| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the topic. Consumer behavior is one of the factors that determines the success of a company or a brand in an international market. Nowadays we have a large market supply and a wide range of options that enables the consumer to choose products according to lot of criteria, including the country of origin of the product. It has influenced the consumer decision-making process in many ways and made it complex, as the product is judged by many factors (Lee et al., 2020). Negative sentiments perceived by consumers in connection with past events and various conflicts between their home country and other foreign country may affect the goals of the company (Leonidou et al., 2019). These negative sentiments in consumer behavior research are called consumer animosity to foreign products. Klein et al. (1998) were one of the first researchers who started analyzing this phenomenon and created a stable foundation for future research by developing a consumer animosity model. As the economies grow and the world is going more and more global rapidly, the relationships between foreign countries change rapidly, too. The events all around the world in recent years, such as Grexit, Brexit, the eurozone crisis or others, clearly shows that tensions in international relations are getting higher (De Nisco et al., 2020). For this reason, the phenomenon of consumer animosity to foreign products is becoming extremely important for businesses and brands. Consumer animosity to foreign products became a field of interest in marketing research due to its negative impact on the establishment of companies or brands in international markets. The scientific literature analyzes the causes and consequences of this phenomenon for companies and the factors that affect the link between this phenomenon and consumer behavior. Many scientists (Klein et al., 1998; Huangh et al., 2008; Fernandez-Ferrin et al., 2012; Mrad et al., 2014; Gineikienė et al., 2017; Antonetti et al., 2019; De Nisco et al., 2020) analyze the historical events that lead consumers to these negative sentiments. The importance of personal values in consumer animosity research field is revealed by other scientists (Wang et al., 2013; Mrad et al., 2014). There is noticed an increasing researcher’s interest in analyzing consumer cultural characteristics in this context (Han, 2017; Leonidou et al., 2019). The impact of personality traits and personal values on consumer animosity is also a field of interest among the researchers, but it has not been sufficiently analyzed yet. The linking between consumer animosity to foreign products, personality traits, cultural characteristics and product avoidance was investigated by Leonidou et al. (2019), but the latter study does not include personal values. Research results. The empirical research has revealed that consumer animosity to foreign products can be divided into two dimensions - consumer animosity based on past and ongoing events. The results showed that general consumer animosity to foreign products and both of its dimensions are positively related to product avoidance - the higher consumer animosity, the stronger they try to avoid buying and consuming products whose country of origin provokes hostile sentiments. Analyzing the hostility of Lithuanian consumers to Russian products both in the context of the historical past and the latest ongoing events, has revealed that the respondents has a high consumer animosity and avoid Russian products. Also, the study confirmed that only two of the five examined personality traits affect distinct dimensions of consumer animosity. Agreeableness and openness were identified to have a statistically significant effect on the dimensions of consumer animosity. Meanwhile, extraversion, consciousness and neuroticism do not significantly affect consumer animosity. Analyzing the moderating effect of cultural characteristics, it has been found that only two of the three examined cultural characteristics have a statistically significant moderating effect on the link between consumer animosity to foreign products and its dimensions and product avoidance. Individualism has been identified as a moderating cultural characteristic only for the relationship between past-based consumer animosity and product avoidance, and masculinity - for the relationship between general, past-based and ongoing consumer animosity and product avoidance. However, uncertainty avoidance has not been confirmed as a moderator of the relationship between consumer animosity to foreign products and its dimensions and product avoidance. The moderating effect of personal values has also been confirmed for only one of the two personal values that were examined. Self-direction has been confirmed as a moderating personal value only for the connection between past-based consumer animosity and product avoidance. Meanwhile, universalism, has not been endorsed as a moderator of the link between consumer animosity and its dimensions and product avoidance. Analyzing the impact of demographic characteristics on consumer animosity to foreign products, it has been found that only gender has a statistically significant effect on this phenomenon. |
