Consumer affinity and an extended view of the spillover effects of attitudes toward a cross-border-acquisition event

This paper aims to investigate the structural impacts of consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CETs) and consumer affinity on attitudes toward a cross-border-acquisition (CBA) event and the spillover effects of attitudes toward a CBA event on post-CBA attitudes toward foreign brands in the industry where the CBA event occurs. Two studies were conducted to examine whether the relationships remain unchanged across different groups based on multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) for multiple groups measurement invariance and group comparison. The analyses extend the basic SEM framework to accommodate differing parameter values across different groups. The analysis results show that (1) CETs and consumer affinity impact attitudes toward the CBA event in opposite directions, and (2) attitudes toward the CBA event positively impact post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer’s corporate brand, the target brand, a competing brand from a different foreign country, and a competing brand from the acquirer’s home country. Theoretical and managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are also discussed.