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The role of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality

in consumers’ willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product and a

low involvement foreign product.

Student name: Tianchen Hu Student number at RUG: s3188450

Student number at Newcastle University: 160747726

Double Degree Master – Advanced International Business Management and Marketing

University of Groningen and Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr. K. (Kees) van Veen and Dr. Ana Javornik

4th December 2017

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2 Abstract

Research aim: A recent boycott incident has caused many foreign firms a tremendous loss in their market shares in China. Boycotts in China are often initiated by the government and target a

specific foreign country as a type of revenge strategy. This study aims to examine the role of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality in consumers’ willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product and a low involvement foreign product.

Research Design/methodology: A total of 282 Chinese consumers were reached for online surveys and presented with Korean products and a recent, related boycott incident of Korean products. Their country-of-origin image, perceived product quality, nationalism, and willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product and a low involvement foreign product were measured by a boycott model with instruments created on the basis of relevant literature.

Findings: Country-of-origin image and perceived product quality were found to have a significant negative relationship with their willingness to boycott both high involvement and low involvement foreign products, and nationalism was found to predict their willingness to boycott foreign products. No significant difference was found between their willingness to boycott a high involvement

foreign product compared to a low involvement product. Further findings suggest country-of-origin image and perceived product quality have a stronger hindering effect on consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product compared to that of a low involvement foreign product, while the effect of nationalism is almost the same.

Managerial implications: For foreign firms who may face a potential boycott crisis or those who are currently in the midst of a boycott, they may strategically enhance the positive association with country-of-origin image and quality cue, show support and love for China, and Chinese people would be a value asset to reduce the loss.

Significance: This study not only expands the understanding of country-of-origin image and perceived product quality to the field of boycott behavior but also provides a comparison of impact of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality on consumers’ willingness to boycott a high involvement product compared to a low involvement product. In addition, this research provides a launching point for future boycott-related studies in China.

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3 Acknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my advisors Dr. van Veen and Dr. Ana Javornik. It has been a privilege to be their student. They have patiently supervised and guided me during the long months I spent undertaking my dissertation at University of Groningen and Newcastle University. I am truly grateful for their contribution of time, ideas, and

encouragement to make my dissertation productive. Without their persistent help my dissertation would not have been possible; as I encountered several hardships stemming from research topics in the process of writing dissertation.

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4 Table of contents:

Table of contents

Abstract………2 Acknowledgemen...3 Table of contents ... 4 1. Introduction ... 5 2. Literature review ... 9 3. Methodology ... 17 3.1 Research design ... 19 3.2 Sampling method ... 19 3.3 Measurement ... 21

3.5 Data collection procedure ... 24

4. Analysis ... 28

5. Finding and discussion of findings... 35

6. Managerial implication………. 38

7. Limitation and future research……….39

8. Reference………. 41

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5 1. Introduction

By any measure, boycott has been increasingly momentous for the consideration of marketing decision making, as they are seen as an effective and universal approach to exhibit consumer discontent with a firm; running against their business practices (Sen, Gürhan-Canli and Morwitz, 2001). Boycott behavior is regarded as an intriguing form of consumer behavior. It is unpopular to markets yet consistent with the marketing concept (Klein, Smith and John, 2004). Essentially, boycotting is an instrument of anti-consumption that is carried out by those who forgo the

consumption of certain goods due to social, political, ethical or economic issues (Chatzidakis and Lee, 2012). The targets of anti-consumption practices ranges from products, brands, firms, and even an entire nation (Braunsberger and Buckler 2011). The results of a study conducted by a US

Marketing agency CONE COMMUNICATIONS toward 9,709 consumers who are from the largest nations in the world by GDP, including USA, China, India, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Brazil and Canada, revealing that 91% of consumers worldwide expect firms do more than just make a profit, but also behave responsibly toward issues that public concerned about, such as environmental and political issues. Besides, it was also found that 90% of global consumers would participate in boycotts if they learned of firm’s irresponsible practices. (Cone Communications, 2015). Many marketing managers seemingly have little understanding of motivations of boycotts behaviours (Yuksel and Mryteza, 2009). Chavis and Leslie(2009) and Pruitt and Friedman (1986) suggested that managers are well-advised to regard boycott seriously since it may not only damage the firm’s reputation but also affect the stock price. Athough consumers generally are more willing to make use of purchase decision as a way of viewing consumption as an ethical/political domain (Shaw, Newholm and Dickinson, 2006); When a call for a boycott happened, the extent of

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China. Nyíri (2009) argues that the motivation of boycott movement has been largely nationalistic, as the firms or brands targeted were deemed to offend China in the consumer’s perspective. Gerth (2003) contends that nationalism in Chinese consumer culture branded every commodity as either “foreign” or “not foreign”. In addition, when examining the consumer behavior, such as anti-consumption behavior, toward foreign products, it might be important to take nationalism into account as Rawwas, Rajendran and Wuehrer (1996) pointed out that nationalism has a profound influence on consumer’s evaluation toward a foreign product.

The concept of country-of-origin has been extensively studied by many scholars. One of pioneering studies is conducted by Schooler (1965) and it was found that the country-of-origin image has an effect on consumer attitude and purchase intention. After that, a number of researchers have explored the effect of the country of origins on various domains in consumer behavior, such as product evaluation and brand equity. Mohd Yasin, Nasser Noor and Mohamad (2007) and Manrai, Lascu and Manrai (1998). However, it remains unknown whether the country-of-origin image has a profound impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign product. When it comes to factors that affect consumer’s buying decision on a foreign product, perceived product quality appears to be crucial. (Elliott and Cameron, 1994; Pecotich and Rosenthal, 2001). Elliott and Cameron (1994) argued that though country of origin impacts consumer’s attitude towards foreign products, consumers rate product quality prior to the country of origin. However, similarly, the impact of perceived quality of a product on consumer boycott behaviors has yet to be explored. The

importance of understanding the relations between consumer perceptions and boycotts behavior lies in the fact that although consumers generally are dynamic in thought, they are prone to converge when it comes to exhibiting certain behavior. For marketers, the deeper understanding of consumer perception means they may better position themselves in the targeted market and react more

strategically towards anti-consumption in order to minimize the loss. What is more, regardless of products, there is generally either a high product involvement or low product involvement for consumers based on some attributes, such as cost (Kotler and Keller , 2011). Cohen (1983) points out the involvement level caused a variation in consumer’s concern toward a product. Thus it can be assumed that consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign product may vary from a high

