They had the respondents choose their favorite affinity targets, thus all cases were high affinity cases. We extend the impact of general affinity on buying intentions to two cases of specific target countries (France and USA). Specific target countries may better represent most business situations. Both Oberecker and Diamantopoulos (2011) and our study should be considered single cue studies with regard to the impact on buying intentions. Single cue studies normally give higher explained variance than multi-cue studies (Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999). However, our finding that consumer affinity is related to actual product ownership (Table 8) demonstrates the importance of the affinity construct. The statistical tests supported that affinity and animosity are distinct constructs rather than bipolar opposites of the same construct (Hypothesis 5). Affinity and animosity have two dimensions in common, and both have two unique dimensions. The two unique dimensions of affinity and the two unique dimensions of animosity, the inferences from psychology research discussed previously, and the empirical findings in our study provide a strong case for why affinity and animosity are distinct constructs rather than opposites of the same construct. This is a necessary condition for future development of affinity theory and of animosity theory as unique lines of research. Appraisal theories of emotion hold that it is the way a person interprets a situation—rather than the situation itself—that gives rise to one emotion rather than another emotion or no emotion at all (Roseman and Smith, 2001 and Siemer et al., 2007). Our findings indicate that appraisals of events related to the people dimension and the politics dimension stimulate positive emotions (affinity), negative emotions (animosity) or no emotions. Appraisals of events related to culture/landscape and music/entertainment stimulate positive feelings or no emotions, but seldom negative emotions. Finally, appraisals of events related to economics or military/war stimulate negative emotions (animosity) or no emotions, but seldom positive emotions. Contrary to Oberecker and Diamantopoulos (2011), we hypothesized and confirmed an indirect effect of affinity on buying intentions through micro country image (H4). We explain this by the role of the affinity dimensions. For example, consumers’ affinity for the culture and landscape of a foreign country may influence perceptions of the quality of many products, like the cultural heritage of food products, clothing, and furniture. People affinity may be related to the perceived quality of service products and music and entertainment and is a dimension of affinity as well as product categories. Our data also provide additional insight into why most animosity research found no relationship between animosity and micro country image. Most animosity studies following Klein et al. (1998) build on one or both of their animosity dimensions (war animosity and economic animosity). We found that war animosity and economic animosity have no impact on micro country image, which is in line with the findings in most previous animosity research (see Table 7). However, all of the affinity dimensions influenced micro country image. Overall affinity feelings may be a consequence of mixed feelings. Not all affinity backgrounds need be positive, and the role of the affinity backgrounds and the behavioral outcome may vary between cases. In Table 8, we show how general affinity toward France is quite similar between (present or previous) owners and non-owners of French cars, while affinity for French culture/landscape and French music/entertainment is quite different between the groups. Therefore, the dimensions of affinity add to the richness of the construct, and increase the general insights that are possible.