Interplay of consumer animosity and product country image in consumers’ purchase decisions

The literature has long acknowledged the impact of stereotypical associations with a product’s country of origin (COO) on consumers’ cognitive assessments of the product. However, consumers’ emotional reactions to a product’s COO can also influence their decisions. For example, the literature reports a monotonically negative relationship between consumer animosity (CA) and the purchase of products from an animosity-evoking country. The literature provides an incomplete picture though because it does not consider other factors that may transform this negative relationship. Drawing on theories of the interplay between affect and cognition in decision-making, this research investigates the nuanced interaction between CA and product country image (PCI). Using samples from the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea, we find that the monotonically negative impact of CA holds only when the target country’s PCI is unfavorable. When PCI is favorable, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship between CA and purchase intentions – that is, CA has a positive effect on purchase intention as it increases from low to moderate levels and a negative effect as its magnitude escalates beyond a threshold. These findings offer new insights to address the complexity of market entry modes, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and communication decisions in international markets.