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Some scholars have previously studied on boycotts issues (James, 2010; Kozinets and Handelman, 1998; Albrecht et al., 2013; John and Klein, 2003). Makarem and Jae (2015) have used socio-psychological approach to study boycotts with an emphasis on socio-psychological and sociological variables. Some others have used a cost- benefit approach to examine the motivations for boycotts on the basis of economic-oriented variables ( Klein, Smith and John, 2004; Sen, Gürhan-Canli and Morwitz, 2001; John and Klein, 2003). However, a vast majority of boycott studies focus on a particular firm and consumer-initiated type incident in the developed world, and their identified variables are highly grounded in psychological, sociological, ethical and situational field, such as self-enhancement, social pressures, and involvement (Albrecht et al., 2013; Klein, Smith and John, 2004). Research on the knowledge of the type of government-initiated boycott phenomenon with country-of-origin as a target is severely lacking. Furthermore, as mentioned before though when it comes to foreign product purchase, country of origin image and perceived product quality emerged as something vital, none of scholars have examined the role of country of origin image and

perceived product quality on consumer’s willingness to participate in boycotts. Thereby this study can fill the gap by exploring the impact of country of origin image and perceived product quality on consumer’s willingness to participate in boycotts towards foreign high and low involvement

products.

China is chosen for this study is due to the following considerations. Firstly, China was chosen for this study because it is a nation where incidents of country-of-origin-oriented and government-initiated boycotts happened most often compared to other nations.Second of all, the most recent Chinese boycott of Korean products incident happened in 2017 is not long ago, meaning that I may be able to effectively examine the consumer’s boycott behavior in which respondents may provide answers more accurately based on the context, and ultimately yield more-timely research findings. Third of all, the institutional environment of China is tremendously different from other nations where the boycotts behavior have been thoroughly explored. The institutional environment

encompasses all the institutions that the business has direct or indirect contact or engagement with (Kroon, 1995, p 66).

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boycott behavior. All in all, this research is an extension to the existing knowledge of boycott behaviors and will help to fill the research gap on boycott studies in the context of China and further examine the role of country-of-origin image, perceived product quality and nationalism on boycott behaviors.

A boycott model on the basis of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality is developed and later used to test hypothesis. The research questions in this study are conducted as following:

1.What’s the role of the country-of-origin image, perceived product quality and nationalism on consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign product?

2. Are consumers more willing to boycott a low involvement foreign product or a high involvement foreign product?

3. What is the difference between the impact of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality on consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign high involvement product compared to a foreign low involvement product?

THADD issue

In the wake of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea in 1992, the economic and political ties between two nations are growing luxuriantly year by year.

According to the statistics provided by Korea Customs Service, China has become both the top destinations and import origins of South Korea; in which the balance of trade has been steadily soaring since 1992, and reached a peak point in recent years (Korea Customs Service, 2017). However, over the past years, North Korea has tested several satellite and nuclear weapons, and has resulted in a growing tension in the Korean Peninsula. For the sake of defending the potential threat from North Korea, the USA and South Korea decided to deploy THAAD(Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), which can protect South Korea from the damages of North Korea’s missiles. The South Korean government launched the establishment of the THAAD missile defense system, this decision caused China being angrily objected to the deployment as they stated that THAAD’s radar is capable of penetrating the dynamics of military activities and territory in China (Lee and Jourdan, 2017). Soon after, the relationship between two nations has been radically intensified and many Chinese people started to grossly boycotting South Korean businesses (Woody, 2017).

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9 Boycott behavior

The term boycott originally stems from political science. Scholars in that field classified them in the context of nonviolent action. It was believed that the term originally is derived from a protest took place in the year 1880 by Irish farmers. Specifically, when their landowner, Captain Charles Boycott, brutally exploited them with salaries and evicted them from where they live, the farmers aroused all the workers in that area to stop doing any kind of business with Boycott (Gelb, 1995). To date, Ettenson and Klein (2005) argue that relevant studies on boycott behavior has shockingly been explored by the field of political science and organizational behavior instead of the sphere of consumer behavior.

There are various definitions of the boycott by different scholars. One of the earliest definitions originated from Laidler(1913), in which a boycott is defined as “An organized effort to induce others to withdraw from social or business relations with other” (Laidler, 1913, p. 27). Later, another well-known definition is presented by Friedman(1985), he defined it as ‘an attempt by one or more parties to achieve certain objectives by urging individual consumers to refrain from making selected purchases in the marketplace’ (Friedman, 1985, p. 97). Coupled with the definition that Friedman (1985) focused on pure consumer boycotts, Garrett’s (1987) has included other agents which may be a government or even a nation. In addition, Chatzidakis and Lee(2012) and Yuksel and Mryteza (2009) stated that consumer boycotts can be regarded as a form of anti-consumption behavior caused by environmental, political, ethical, or social issues. The term anti-consumption itself is a broad sense that entails a negative attitude toward consumption, while consumer boycott behaviors are more specific targeted toward certain organizations or entities (Lai and Aritejo 2010). Further, the Cambridge Dictionary defines the word boycott “to refuse to buy a product or take part in an activity as a way of expressing strong disapproval.” Although a boycott can be initiated by any group (Ettenson and Klein, 2005), Sen, Gürhan-Canli and Morwitz (2001) argue that the actual motive of a participant is compactly subject to his or her own discretion.

That is to say, technically, the operationalization of an individual’s boycott behavior chiefly lies in refusing to purchase a specific purchase (Albrecht et al., 2013). In this study the targeted boycott objectives are products from a specific country instead of a specific organization or firm, and the initial trigger are a political issue and the government, respectively. Therefore, by integrating these definitions with the background and research objectives of this study, the concept of boycotts in this study is finally operationalized as “a consumer’s intention of reluctance to purchase a foreign product caused by a political issue”. Additionally, according to Ajzen (1991), a person’s

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an individual’s behavior is triggered by behavioral intentions and is influenced by his or her attitude toward the behavior. Thereby other than the intention to refuse to consume a product, an

individual’s negative attitude towards consuming a product may also signal the boycott behavior.

Country of origin(COO) image

Wang and Lamb(1983) introduced country of origin effect as invisible barriers to enter into a new market caused by negative bias of consumers toward imported products. Before the era of

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peacefulness. This country-people belief plays a crucial role in consumer’s product evaluation in relation to country-of-origin cue.

Effect of country-of-origin image

The effect of country-of-origin image on consumer’s purchase intentions and perception is an universal theme when it comes to marketing research (Usunier, 2006). A great deal of studies have demonstrated the significance of COO on consumer behavior (Liefeld, 2004; Wang and Yang, 2008; Ahmed .et al, 2004). The country-of-origin influences consumer behaviors through

consumer’s perceived image of a product’s country-of-origin. Josiassen and Harzing (2008) found out that if consumers simply believe a product comes from a particular foreign country regardless of the accuracy of this belief, the COO effect is significant in consumer’s behavior and mind. Min Han(1990) has examined the role of COO image in consumer choice and finding shows that there is a halo effect of country image in consumer purchase intentions and product attribute ratings.

