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Consumer brand engagement on social media in the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of country-of-origin and consumer animosity

Tianfu Wang (Department of Marketing, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA)
Yam B. Limbu (Department of Marketing, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA)
Xing Fang (School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China)

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

ISSN: 2040-7122

Article publication date: 15 September 2021

Issue publication date: 24 February 2022

1451

Abstract

Purpose

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic unprecedentedly shocks the market. Little is known about the impact of COVID-19 on brand engagement across country-of-origin (COO) and country-of-market (COM). To address the gap, this study examines how the spread of the COVID-19 affects consumer brand engagement on social media for global brands through the mechanisms of the COO and consumer animosity.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collect consumer engagement activity data from Facebook for eight global smartphone brands and match it with the COVID-19 statistics. Ordinary least square (OLS) models are used to estimate the impact on global brands brought by the spread of the COVID-19.

Findings

The results show that consumer brand engagement decreases for all brands in a COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the COM. Consumer brand engagement decreases for a brand across all COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the brand’s COO. If a brand’s COO is imputed for the pandemic, its consumer brand engagement will receive additional negative impacts across all COM.

Originality/value

This study enriches the COO literature by showing how the spread of a pandemic affects consumer brand engagement via COO and discovers the moderating role of consumer animosity.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This paper forms part of a special section “Pandemic Aftershock - The challenges of rapid technology adoption and social distancing for interactive marketing practice”, guest edited by Paul Baines, Mairead Brady and Shailendra Pratap Jain.

Citation

Wang, T., Limbu, Y.B. and Fang, X. (2022), "Consumer brand engagement on social media in the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of country-of-origin and consumer animosity", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 45-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-03-2021-0065

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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