Host country consumers’ brand attitudes after cross-border acquisitions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2015-0909 |
| Date | 18 September 2017 |
| Pages | 559-572 |
| Published date | 18 September 2017 |
| Author | Tiebing Shi,Jiandong Li,Chi Lo Lim |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Host country consumers’ brand attitudes after
cross-border acquisitions
Tiebing Shi
Melvin D. & Valorie G. Booth School of Business, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Missouri, USA
Jiandong Li
China Institute of Finance and Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China, and
Chi Lo Lim
Melvin D. & Valorie G. Booth School of Business, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Missouri, USA
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to investigate factors impacting host country consumers’ attitudes toward acquirers’ corporate brands and target brands
after cross-border acquisitions (CBAs).
Design/methodology/approach – Surveys were conducted with US consumers using two fictitious CBA scenarios in the automobile industry.
Findings – Consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CETs) are negatively related to attitudes toward a CBA event; attitudes toward a CBA event are positively related
to post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer’s corporate brand; brand-image fit is positively related to attitudes toward a CBA event, and post-CBA attitudes toward
the acquirer’s corporate brand and the target brand; post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer’s corporate brand and the target brand are positively related.
Research limitations/implications – This study is limited in the sample, analysis approaches, context and factors examined. Future research could
use more representative samples and both quantitative and qualitative methodologies; conduct more tests; examine real CBAs in different industries
and countries; and investigate effects of other factors affecting attitudes toward the CBA event and post-CBA brand attitudes.
Practical implications – Managers should consider CETs and brand-image fit and strategically influence attitudes toward a CBA event and
post-CBA brand attitudes.
Originality/value – It investigates the mediating effect of attitudes toward a CBA event on the relationship between CETs and post-CBA attitudes
toward the acquirer’s corporate brand and the effects of brand-image fit on attitudes toward a CBA event and post-CBA brand attitudes.
Keywords Attitudes toward a CBA event, Brand-image fit, Consumer ethnocentric tendencies, Cross-border-acquisition,
Post-CBA brand attitudes
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) help firms acquire global
strategic competitive resources (e.g. strong brand image and
loyal customer base) that generate superior financial results
(Gubbi et al., 2010;Meyer et al., 2009;Shimizu et al., 2004).
Global investments in CBAs have increased dramatically in
recent years (Haleblian et al., 2009). Owing to the strategic
and financial importance of CBA, the low post-CBA
performance of acquirers becomes a significant theoretical and
practical problem to solve (Haleblian et al., 2009). To solve
this problem, previous studies have investigated diverse factors
that impact the performance of CBAs at the national level
(Ahammada et al., 2016;Alimov, 2015;Bertrand and Capron,
2015;Dikova et al., 2010;Lebedev et al., 2015;Surendranath
and Ngo, 2014;Uddin and Boateng, 2011;Zhang and He,
2014), at the industry/corporate level (Bauer and Matzler,
2014;Collins et al., 2009;Dikova et al., 2010;Dutta et al.,
2016;Popli et al., 2016;Rahman and Lambkin, 2015;
Slangen, 2006), at the deal level (Epstein, 2005;Haleblian
et al., 2009) and at the consumer level (Chang and Zhang,
2011;Chung et al., 2014;Fong et al., 2015;Lee et al., 2011;
Štrach and Everett, 2006;Wang et al., 2012).
Although the extant literature on CBA has offered rich
insights on how to investigate CBAs and to improve the
performance of CBAs, the factors at the consumer level that
impact host country consumers’ post-CBA attitudes toward the
acquirers’ corporate brands are understudied. In this study,
post-CBA (vs pre-CBA) attitudes toward a brand refer to a
consumer’s overall evaluation of the brand after (vs before) a
CBA event. Extant studies on the factors at the consumer level
have explored the following:
●how an acquirer’s country of origin (COO) affects
post-CBA attitudes toward target brands of the consumers
of a country that is neither the host nor the home country
(Chung et al., 2014);
●how an acquirer’s COO and consumers’ brand ownership
affect host country consumers’ post-CBA attitudes toward
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
26/6 (2017) 559–572
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-06-2015-0909]
Received 18 June 2015
Revised 18 November 2015
16 March 2016
31 May 2016
Accepted 1 June 2016
559
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