Towards a Fuller Understanding of Consumer Animosity and Purchase Involvement

Abstract

The effects of consumer involvement on product choice have been studied extensively. However, to the knowledge of the researcher of this work, no study has examined whether consumers become more involved with a product choice when it is associated with a country towards which they harbour feelings of animosity. Hence, this work examines whether feelings of animosity increase consumers' level of purchase involvement. This is a cross-cultural investigation conducted in the context of the Holocaust. 340 Israeli and British Jews took part in this experimental research. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine this relationship in a model adapted from Klein et al.(1998). A positive and statistically significant relationship was observed between consumer animosity and purchase involvement. This work suggests that subcultural differences are possible moderators of consumer animosity. Thus, marketing practitioners should segment markets by looking into subcultural differences among consumers in their target market.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester