Research on the relationship of the weaker enterprises post-merger brand strategy and consumers’ purchase intention

PurposeNowadays, many weak brands have acquired strong international brands to accelerate their internationalization. However, “the weakers acquire the strongers” model of M&A leads to many consumers’ loss. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between the brand strategy after the M&A, brand authenticity and consumer purchase intention through two experiments.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on an extensive literature review, the authors identify four hypotheses. Hypotheses were tested on data collected across 190 Chinese consumers.FindingsThe results show that the decline of consumer purchase intention was mainly caused by the falling consumer assesses on brand authenticity; the different post-merger brand strategies have significant difference on brand authenticity and consumer purchase intention, and self-brand connection played a moderate role between brand authenticity and consumer purchase intention.Originality/valueThe research reveals the reasons for consumer loss after mergers and acquisitions and provides empirical insights into how post-merger brand strategies can be manifested to convey brand authenticity as well as to build consumers’ purchase intention. In addition, the findings confirm the role of self-brand connection.