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Consumer affinity may be a key factor in overcoming ethnocentric barriers and promoting a favourable attitude towards specific foreign countries and their products. However, progress in knowledge of this concept in international marketing literature has suffered from a lack of integration and analysis. The purpose of this study was to shed new light on the concept of consumer affinity based on a comprehensive systematic review of the literature, provide a critical analysis of previous research in terms of conceptual, methodological and substantive issues and problems and offer avenues for future research.

This structured systematic review of consumer affinity included articles published in international peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2021, examining key conceptual, operational and substantive aspects.

This systematic review of articles on consumer affinity published over the past 14 years revealed that this line of research is a growing vibrant domain in the context of international marketing. It also showed that current knowledge of consumer affinity is characterized by theoretical inconsistencies, contradictory empirical results and scant international marketing research in the affinity domain.

This article provides an overview of the extant literature on consumer affinity and yields a consolidated image of its current status, as well as a research agenda that raises new questions for the academic community.

Extant research shows that consumers regularly misclassify country-of-origin (COO) associated with brands. The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in behavioral intentions (i.e. purchase intentions for self and others and brand judgments) when consumers are made aware that they have misclassified the COO and then are informed of the brand’s correct origin. Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, the authors also explore the moderating roles of consumer affinity, animosity, and product knowledge.

Two experiments test the direct and moderating effects of COO misclassification awareness on behavioral intentions.

The findings show detrimental effects of misclassification on behavioral intentions when consumers have high affinity with misclassified COO. Moreover, the experiments demonstrate a significantly greater decrease in behavioral intentions among experts than novices in the low-affinity condition and the reverse effect in the high-affinity condition.

The negative effects of COO misclassification on consumer behavioral intentions highlight the need for managers to proactively avoid misclassification. The findings should also aid managers in developing responsive marketing campaigns that consider consumer affinity, animosity, and level of product knowledge.

This research is the first to compare consumer behavioral responses before and after COO misclassification awareness. The study demonstrates that cognitive dissonance underpins the process of misclassification. It also contributes to COO literature by examining the interaction of consumer affinity and animosity with product knowledge and their influence on consumer behavior in the case of COO misclassification.

This study aims to clarify the relationship between two plausible conflicting attitudes in cross-cultural context-consumer affinity and consumer ethnocentrism (CET) and to explore their interactive effect on product trust and willingness-to-buy.

A total of 392 usable responses were obtained. Previously validated scales of consumer affinity, CET, product trust and willingness-to-buy were used and showed good reliability. Hierarchical multiple regression and the bootstrapping method were conducted to test the hypotheses.

This study revealed that consumer affinity is positively associated with product trust, which in turn promotes consumers’ intention to buy products from the affinity country; CET moderates the relationship between consumer affinity and product trust; and CET also moderates the mediating effect of product trust on the relationship between consumer affinity and willingness-to-buy.

First, this study helps to explain how consumer affinity boosts willingness-to-buy, and it reveals the type of consumers whose product trust is most notably influenced by their level of ethnocentrism. Second, this study examines the moderating effects of CET on the relationship between consumer affinity and product trust, which can help to identify the situations in which consumer affinity influences product trust most strongly. Third, this study examined the interactive effect of consumer affinity and CET on product trust and its subsequent effect on willingness-to-buy. The findings help to explain the CET’s critical role in the effect of consumer affinity by relating it to the literature of product trust and willingness-to-buy.

Given the crucial role that consumer affinity plays in improving consumers’ trust in and buying intention for a country’s products, governments, multinational enterprises and international marketers should strategically construct, maintain and magnify a positive national image to the world. This study’s results also clarify that consumer affinity does not conflict with CET; not only can they coexist but also they are positively related. The crucial implication is that CET is not always a barrier to purchasing foreign products.

Although research interest in consumer attitudinal conflict issues is increasing, the real relationship and interactive effects of plausible conflicting attitudes between consumer affinity and CET remain to be understood. This study bridges a gap between CET and willingness-to-buy by considering the boundary conditions of consumer attitudes toward a specific country (inherent in consumer affinity). Furthermore, this study is, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the first to link consumer affinity with willingness-to-buy through the mediating effect of product trust. These findings are helpful for understanding how consumer affinity positively effects willingness-to-buy.

This study aims to investigate how the social identity theory and emotional attachment theory influence the willingness of consumers to buy foreign cosmetic products. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism, foreign product judgment and willingness to buy foreign products. Furthermore, the interaction effect of consumer affinity and patriotism are tested in the model.

An online survey of 208 millennial Muslim women consumers was used to collect the data. The structural equation modeling test was used to assess the six hypotheses. Moreover, the two-step estimation approach was used to test the interaction moderation of consumer affinity and patriotism.

The results indicate that consumer ethnocentrism has a positive and significant relationship with foreign product judgment. Foreign product judgment was also found to have a positive and significant relationship with willingness to buy. In addition, this study concludes that affinity was found to moderate the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and foreign product judgment and strengthen the positive and significant effect of foreign product judgment on the willingness to buy. Finally, patriotism did not moderate the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and foreign product judgment. However, patriotism moderated the relationship between foreign product judgment and willingness to buy.

This study only focused on one category (i.e. low involvement product), and the authors recommend future studies to examine a high involvement product. Other individual orientation constructs, such as xenocentrism, need to be examined in future studies. Moreover, only intentional measures were investigated. Thus, further research could correlate intentional measures with product ownership. Finally, future research could examine how consumers behave differently across nations. Thus, the present model would require cross-cultural research.

Marketers focusing on global branding and international marketing can benefit from the findings of this paper by understanding the antecedents of consumers’ willingness to buy in the foreign cosmetic products setting. Additionally, foreign cosmetic marketers could focus on consumer affinity to strengthen the communication with and arouse the affinity of Muslim millennials women consumers in Indonesia. Finally, marketers can incorporate messages and signals of patriotism in their marketing communications to increase Muslim millennial women consumers’ love and pride.

The growing obsession with beauty among women has led to the immense growth of the cosmetics industry. This phenomenon has spawned an abundance of cosmetic products on the market. The advancement of information technology has further increased competition for cosmetic products as more products can be quickly brought to market. Muslim millennials consumers must be aware and careful about raw materials, impacts on long-term health, impacts on the national economy, environmental impacts and halal certification when using various kinds of cosmetics.

This study contributes to the literature on international marketing research by incorporating the interactive effect of consumer affinity and patriotism in the acceptance of foreign cosmetic products.

While globalization has made it easier to consume foreign products, consumption decisions are rarely straightforward. Both love and hate relationships between consumers and countries exist and can even coexist. This paper aims to gain a better understanding of how positive/negative and general/specific consumer attitudes impact foreign product judgment and ownership. An integrative model explores the predictive power of affinity, animosity, cosmopolitanism and ethnocentrism simultaneously. Specifically, the authors investigate a paradoxical “tug of war” which takes place inside consumer minds – the coexistence of affinity and animosity toward the same country.

Using a quantitative approach, the authors analyze data from 202 consumers and test it in intra-national and international contexts.

The results demonstrate the importance of an integrative model that takes into account opposing impacts on consumer behavior. Additionally, the data reveal that affinity and animosity are not bi-polar endpoints on a continuum. Finally, affinity outweighs animosity with respect to impacting product judgment and ownership.

The study was conducted in Israel. Hence, replications in other multi-cultural countries are needed.

Marketers can use a segmentation matrix to target audiences based on the existing “attitudinal mix” in their focal markets. Marketers can use the affinity drivers identified here to overcome animosity.

The “tug of war” model advances the animosity model, as it implies that to use attitudinal data theoretically and practically, there is a need to account for a full spectrum of general and country-specific attitudes. Affinity was tested for the first time within national borders.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of country affinity, ethnocentrism and product quality judgment on self-brand connection regarding both domestic and foreign brands.

The study involved an online experiment and was conducted using online questionnaires. Sampling was done among undergraduate students of a Southwestern university in the US. The data was analyzed using SEM with PLS.

The results showed, for foreign brands, consumer self-brand connection increased through the effect of country affinity and product quality judgment. For domestic brands, self-brand connection was influenced by ethnocentrism (and not country affinity or product quality judgment).

This study only focused on one industry (i.e. Television industry), and the authors recommend future studies examine a broader range of industries. Moreover, other country related constructs such as national identity need to be examined in future studies.

Marketers focusing on global branding and international marketing can benefit from the findings of this paper by understanding the routes through which consumers build self-brand connections in foreign vs domestic settings. Additionally, marketers can, more effectively, invest their resources by focusing on the factors that can be influential (i.e. ethnocentrism for domestic brands vs country affinity and product judgment for foreign brands).

This study examines the effect of country affinity, ethnocentrism and product quality judgment for consumers' domestic country as well as a foreign country. Moreover, this study contributes toward the global branding literature by incorporating self-brand connection as a behavioral outcome.

The purposes of this study were to explore the moderating effect of consumer affinity on brand personality and consumers' intention to stay in a hotel, as well as on self-congruity and consumers' intention to stay in a hotel.

This study collected data from 386 inbound tourists to Taiwan. Hierarchical regression analysis was applied to analyze the data.

The results showed that brand personality, self-congruity and consumer affinity have significant positive effects on consumers' intention to stay in a hotel, respectively. Moreover, consumer affinity has significant moderating effect on brand personality and intention to stay in a hotel, as well as on self-congruity and intention to stay in a hotel.

Consumer affinity is a construct that identifies national attributes, and it strengthens the relationships between brand personality or self-congruity and consumers' intention to stay in a hotel from the level of country-specific affect. The results of this study can provide hotel marketers with reference for marketing management.

Although past studies have examined the relationship between consumer affinity and purchase intention or behavior, the effect of consumer affinity construct on hotel consumers' intention to stay remains sparse in the hotel context. This study confirmed that consumer affinity has significant moderating effect on brand personality and intention to stay in a hotel, as well as on self-congruity and intention to stay in a hotel.

Cause‐related and affinity marketing are based on the assumption that linking a commercial organisation's product with a non‐profit organisation enhances the product's appeal and provides differentiation from rival offers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of this premise.

In‐depth qualitative research was conducted to explore the construction of consumer value in affinity credit cards, followed by large‐scale quantitative research to assess the prevalence of the perceptions and behaviour patterns identified.

Linked products offer a range of individual and group benefits, both functional and symbolic. However, the value placed on these benefit categories varied according to the type of affinity group.

Whilst encompassing a wide range of affinity categories, all of the affinity credit cards were issued by one financial services organisation. Variation is therefore possible between the benefits offered by other financial services organisations operating affinity schemes.

The findings demonstrate the need to identify the value perceived by different groups of consumers of affinity products and to tailor affinity products to the type of affinity organisation with which they are linked.

A key strength is the research's access to card holders from a wide spectrum of affinity categories. This has proved elusive in prior research. The paper challenges the assumption that linking a product to a non‐profit organisation enhances its appeal and provides a basis for differentiation. The efficacy of this premise depends on the type of cause or affinity group, with the value placed on benefit categories varying accordingly.

This paper aims to ascertain Indian consumers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions; an affinity for stipulated causes and perceived fit between cause and industry in the current mandatory CSR era in India.

Primary data was collected through an online survey from 1,251 consumers via quota sampling and snowballing, across 36 Indian cities.

The findings indicate no skepticism, positive CSR support and company evaluation. Indian consumers have the greatest affinity for environmental protection. Segments of socially, environmentally and culturally conscious consumers were found. Under quasi-experimental conditions of CSR fit and cause-affinity, positive purchase intention is exhibited across fast-moving-consumer-goods sectors; in which case CSR perceptions cease to have a significant impact on purchase intention.

This result contributes to understanding Indian consumers’ perspective in the mandatory CSR era and adds to the literature on strategic CSR and communication by segmenting consumers by cause affinity.

CSR practitioners could align with consumer-relevant causes that fit with their company’s core business, as controllable initiatives, instead of depending on positive, but less controllable, CSR perceptions of consumers. Implications of the findings on CSR policymaking by the government are also discussed.

The mandatory CSR law has been viewed as a burden by corporate India. This research implies that it may be possible to look at it as an opportunity for strategic CSR, to create a win-win situation for both business and society.

One of the first studies on cause-affinity and CSR fit among Indian consumers using the government stipulated list of causes.

This study aims to explore how two affective factors (i.e. brand attachment and consumer affinity) influence host country consumers' responses to an international brand alliance (IBA).

A two (brand attachment: high vs low) × two (consumer affinity: high vs low) factorial experiment was conducted with 336 US university students. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the conceptual model.

(1) Pre-attachment to the host brand and consumer affinity for the country-of-origin (COO) of the foreign partner brand positively influence attitudes toward the IBA. (2) Attitudes toward the IBA positively influence post-attachment to the host brand, intention to buy the IBA product and willingness to recommend the IBA product. (3) Pre-attachment to the host brand positively influences post-attachment to the host brand.

This study extends the literature on factors influencing attitudes toward IBAs by finding the significant influences of pre-attachment to the host brand and consumer affinity for the COO of the foreign partner brand on host country consumers' responses to IBAs.