The effects of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer animosity on perceived betrayal and negative word-of-mouth

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to survey whether consumer ethnocentrism and animosity will affect consumers' perceived betrayal and cause negative word-of-mouth (NWOM).

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted a 2 (consumer ethnocentrism) × 3 (consumer animosity) between-subject experiment design to test the hypotheses. Comprised of 380 respondents, this study used ANOVA to examine the data.

Findings

The results showed that if a brand violates the perception of fairness, ethnocentrism and animosity will have a positive effect on perceived betrayal. In addition, low consumer animosity revealed a significant consumer ethnocentrism effect and low ethnocentrism revealed a significant animosity effect, while the relationship between perceived betrayal and word of mouth is negative.

Originality/value

The current research adds to the understanding about how the reaction to a domestic brand's marketing strategies that are viewed as unfair and hurt the domestic consumers' expectations.

Citation

Lee, H.-M., Chen, T., Chen, Y.-S., Lo, W.-Y. and Hsu, Y.-H. (2021), "The effects of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer animosity on perceived betrayal and negative word-of-mouth", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 712-730. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-08-2019-0518