The Influence of Cross-Border Brand Alliance on Attitude of Consumers: A Conceptual and Structural Model Perspective

Due to fierce competition in the global market, enterprises create new products under international brand alliances to enhance competitive advantages of their original domestic brands and trigger cross-border cooperative mechanism. Many studies have focused on the antecedents of brand alliance evaluations. Simonin and Ruth [1] proposed conceptual and structural model (CSM) with country of origin fit (COO) added to examine the cross-border brand alliance as they affect consumers´ brand attitudes. However, in-depth exploration of whether the different research results are caused by different angles and experimental designs in adopting the CSM is still worth performing. This research therefore intends to empirically clarify the impact of cross-border brand alliance on consumers´ brand attitudes towards smartphones and their operating systems based on CSM. Based on the data collected from 100 questionnaire respondents, a series of analyses for reliability, validity, and a multiple regression was conducted. All hypotheses, except for two in the model for this study, were sustained. This research contributes to empirical validation of the full CSM for international brand alliance, thereby help enterprises, adopt appropriate brand strategies and achieve real benefits of international brand alliance.