Meaning that consumer’s purchase intentions and product evaluation toward a product varies a lot by their country-of-origin image toward a certain foreign country. Coupled with this finding, Wall, Liefeld and Heslop (1991) suggested that consumers may regard country-of-origin information as something more important in affecting product quality assessments than other attributes, such as brand information and price. Further, Pecotich, and Rosenthal (2001) conducted a study to

investigate the impact of country of origin and perceived quality on consumer behavior, their study revealed that the effect of perceived quality is strongly significant but the evidence of a major impact for country of origin appears insignificant. Rather, the country of origin cue appears only to be significant when there is a conjunction with extremely patriotic respondents. In addition, another study conducted by Eroglu and Machleit (1989) used cue paradigm to examine the relative impact of origin as a quality, it revealed that the country of origin cue is indeed a significant indicator of product quality. For instance, the Korean made phone Samsung may remind Chinese consumers of advanced technology and good quality. In light of Kim, Chun and Ko (2017), consumers have stronger purchase intentions towards goods with which they have more positive country-of-origin image. Given the fact that boycott behavior is, in essence, the reluctance of purchase intention or anti-consuming behavior, and country-of-origin image as a significant impact on consumer’s purchase intention. Hence, I hypothesize the following:

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H2a:Country of origin image has a significantly negative impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement foreign product.

H2b:Country of origin image has a significantly negative impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product.

Perceived product quality:

According to Kotler and Keller (2011), product quality refers to the totality of characteristics and features that is related to its capability to satisfy stated need. This is evidently a customer-centered definition, it can also say that firms have delivered quality whenever its product is either meeting or outperforming the expectations of customers. Zeithaml(1988) defines perceived quality as the consumer’s judgement towards a produced based on its overall excellence. There are intrinsic cues and extrinsic cues. The intrinsic cue is mainly comprised of physical characteristics, such as design (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). A research conducted by Toivonen(2012) shows that from a

consumer’s perspective, the quality of a physical characteristics of a product is determined by technical characteristics and performance. In terms of extrinsic cues, Dodds, Monroe and Grewal (1991) found that price and brand name are the significant extrinsic cues that impact the consumer’s perceptions of product quality;

Garvin(1984) reviewed literature regarding the various definitions of quality and discerned the five approaches to the definition of quality which are transcendent, product-used, user-based,

manufacturing-based and value-based definition. Transcendent approach defined quality in a rather philosophical way, stating that quality is neither mind nor matter, though it cannot be precisely defined; an individual knows what it essentially is; Product-based approach proposed that quality is the amount of the unpriced attributes incorporated in every unit of the priced attribute. From this economic perspective, quality emblems the measurable variable that is embedded in the attributes of goods; User-based approach chiefly entails that “quality” is the degree to which a specific product satisfies the wants of a specific consumers”; Manufacturing-based approach emphasized on

manufacturing perspective to define quality. In this definition, quality stands for the extent to which a product reaches conformance to requirements; Value-based approach defines quality with focus of costs and prices in which quality stands for an acceptable price or conformance at an acceptable level of cost is achieved. Moreover, a framework that contains eight dimensions can be recognized in relation to the fundamental elements of product quality: performance, features, reliability,

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be applied to consumer perception and product aspects are performance, features, durability, aesthetics and perceived quality. The term perceived quality here means the subjective consumer’s perceived quality of a product based on advertising and brand name(Garvin, 1984). In this study, since consumer’s perceived quality of a product is evaluated on the basis of country-of-origin cue instead of a specific brand or price, the perceived product quality is defined as the consumer’s judgments about performance, features, durability and aesthetics of products.

Effect of product quality on consumer behavior

It has been widely demonstrated that product quality and customer satisfaction are intimately connected. Higher levels of quality means a higher levels of customer satisfaction, which cause higher prices and lower costs. Further, it is widely believed that a high correlation exists between comparative high product quality and firm profitability (Kotler and Keller ,2011). In the field of consumer behavior studies, consumer’s perceived quality of a product has been commonly acknowledged as the vital driver related to actual purchasing behavior (Olson and Jacoby, 1972). Furthermore, regarding the interrelations between product quality and boycott. Previously, a few scholars have only studied the effect of boycotts on consumer’s perceived product quality. An early study, for instance, revealed that the judgments of product quality may be positively impacted by boycotts (Miller and Sturdivant, 1977). In that study, Miller and Sturdivant (1977) investigated a fast food chain boycott and surprisingly found out consumer’s attitude toward the quality of food chain enhanced over the course of boycotts. However, the opposite function of effect of perceived product quality on boycotts behavior remained undefined. Given the evidence that consumer’s perceived quality positively impacts the purchase intention of consumers (Bao, Bao and Sheng, 2011), it can be assumed that perceived quality of a product may negatively impact consumer’s willingness to participate in boycotts. Thus, I propose the following:

H3a: Perceived product quality has a significantly negative impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement foreign product

H3b: Perceived product quality has a significantly negative impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product

Nationalism:

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the memory of nation is a cornerstone to identity. The acceleration of globalization caused insecurities about it and resulted in a rise in loyalty to the nation-state (Smith, 1995). The term nationalism and patriotism are used interchangeably. In a broad sense, nationalism can be seen as an idea, belief or principle. It is a notion that unites the cultural ideal of the nation as individual’s primary identity, political idea of territorial self-determination and a moral idea of support of action towards the rights of the country against to other (Ignatieff ,1993). In the view of Adorno (1982), nationalism contains views that an individual believes that his or her nation is superior and should play a dominant role in the world. To put it simply, Dekker, Malova and Hoogendoorn (2003) conceptualized nationalism as an attitude. Attitude refers to a specific amount of affection for a particular object and rejects a person’s overall feeling of either favorableness or unfavorableness (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). There are five positive national attitudes that can reflect the amount of affection of an individual. These five prototypical national attitudes are: national feeling (awareness of belonging to his or her nation and people); national liking (liking his or her nation and people); national pride(being proud of his or her nation and people); national preference (preference towards his or her nation and people over other countries); national superiority (awareness of superiority of his or her nations over other countries). Dekker, Malova and Hoogendoorn (2003) further explained these individual national attitudes are in a hierarchical orders: national feeling -> national liking - national pride -> national preference - > national superiority -> nationalism. The higher the attitude is in the hierarchy, the higher positive attitude it requires. The highest strength of affection in this hierarchy is nationalism which is when someone feels an awareness of belonging to specific “nation” which a common origin and hoping their “nation” as pure as possible. Conversely, the negative national attitudes also exist and they are conceptualized in a hierarchical order: national alienation ( feeling uncomfortable being among his or her people in general and do not have sense of belonging at his or her home country), national shame (being ashamed of his or her people and nation), national disgust ( being disgusted with his or her people and nation), and national hate ( hating his or her people and country). China has been characterized as a totalitarian regime with a unified official ideology and state-party control covers all areas of society, such as university and national firms. Since the Communist Party took power in China in 1949, the government has utilized nationalism not only to promote a sense of nationhood among the Chinese citizens but also subordinate their interests to those of the state. The nationalism in China pursues several goals, including but not limited to national autonomy, unity and identity (Guo,2012). The Chinese

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15 The effect of nationalism on consumer behavior

When linking nationalism to consumer behavior, Han(1988) stated that nationalism is a sentiment in which consumers hold superior loyalty towards a nation-state, strikingly impacting consumer’s attitudes and purchase intentions. Nationalistic consumers have a strong willingness to somewhat sacrifice themselves to buy a domestic brand as they are prone to believe that foreign products may harm their nation’s economy. In one research, Papadopoulos, Heslop and Bamossy (1990)

demonstrated that French and West German consumers who are more nationalistic are more likely to rate their own nation’s products higher then foreign products, such as Japanese product. Besides, Rawwas, Rajendran and Wuehrer (1996) studied 593 Austrian consumers and found the effect of nationalism on product evaluation is weakened for foreign product but is strengthened for domestic products. That is to say, highly nationalistic consumers tend to perceived lower quality for foreign products. Gerth (2003) states that Chinese nationalism and its consumer culture are in fact two forces that reciprocally define each other. When reviewing the twentieth century, a lot of movements regarding national goods and boycott behavior were sort of outlets of sorts for expressions of nationalism of individuals. Normally when such boycott movement takes place, normally the national advocacy was widely spreading out on various type of media, such as

newspaper title and displays in stores Gerth(2003). In the context of consumer behavior, a research conducted by Kamariah, et al. (2015) indicated that patriotism is one of the significant drivers of purchase behavior. To put it in another way, nationalism is positively correlated to consumer purchase intention of their own nation’s product instead of foreign product. Appling these literature to boycotts behavior, it can be assumed that nationalism not only negatively impacts consumer’s perceived quality of a foreign product, but also has a significantly positive relationship with a consumer’s willingness to participate in the boycott. Thereby, I proposed the following hypothesis: H4a: Nationalism has a significantly positive impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement foreign product.

H4b: Nationalism has a significantly positive impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product

H5 Nationalism has a significantly negative impact on consumer’s perceived product quality towards a foreign product.

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The origin of the concept of involvement rooted in social psychology, in which a person’s

interpretation of involvement towards to the relationship between a certain person, target or subject. (Michaelidou & Dibb, 2006). The concept of product involvement is a crucial one in the field of marketing and consumer behavior (Kotler and Keller, 2011). Product involvement entails a

recognition that a specific product category is more or less control to consumer’s lives. The higher involvement means higher level of consumer consideration of the product, and lower involvement means lower level of consumer consideration of the product (Traylor, 1981). When the purchasing situation is characterized by low involvement, customers tend to do lots of switching on brands. For example, when customers purchase a cheap product they normally pick up a brand without deep evaluation. On the contrary, the high-involvement product generally requires a large amount of complex information search and evaluation (Kotler and Keller, 2011). In light of (Ahmed .et al, 2004), when consumers are evaluating low-involvement products, the country of origin does matter. Additionally, Lukas and Whitwell (2008) suggested that the importance that customers place on country-of-origin image in the product evaluation is contingent on the product context. In other words, the less involved the product is, the more important the COO is. One study on boycotts behavior revealed that the level of participation in boycott varies a lot across product category (Chavis and Leslie, 2009). Applied to boycotts, I argue that when consumers boycott products from a specific country, they may act more willing to boycott a low involvement product than a high involvement product. Hence, I formulate the following hypothesis:

H6: Consumers are significantly more willing to boycott a low involvement foreign product than a high involvement foreign product.

Conceptual framework:

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17 Figure 1: Boycott model

3.Methodology: 3.1Research design

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variables(normally 3 or more). A cross-sectional design fits this study for several reasons. To begin with, this study is deeply interested in variation in respect to Chinese consumers. A cross-sectional design allows researchers to examine the variance in all the variables in which they are into

(Bryman and Bell, 2011). Secondly, data will be collected more or less simultaneously without any pre-test, this differs from experimental treatment and post-tested as an experimental design usually demands a pre-test. Thirdly, the primary aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between all variables and an attempt to reach a conclusion that, among all independent variables, which independent variable plays a role of predictor in consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign

product. With a cross-sectional design, it is possible to examine the patterns of association (Bryman and Bell, 2011).

With regard to methods of reasoning, deductive reasoning is used in order to reach a logical conclusion. Wilson (2010) states a deductive approach contains formulating a set of hypotheses based on the existing theoretical literature. In this study, the relevant literature about boycott behavior, country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality were extensively reviewed first, and based on the existing literature, assumptions were developed accordingly. This process essentially is in line with the course of logic of deductive approach where argumentation starts with the theories and lead to assumptions (Sneider and Larner, 2009). All the hypothesis generated in this study are regarded as assumptions and it will be tested via statistical tool. Then, based on the observations of results, all the assumptions would be either supported or rejected and the revision of theory would be generated afterwards (Bryman and Bell, 2011).

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3.2 Quantitative research approach and data collection method

In this study, I will make use of a quantitative research method. The primary reason is that quantitative research method enables me to objectively measure and analyze the data through the use of statistical tool. Having mentioned that the main aim of this study is to explore the impact of a few independent variables on dependent variables and explore the relationship between them, a quantitative research approach is advantageous to allow researcher to find a pattern between variables. Comparing to a qualitative research method, the quantitative research is advantageous to provide an objective generalization of finding by testing hypotheses in a statistical manner (Bryman and Bell, 2011). In other words, by using a quantitative research approach the data can be analyzed statistically and, in turn, processed an objective truth (Castellan, 2010). Above all, the main

philosophical perspective of quantitative research is positivism in which as an objective reality is primarily concerned by researchers (Krathwohl, 1998). Furthermore, a quantitative research

approach allows me to utilize an online survey to collect data from a large number of respondents in short time. In this study, the data will be wholly collected through the use of the Qualtrics online survey. The online survey is undertaken as a data collection method. It is due to the following concerns: first of all, owing to the time limit, an online survey is faster and it allows me to easily reach a large amount of distant interviewees shortly. Second of all, some of respondents may not be willing to reveal their honest thought because the topics about nationalism and boycotts might be a bit sensitive to them, comparing to an one-on-one interview the online survey offers the condition of anonymity which can relieve the tension when discussing sensitive topics (Bryman and Bell, 2011).

3.3 Sampling approach and sample size

Based on the research objectives and questions to be examined, I decide to choose more than 150 Chinese consumers as the minimum sample scope. According to Cohen(1988), the large sample size could decrease the error possibility, and the sample size that is larger than 80 is considered as large. What is more, the selection of Chinese consumer is because research aims to gain an insightful understanding into boycotts behavior, especially concerning Chinese consumers. With regard to the sampling approach, I will use a non-probability snowball sampling since

Neuman(2014) stated that non-probability sampling works well for studies with a specific

phenomenon. Specifically, a snowball sampling is adopted is due to two considerations: firstly, this study is targeting Chinese consumers who are willing to reveal their opinions with regard to

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For instance, the topics related to nationalism, country-of-origin image and willingness to boycott a foreign products could be, to a certain extent, sensitive to some Chinese. Snowball sampling mainly recruits participants through the network, and in China members inside a such network are more likely to count on each other in good and tough times (Ai, 2006). So in this sense, snowball

sampling may notably increase the willingness of participation despite the sensitivity of the topics. Second of all, due to the very limited time left in this study, the snowball sampling is less time consuming to reach out a large population, since it does not require complex planning (Voicu and Babonea, 2011).

According to Voicu and Babonea (2011), the major manners of utilizing the snowball sampling method are represented by (1) Linear version of the ‘snowball’ method(Figure 1); (2) Non discriminative exponential version(Figure 2); (3) Discriminative exponential version(Figure 3).

Figure 1. Graphic representation of the linear version of the “snowball” method

Source: Voicu and Babonea (2011)

Figure 2. Graphic representation of the non discriminative exponential version of the “snowball” method

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Figure 3. Graphic representation of the discriminative exponential version of the “snowball” method

Source: Voicu and Babonea (2011) As it can be seen in Figure 1, by using the linear version of snowball method, only one single

referral is recruited each time by each layer. The second version non discriminative exponential sampling method (see Figure 2) allows research to ask the respondents to name all the people in their network within the target population. The third one, discriminative exponential snowball method, is identical with previous one but with more selective procedures (Voicu and Babonea, 2011). Since this study intends to recruit as many Chinese respondents as possible within short time without strict selection criteria, I undertake the second snowball sampling method, namely, non discriminative exponential snowball sampling method.

3.4 Measurement

In this study, both the independent variable and dependent variable are solely based on primary data that were collected through the questionnaire. The independent variables are country-of-origin image, perceived product quality and nationalism. The dependent variable is the consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign product. An expensive Korean smart phone with many advanced function will represent a high involvement product and a cheap Korean cellphone with ordinary functions will stand for a low involvement product. The control variables is individual’s nationality since this study merely aims to investigate Chinese consumers.

Independent variable Country-of-origin image

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climate), socioeconomic stereotype (politics, history and economy) and feeling toward people of a country(like, trustworthy and peace). So in total, there are nine items are used to measure the country-of-origin image. Within these items, six items (language, landscape, climate, politics, history and economy) are from Kris, Bloemer, and Kasper (2011), and the other three items are from Heslop, Lu, and Cray (2008). The measure for country-of-origin image is based on asking participants to rate their agreement (5=strongly agree, 4=somewhat agree, 3 = neutral, 2=somewhat disagree , 1 = strongly disagree) with a statement for an item. For instance, in terms of climate the respondents are asked to rate the statement: “in your image, South Korea is nation with a good climate.” The details of full questions for country-of-origin can be seen in appendix.

Perceived product quality

Regarding the constitutional components of product quality from consumer perspective, there are five items can be applied to measure the product quality (Garvin, 1984), except for item “perceived quality’’ is experiment-based, other four items can be used to measure the consumer’s perception toward a product quality. when applying these four items in this study:Product performance: The consumer’s perception of how much the product’s primary operating characteristics and efficiency satisfy consumer’s need and interest? i.e acceleration in automobile (Garvin, 1984). Product features: The consumer’s perception of how much do product’s attribute (Johnson, 1984)and its secondary characteristics that supplements product functioning satisfy consumers? i.e automatic turn on television. (Garvin, 1984) Product durability: The consumer’s perception of how much does a length of product life satisfy his or her need? (Garvin, 1984). Product aesthetics: The consumer’s perception of how a product's physical appearance attract him or her? (Garvin, 1984). Thereby the perceived product quality in this study is measured by four items which are product performance, product feature, product durability and product aesthetics; Although Garvin(1984) mentioned some more items, such as conformance and reliability, these items belong to the manufacture’s

perspective, so these items were excluded. The respondents will be asked to rate their perceived performance, feature, durability and aesthetics of Korean cellphone based on five item scale ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). Similarly, one statement towards one item will be given. For example, respondents will be asked to indicate their agreeableness level towards a statement: “Korean cellphone is durable.”

Nationalism

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were measured by national feeling ( feeling Dutch), National liking (Liking the Netherlands, liking to be Dutch, liking the Dutch and liking the Dutch language), National pride ( Proud of the

Netherlands and proud to the Dutch), national superiority (Feeling the Netherlands is the best country and liking Dutch people the most) and nationalism (wishing Flanders part of the Netherlands, Wishing all Dutch in the Netherlands and rejecting international cooperation). However, these items appear to be superficial and may not be able to relate various aspect of nationalism, especially to China. Kosterman and Feshbach (1989) provided better items to measure nationalism. Precisely, their construct for nationalism contains the aspects of not only nation but also sporting competitions and UN. In their studies, eight items were identified that can be used to measure the nationalism in USA. Since the USA and China are now the top two dominant nations in the world, these eight items may be more appropriate than Malova and Hoogendoorn (2003)’s items that are used to measure the Netherlands. Thereby the eight items used in Kosterman and Feshbach (1989) studies will be operationalized to ask respondents to rate based on five

scales(Strongly agree to strongly disagree) towards eight statements about nationalism. Dependent variables

Willing to boycott a low involvement/ high involvement foreign products

Based on the literature above, a consumer boycott is mainly exhibited by a negative attitude and reluctance to purchase products, thereby the measurement of consumer’s willingness to boycott a foreign product is mainly operationalized as two indicators: a consumer’s negative attitude toward purchase and intention of reluctance to purchase. Respondents are asked to indicate their opinion based on five scales, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree towards several statements based on four items. Three items stem from the question 23, 24 and 25 that Smith and Li(2010) used in their boycott-related studies in China. Another item is about negative attitude which came coming from Lai and Aritejo (2010). I choose two types of Korean cellphones that stand for a high involvement product and a low involvement product. This selection lies in the following

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cheaper and it does not have many advanced functions. That is to say, consumers tend to make a purchase decision on simple cheap cellphones without as many considerations as a premium phone. The respondents will be asked to indicate their willingness to boycott these two products

respectively after reading descriptions and images of these two phones. Control variables

The primary inclusion criteria of participants is nationality which means participants must be those who have Chinese nationality. The THADD issue and its related Chinese boycott incident will be given as background in this survey and will ask participants to indicate their willingness to boycott a Korean product based on the given background accordingly. In other words, participants filled out an online questionnaire in which they were exposed to information about THADD issue and the boycott incident happened early this year in China. This type of intervention of giving boycott background information in the survey followed the similar logic that Klein, Smith and John (2004) used when exposed the information about the Nestlé boycotts to respondents when they filling out a survey.

Further, two controlled variables are included to reduce the influence on the relationship between three independent variables and two dependent variables. The first control variable is gender, so respondents will be asked to indicate their gender in this survey; the second control variable is age, respondents’indication of specific numeric age will be required in survey.

3.5 Data collection procedure

The data in this research was gathered via online questionnaire. All the questions in the survey were either from questions that other scholars have used in their research or indicators of concepts that were distilled from scholars. As mentioned before, except for demographic questions, the scale in all of the questions is congruously ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly disagree). All the questions are presented in both Chinese and English to ensure respondents can fully understand the meaning of questions. Prior to handing out to respondents, I asked a few Chinese who have

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To gather data, I first sent the links of my online surveys to my Chinese friends, classmates and family members in both China and overseas. Most of my friends and classmates are university students and my family members’ occupation varies a lot. These figures are regarded as the first layer in the snowball sampling and they all know how to technically utilize electric devices to fill the survey online and have knowledge of the boycott incident. After that, I asked those 1st layer participants to send the links of the online survey with a brief introduction of my research topics to their acquaintance. Then those 2nd layer respondents who are willing to fill the survey are

encouraged to forward the survey to their acquaintances with same procedure. Although there were 3 people in the 2nd and 3rd layer who were not willing to participate due to the research topics, the majority of the individuals who were contacted were willing to take part in this study and complete the survey.

Before conducting a survey on a large scale, around 15 pilot surveys were sent for the purpose of testing the questions. After receiving some feedbacks, I slighted modified a few words that did not make a clear sense to participants. The collection of survey took the course of 4 days in November, in total 282 responses were initially received for input. After that, I started to check out the missing data by carefully observing the empty value in data set. For instance, some responses left blank in certain questions. Ultimately, there were 40 responses were dropped out because of invalidness and 242 surveys were chosen for further empirical analysis.The final sample contains 242 adults who coming from various regions in China as seen in Figure 1. The 55.8% participants are females and 44.2% participants are males and their age ranges from 17-65.

Owing to snowball sampling, participants were not randomly reached thus the largest group of participants are from my hometown Sichuan Province, and others are from different regions in China.(see Table 1). The number of responses turned out to be higher than my expectation. Previously, I thought the topics related to nationalism and boycott may be sensitive to some

Chinese, but in fact lots of Chinese people found out topics very interesting and were very actively willing to participate in this study. Furthermore, a high number of responses may be explained in following reasons, firstly, the confidentiality, anonymity and privacy were highly guaranteed in respondents not needing to expose their name, income, company or school. So their worries were significantly removed and their willingness to fill the survey was tremendously enhanced;

Secondly, the online survey allowed me to distribute the survey in a swift way, unlike reaching out respondents via mail or paper survey, the links of survey can be sent within a second and

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28 4. Reliability and validity analysis

In assessing the reliability of survey, I made use of SPSS analysis method to calculate Cronbach’s alpha. Nunnally (1978) suggested a score 0.7 can be regarded as a standard line. Firstly, I checked the reliability of three independent variables: country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality. As it can be seen in Figure 1, these three independent variables are all higher than 0.7, which means high reliability that stands for a high consistency of measurement. Yet, the a value for nationalism is evidently much lower than that of country-of-origin image and perceived product quality. That is to say, there might be some certain questions are improperly designed which hinder a value of nationalism from reading a high value. When checking out the item-total statistics of reliability for nationalism, the category of “Cronbach’s Alpha if item Deleted” indicates that the question 15 of “It is not really important that China be number one in whatever it does”

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Moreover, other than examining reliability, validity should be examined as it stands for the extent to which an instrument measure what it is supposed to measure and it somewhat permits proper

interpretations. With regard to content validity, all the items used in this study are from questions that other scholars used before and distilled from relevant theories. So all the questions in this study should be qualified to the content validity. In addition to that, English and Chinese translations are proofread and reviewed by a number of other Chinese who have a proficient level of English for the sake of the most accurate meaning of translation. To test the validity of test in which questions truly measure what it claims, Gravetter and Wallnau(2007) stated one common technique for

demonstrating validity is to utilize a correlation. Thus this study adopts Pearson Correlations Coefficient through the use of SPSS to test validity by calculating the correlation between each item’s question and item’s sum score. If item’s questions are significantly correlated with sum score of the item, it means the item is valid, otherwise, it is invalid. According to Figure 2, all the

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31 Spearman Correlation analysis

As to the analysis of correlation coefficient between each variable, the Spearman correlation analysis undertaken in this study. According to Table 3, country-of-origin image and perceived product quality are significantly positively correlated with each other(B= 0.612, p<0.01). That is to say, the better the image of South Korea it is, the higher the perceived product quality is. The nationalism is negatively correlated with country-of-origin image, but the correlation is statistically insignificant(B= -0.52, p >0.05). In addition, nationalism is significantly negatively correlated with perceived product quality(B= -0.126, p<0.05). That means higher nationalistic consumers tend to rate Korean cellphone’s quality lower than lower nationalistic consumers.

Regression Analysis

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relationship exists between country-of-origin image and perceived product quality, in which B is 0.637 and p<0.01. The result of model 3 showed an insignificant negative impact between

nationalism and perceived product quality in which B is -0.102 and p>0.05, thereby Hypothesis 5 is rejected.

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supports Hypothesis 4a. Besides, the result of model 7 showed that consumer’s perceived product quality has a significantly negative impact on their willingness to boycott a high involvement product, so Hypothesis 3a is supported.

Moreover, Table 6 includes model 9, model 10, model 11, model 12 and model 13 that have examined the impact of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement product. Model 9 only contains control variables(age and gender). The result of mode 10 shows that country-of-origin image has a statistically significant positive impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement product(B= -0.292, p<0.01), so Hypothesis 2b is supported. Model 11 demonstrated that the nationalism has a significant positive impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low

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consumer’s perceived product quality has a significantly negative impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement product(B= -0.360, p<0.01), thereby Hypothesis 3b is supported.

According to model 5 and model 10, the negative impact of country-of-origin image is stronger on consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement product(B= -405) than a low involvement product (B=-0.292). When comparing the impact of nationalism on consumer boycott behaviors toward high/low involvement product, model 6 and model 11 reveal that nationalism has a slightly stronger impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement product (B= 0.381) than a high involvement product (B= 0.352). According to model 8 and model 13, The significantly negative impact of perceived product quality is a little bit weaker when consumer exhibit

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To examine the difference between consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement product and a low involvement product, a paired-samples t test is used to compare the mean and calculate According to Table 7, the mean sum score of consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement product is 10.1653 and mean sum score for boycotts of a low involvement product is 9.843. Table 8 provided the result of paired samples test, it can be seen that comparing to consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement product, the sum score of willingness to boycott a high involvement product is 0.322 higher. Yet, this difference is statistically insignificant (p>0.05), so Hypothesis 6 is rejected.

5. Conclusion and discussion of findings

In an effort to better understand the government-initiated and country-of-origin-oriented boycott behavior in the context of China, this study shed light on the role of country-of-origin image, nationalism and perceived product quality in consumer’s willingness to boycott a high/low involvement product. The THADD issue and Chinese boycotts of Korean products have caught tremendous coverage in national and social media in China and respondents all know this political issue and boycott incident. On the basis of literature review and boycott incident, a boycott model was proposed with several hypothesis in order to achieve the goal.

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purchase intention, when it comes to anti-consumption behavior country-of-origin image plays a vital role in consumer’s willingness to participate in boycott. Although the THADD issue is seen as a threat to territory security of China, the positive country-of-origin image of Chinese consumers toward South Korea could significantly discourage them to be willing to boycott high/low

involvement Korean product. On the contrary, the negative country-of-origin image towards South Korea was proven to be significantly positive associated with consumer’s willingness to boycott high/low Korean product. That means the empirical evidence from this study supports the

contention that country-of-origin image has a significant effect on consumer’s behavior, especially the purchase intention(Josiassen and Harzing (2008). The findings extends extant knowledge in the field of boycotts, by revealing the view of South Korea as a good country is an obstruction for Chinese consumers to boycott Korean products. Overall, the role of country-of-origin image has identical strength on discouraging consumers to boycott a specific foreign product as it has on encouraging consumers to purchase a foreign product with their favored country-of-origin. In addition, the positive country-of-origin image appears to significantly influence perceived product quality and this supports the previous research finding that signifies the importance of country-of-origin in product evaluation (Min Han, 1990).

The nationalism of an individual appears to be a predictor of willingness of boycotts. The more nationalistic a consumer is, the more willingness he is to boycott a foreign product. In other words, consumer’s nationalistic extent notably was significantly positively associated with their

willingness to boycott high/low involvement Korean product. However, nationalism was not a powerful predictor of perceived product quality toward a foreign product. This insignificant relationship between nationalism of Chinese consumer and perceived product quality of Korean cellphone directly supports that the contention that effect of nationalism on product evaluation is diminished for foreign products (Rawwas, Rajendran and Wuehrer, 1996). It may also imply that the objective quality may be an important driving power of consumer perception of quality (Mitra and Golder, 2006).

As for the role of perceived product quality in boycotts behavior, the results of this study signify that perceived quality toward Korean cellphone significantly affected consumer’s willingness to boycott Korean cellphones. In line with a relationship between country-of-origin image and boycott willingness, positive perception of Korean cellphone quality has a hindering effect on consumer’s willingness to participate in boycotts of Korean cellphones. This finding indicates that the

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previous research carried out by Asshidin, Abidin and Borhan (2016) found out an important factor in influencing consumer’s purchase intention is perceived quality and consumers primarily

prioritizes product quality on whichever products they encounter.

A comparison of consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement foreign product and a low involvement foreign product suggests that a high involvement product may trigger slightly higher willingness of participating in boycotts. But for a significance of difference in their overall

willingness of participating in boycotts, I do not find significant difference in boycotts willingness between low and high involvement product, which means product involvement level does not have a striking effect on boycotts intention towards different product though Traylor (1981) states that high involvement product and low involvement product usually lead to high and low considerations of consumers toward purchase behavior. This may be caused by irrational motives, unlike the rational consideration in normal purchase behavior, boycotts behavior is rather a way of motional expression (Hoffmann and Müller, 2009) and contains intensive emotionality (James, 2010). In psychological filed, the effects of emotion is often regarded as objectively irrational (Haselton and Ketelaar, 2006).

In response to the third research question, there are several points to be highlighted. Among all three motives, consumer’s perceived product quality towards Korean product stood out as the most striking factor on influencing consumer’s willingness to boycott a high involvement product, while the nationalism emerged as the relatively least impactful factor. When the boycott target is a nation, country-of-origin image impacts more profoundly in making consumers averse to boycott a high involvement foreign product compared to a low involvement foreign product. Dissimilarly,

nationalism has a stronger impact on consumer’s willingness to boycott a low involvement foreign product compared to a high involvement product. Notwithstanding this variance, it is important to note that this difference is negligible. Regardless, either toward a high involvement foreign product or a low involvement foreign product, nationalism sorely motivates consumer to participate in boycotts with the almost same extent regarding their willingness. The role of nationalism in boycotts behavior is, to a certain extent, consistent with what Druckman (1994) argued that

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38 6. Managerial implication

The essential nature of boycott behavior is a complicated theme in consumer behavior studies and it is highly contingent upon various situational factors. The previous researches mostly focused consumer-initiated boycotts in response to ethical or environmental issues. This study provides an additional insight in government-initiated boycotts behavior in China. Furthermore, the past researches have extensively examined the role of country-of-origin image and perceived product quality and product involvement in consumer purchase behavior. This study extends the these studies to the filed of boycotts behavior studies, and meanwhile the impact of nationalism is examined as well.

Doing business in China can be a challenge for foreign firms due to the complexities of institutional and political environments. From a perspective of foreign companies, it is crucial to better

understand the boycott behaviors of Chinese consumers so as to take proper countermeasures. The boycott model developed in this research provides several practical implications for business practitioners. First, although the government-initiated boycott is overwhelmingly destructive, the positive country-of-origin can beneficially hinder individuals from participating in boycotts. Thus, when foreign firms advertise their brands in China, they should also take country-of-origin image of their products into account. Foreign firms could spend some budgets on enhancing the country images in a number of ways. Specifically, marketers may attempt to promote specific positive associations from a country image, and bridge these attractive characteristics of a country with targeted market through a well integrated marketing mix. For instance, when foreign firms utilize social media to communicate with consumers, they may sometimes share the contents of appealing food, climate or tourism of their country-of-origin in order to proliferate the positive image

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partial supply of high involvement product from regions where people hold worse country-of-origin image to regions where inhabitants hold a comparatively better country-of-origin image. Second of all, foreign firms should be aware that nationalism does not have a profoundly distinct impact on Chinese consumer’s perception of foreign product quality. This is a good sign as foreign firms do not need worry that their product quality will be negatively perceived simply due to its foreign “identity” and nationalism of Chinese consumers. As the compelling evidence in this study shows that perceived product quality may somewhat prevent Chinese consumers from participating in boycotts, when encountering a boycott incident in China, foreign firm’s top public relation

executives shall smartly hint the quality cue of their products in response to public. As long as the perception of product quality is maintained positive, some consumers would be discouraged to participate in boycotts. Meanwhile, the firm’s strategic priority towards specific geographic regions should be reconsidered, during the course of boycott incidents, the regions where consumers have a good impression of product quality should be taken as priority, because these region’s consumers are less willing to actually boycott them.Thirdly, Chinese nationalism has controversially

complicated marketization and globalization process in China (Li, 2009). This study demonstrates that nationalism also catalyzed the boycotts behavior. In a boycott crisis caused by a political issue, if foreign firms rely much heavier on China market than their original country market, it is highly recommended that firms may be benefited by actively making some campaigns to express their warm support and love for China and Chinese people in order to form connections with Chinese consumers.

7. Limitation and future research

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and Babonea, 2011). Moreover, this research only present two products to test respondent’s willingness to boycott. It should be noticed the country-of-origin oriented boycotts behaviors involved substantially various product categories. Thus the findings might be unable to infer to other types of products. In addition, in fact there are various types of boycotts caused by particular issues, such as ethical and political issues (Chatzidakis and Lee, 2012).This study is of a specific boycott on a specific political issue and it was initiated by the Chinese government. Thus the results of this study may not be generalizable to other boycotts that is purely initiated by consumers in response to some inappropriate business practices. Besides, though all the participants are from difference regions, their nationality are all same. Some motivational factors, such as nationalism and country-of-origin image for their boycott behaviors may not have identical resonance for those who are from other nations with difference cultural background.

For future researches on consumer boycott behavior, there are several recommended directions should be addressed. First of all, the future study of boycott behavior in China should carry out a probability sampling method to reach out a larger population across China for the sake of the

generalization of whole population; Second of all, the relationship between the cultural distance and willingness to participate in boycotts could be an interesting research objective. Since lots of

participants in this research are from same province, the significant impact of cultural distance was not measured. It is hoped that if the future research managed to collect data from people from different part of China through the random sampling method, they should measure the distance between their hometown and boycott targeted country-of-origin and then examined the significance of cultural distance. Third of all, sometimes arisen political issue between two nations may

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41 8. Reference list

Albrecht, C., Campbell, C., Heinrich, D. and Lammel, M. (2013). Exploring why consumers engage in boycotts: toward a unified model. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(2), pp.180-189.

Asshidin, N., Abidin, N. and Borhan, H. (2016). Perceived Quality and Emotional Value that Influence Consumer's Purchase Intention towards American and Local Products. Procedia Economics and Finance, 35, pp.639-643.

Ai, J. (2006). Guanxi networks in China: Its importance and future trends. China &World Economy, 14(5), pp. 105-118.

Ahmed et al. (2004). Does country of origin matter for low-involvement products? International Marketing Review, 21(1), pp 102-120.

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood. Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Ahmed, Z., Johnson, J., Yang, X., Kheng Fatt, C., Sack Teng, H. and Chee Boon, L. (2004). Does country of origin matter for low-involvement products?. International Marketing Review, 21(1), pp.102-120.

Adorno, T. (1982). The Authoritarian personality. New York: Norton.

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), pp.179-211.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2011). Business research methods. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Braunsberger, K., & Buckler, B. (2011). What motivates consumers to participate in boycotts: Lessons from the ongoing Canadian seafood boycott. Journal of Business Research, 64(1), 96-102. Biernacki, P. and Waldorf, D. (1981). Snowball Sampling: Problems and Techniques of Chain Referral Sampling. Sociological Methods & Research, 10(2), pp.141-163.

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Chao, P. (1993). Partitioning Country of Origin Effects: Consumer Evaluations of a Hybrid Product. Journal of International Business Studies, 24(2), pp.291-306.

Cohen, J.B. (1983). Involvement and you: 1000 great ideas. Advances in Consumer Research, 10, 325-328

Cohen, J. (1988), Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.), New York: Academic Press.

Chavis, L. and Leslie, P. (2009). Consumer boycotts: The impact of the Iraq war on French wine sales in the U.S. Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 7(1), pp.37-67.

Chatzidakis, A. and Lee, M. (2012). Anti-Consumption as the Study of Reasons against. Journal of Macromarketing, 33(3), pp.190-203.

Cone Communications. (2015). 2015 Cone Communications/Ebiquity Global CSR Study. Available at: http://www.conecomm.com/2015-cone-communications-ebiquity-global-csr- study-pdf

[Accessed 15 Sep. 2017].

Castellan, C. (2010). Quantitative and Qualitative Research: A View for Clarity. International Journal of Education, 2(2). pp 1-14.

Dodds, W., Monroe, K. and Grewal, D. (1991). Effects of Price, Brand, and Store Information on Buyers' Product Evaluations. Journal of Marketing Research, 28(3), p.307.

Dekker, H., Malova, D. and Hoogendoorn, S. (2003). Nationalism and Its Explanations. Political Psychology, 24(2), pp.345-376.

Dent, C. (2010). China, Japan and regional leadership in East Asia. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, p.210.

Druckman (1994). Nationalism, Patriotism, and Group Loyalty: A Social Psychological Perspective. Mershon International Studies Review, 51(38), pp. 43-68.

Drake, M. (2012). Global supply chain management. New York: Business Expert Press.

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