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The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how corporate philanthropy (CP) can affect consumer perceptions of Japanese multinationals, for which there exists strong animosity in Asia, and how this animosity can be attenuated.

The study first examines Japanese firms in China (Study 1) and then Japanese, European and local firms in Korea (Study 2).

The results suggest that CP activities can have a positive effect on the consumer recognition of company localness and they can also attenuate company animosity for foreign multinationals. In addition, the findings suggest that Japanese multinationals can benefit greatly from CP activities in Asia than for domestic and other foreign firms.

The study found that consumers do not have ethnocentric attribution biases in evaluations of CP activities by foreign multinationals, as suggested by attribution theory (Hewstone, 1990; Nisbett, 1971).

There is limited evidence supporting the effects of CP activities by foreign multinationals from a country of origin for which there exists strong animosity.

This paper aims to examine the concept of “consumer animosity”, model its antecedents, and assess its influence on intention to purchase.

Survey questionnaires were distributed by a quasi‐random sample of school pupils across Taiwan to an adult member of their household, for completion and return. A return rate of 70 percent yielded 456 usable questionnaires, the data from which were analysed by the LISREL structural equation modelling software.

The results suggest that perceived personal economic hardship and the normative influence of members of a consumers' reference group have a positive impact on the phenomenon of consumer animosity, which in turn negatively affects the intentions of consumers in Taiwan to purchase products originating in mainland China and Japan. Contradicting previous studies, consumer animosity was found to be dependent on judgments of product quality.

The research model was built from data collected by non‐probability sampling in a single country. There was no evidence of sampling bias, but future studies would benefit from inclusion of more independent variables and a wider geographical scope.

The findings contain many practical lessons for planners of export marketing strategy.

Two existing theories of social behaviour are integrated with the concept of consumer animosity to explain consumption choices in an international context.

This study aims to examine animosity's role in determining consumers' product choices. Considerable research attention has been devoted to studying the relationship between animosity and consumers' willingness to buy foreign products. Few studies, however, have considered that individual consumers may harbor varying degrees of animosity toward different countries, thus, differentially affecting their willingness to buy products from these countries. The within‐subject comparison of the present study seeks to provide a clearer and cleaner approach to examining the impact of animosity on consumers' preferences for foreign products. Extending this line of inquiry, it also aims to explore the link between consumers' choice of products from high versus low animosity countries at different price levels.

Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of consumer animosity on product choice. Study 1 contains a survey study, and Study 2 is a full factorial conjoint analysis.

It is discovered that animosity plays a stronger role in determining consumers' willingness to buy foreign products from high‐level animosity countries than from low‐level animosity countries. Through conjoint analysis, the paper demonstrates that consumers are willing to make trade‐offs between price and animosity.

This study fills a void in the literature by exploring what role animosity plays in determining a consumer's choice of products, particularly when different degrees of animosity are held toward different countries. The within‐subject design of this research provides considerable insight on this front. In addition, this study represents an initial attempt to explore the dynamics between animosity and price via a conjoint analysis.

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate and ascertain the effects of integrative motivation on the willingness to participate in boycott activities.

This paper uses a mail survey to examine the relationships among six constructs in a boycotting issue context, in order to explore Chinese consumers' willingness to boycott against Japanese products or services with the fallout from a Japanese former PM's continuous visits to a controversial war shrine since 2001.

The findings suggest that there are significant and positive pairwise relationships between boycott participation and three factors (i.e. animosity, efficacy, and prior purchase). High animosity towards Japanese goods and the other two constructs, at the high end of the attitude spectrum, increase the level of willingness to engage in consumer boycott practices.

Consumer boycotts are a worldwide and historic phenomenon in modern society. As the number of protests grows and as local authorities recognize the economic and political impact of such activities, then multinational companies (MNCs) and host countries begin to see the historic and cultural perspective of these events in addition to the conventional consumer behaviour perspective. To enable boycotting to become less harmful, MNC management need to understand what makes local consumers so affronted. The results of the evaluation can potentially be generalized towards a strategic analysis of the boycott model in other hostile market situations.

The findings of this paper offer pivotal implications for decision makers and the management of those Western multinational enterprises who are concerned with increasing their share of the world's largest consumer market. In particular, Japanese MNCs need to pay much more attention to the oppressed and potentially explosive emotion of animosity as the legacy of past conflicts (i.e. war, economic, political, etc.) between Japan and China.

This study aims to investigate how the consumer values of individualism and collectivism (IC) affect consumer animosity toward foreign brands in emerging Asia.

Surveys were conducted with Korean consumers on their animosity toward Japanese brands.

The study found that the IC value can precede consumer animosity and also moderate the effects of consumer animosity on purchase intentions. When horizontal and vertical dimensions of IC were examined, collectivism and vertical individualism were found to have strong effects on consumer animosity. In addition, both horizontal and vertical individualism negatively moderated the consumer animosity effects.

The findings suggest that future consumers in Asia and perhaps other emerging countries as well may be less affected by consumer animosity in brand choice as they become more Westernized and individualistic.

This study may enhance the understanding on changing consumer animosity and behavior in emerging countries in general.

Consumer animosity is often used to explain consumers' boycott of products from a foreign country in a dispute. However, these studies are mainly cross‐sectional. The purpose of this paper is to investigate temporal changes in two distinct consumer‐animosity dimensions – i.e. historical and contemporary – and their influences on judgment of and willingness‐to‐buy foreign products.

Sampling came from a mall‐intercept survey in Japan during the height of a recent Japan‐China dispute (n=139), followed by a similar survey six months later (n=157). Identical questionnaires tapped Japanese consumers' historical animosity (HA), contemporary animosity (CA) and ethnocentrism dispositions, and judgment of and willingness to buy Chinese products. The data were fitted using structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that both CA and HA lowered willingness to buy Chinese products during, but not after, the dispute. CA was consistently stronger than HA in influencing willingness to buy. By contrast, product judgment did not influence willingness to buy during the dispute. That is, animosity dispositions overshadowed objective product evaluation during the dispute. After the dispute, only product judgment directly influenced willingness to buy, and HA indirectly influenced willingness to buy via product judgment. CA weakened after the dispute, but HA remained stable over time. Product judgment was lower during the dispute. Consumer ethnocentrism interacted only with CA during but not after the dispute.

International dispute heightens the salience of present‐day issues such as unemployment rather than of historical conflicts. Although product judgment was affected, the downside to foreign firms is temporary. Domestic firms can only take short‐term advantage, but long‐term edge remains improving product judgment.

Despite extensive research into the influence of consumer animosity on consumer behaviour, surprisingly little research has attempted to investigate the temporal characteristics of the consumer animosity, let alone investigate its distinct dimensions. In this study, the authors attempt to show that unless one considers the potential temporal changes to individual consumer‐animosity dimensions, sweeping conclusions from single‐shot studies may yield an incomplete picture and even misguide managerial initiatives.

Respondents from five Asian countries were surveyed in terms of their consumer ethnocentrism, animosity, and attribution towards the USA and Japan in the context of the Asian economic crisis. The results indicated that the more severely hit a country was, the more ethnocentric respondents were. In general, animosity towards the USA was higher than towards Japan with regard to the Asian crisis. Koreans held the greatest stable animosity towards the Japanese because of the atrocities experienced during the Second World War. Respondents attributed the blame of the Asian crisis more to themselves. They also felt that they and the Japanese could have controlled the turn of events during the crisis. Implications arising from the findings are discussed.

This paper aims to introduce the concept of admiration for members of other countries as an emotion related to people's perceptions of, and preference for, products that originate from the admired country. It also aims to examine the longitudinal effects of animosity.

Data were collected by asking members of an internet consumer panel in the USA to complete an online questionnaire. A total of 300 questionnaires were received and 20 were eliminated for extremeness. Panel members were aged 18 and above and the average age of the sample was 44; 60 percent of the participants are female.

The effects of animosity on the preference for foreign products attenuate over time. Admiration is positively related to a preference for a product from an admired country over a product from another country. Admiration was found to be positively related to Japanese product judgments.

The paper extends the work of Klein, and suggests that animosity can be displaced by a positive emotion, namely admiration. Managers therefore need to assess the emotions directed towards their countries to capitalize on such information when marketing their products.

This research seeks to extend the animosity model of foreign product purchase by examining the direct and moderating effects of cultural similarity in consumers' product judgment and willingness to buy foreign products.

Empirical data were collected from a sample (n=225) of Taiwanese consumers. The data analysis used bivariate correlations, repeated general linear modeling, and structural equation modeling.

Cultural similarity between consumers' home country (region) and a foreign product's country of origin has: a positive impact on consumers' product evaluation and willingness to buy foreign products; a weakening effect on the negative impact of war and economic animosity on willingness to buy foreign products; and a weakening effect on the negative impact of consumer ethnocentrism on their willingness to buy foreign products.

This study not only enriches the animosity model of foreign product purchase, but also offers additional insights for international market entry and international marketing strategies.

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.