Consumer brand engagement on social media in the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of country-of-origin and consumer animosity
Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
ISSN: 2040-7122
Article publication date: 15 September 2021
Issue publication date: 24 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic unprecedentedly shocks the market. Little is known about the impact of COVID-19 on brand engagement across country-of-origin (COO) and country-of-market (COM). To address the gap, this study examines how the spread of the COVID-19 affects consumer brand engagement on social media for global brands through the mechanisms of the COO and consumer animosity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collect consumer engagement activity data from Facebook for eight global smartphone brands and match it with the COVID-19 statistics. Ordinary least square (OLS) models are used to estimate the impact on global brands brought by the spread of the COVID-19.
Findings
The results show that consumer brand engagement decreases for all brands in a COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the COM. Consumer brand engagement decreases for a brand across all COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the brand’s COO. If a brand’s COO is imputed for the pandemic, its consumer brand engagement will receive additional negative impacts across all COM.
Originality/value
This study enriches the COO literature by showing how the spread of a pandemic affects consumer brand engagement via COO and discovers the moderating role of consumer animosity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Pandemic Aftershock - The challenges of rapid technology adoption and social distancing for interactive marketing practice”, guest edited by Paul Baines, Mairead Brady and Shailendra Pratap Jain.
Citation
Wang, T., Limbu, Y.B. and Fang, X. (2022), "Consumer brand engagement on social media in the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of country-of-origin and consumer animosity", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 45-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-03-2021-0065
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited