Understanding Consumer Perceptions of Brand Globalness and Localness: The Roles of Self-Regulatory Focus

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how self-regulatory focus influences the relationship between consumer perception of a brand nature and purchase intentions. This study uses perceived brand globalness (PBG) and perceived brand localness (PBL) to measure consumer perceptions of brand natures and examines the moderating effects of promotion-oriented vs. prevention- oriented regulatory focus on consumers’ intent to purchase global or local brands. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study conducted an online survey with Chinese consumers and data were collected using social media applications. To analyze the data, PROCESS modeling in SPSS 23.0. was hired in this study. Findings – The findings show that there is a significant moderating effect of promotion-focused self-regulation on the relationship between PBL and purchase intention. On the other hand, consumers with prevention-focused self-regulation show stronger purchase intention toward brands perceived as global (PBG). This study adds further evidence for the effectiveness of PBL and PBG by demonstrating their role among consumers with different self-regulatory focuses. Research Implications – The study contributes to the body of literature on PBG/PBL by examining the associations between self-regulatory focus and consumer purchase intentions. Furthermore, the findings may help brands to make more appropriate positioning decisions depending on the assessment of target consumers' self-regulatory focus. Thus, the findings of this study provide international brand managers with meaningful implications in developing marketing strategies.