Journal of Global Marketing, 27:74–84, 2014 Copyright c  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0891-1762 print / 1528-6975 online DOI: 10.1080/08911762.2013.852647 Modeling the Effects of an International Crisis on Brand Equity Amro A. Maher ABSTRACT. This research provides an analysis of the impact of an international crisis on brand equity. More specifically, the author tests a comprehensive model that examines the joint impact of animosity as well as the social pressure to avoid brands that originate from a controversial country. He explores the impact of what came to be known as the Mohammed controversy, which involved the Danish press publishing a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed on a Danish brand. Data were collected using a survey from 307 consumers in Kuwait. The findings show that animosity is not related to overall brand equity but is related to brand quality; moreover, subjective norms are negatively associated with overall brand equity. These results highlight the importance of subjective norms in influencing overall brand equity in times of international crises between nations. KEYWORDS. Animosity, brand equity, social pressure, boycott, country of origin INTRODUCTION The globalization of world business has led to the emergence of products with various ori- gins that are difficult to identify. For example, a product might be designed in the United States, its components produced in China, and its fi- nal assembly back in the United States. Despite this confusion and variety regarding the origin of products, consumers constantly assign prod- ucts to a specific country of origin. Regardless of whether these assignments are correct, con- sumers actively seek to avoid products from spe- cific countries due to controversies on the politi- cal stage. For example, consumers in the Middle East avoided Danish products as a result of an offensive cartoon published in the Danish press (Maamoun & Aggarwal, 2008), and consumers in Australia avoided French products as a result Amro A. Maher is an assistant professor of marketing at Qatar University in Dohra, Qatar. Address correspondence to Amro A. Maher, Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, P. O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. E-mail:amaher@qu.edu.qa of French nuclear testing in the Pacific (Ettenson & Klein, 2005). These events also have negative repercussions for brands that originate from a country that is subject to controversy. For exam- ple, the Arab boycott of Danish products cost Arla, a Danish dairy company, anywhere from 40 million to 50 million British pounds (BBC News, 2006). The impact of controversial events on con- sumer behavior has typically been examined within the animosity literature in marketing. An- imosity is defined as “the remnants of antipathy related to previous or ongoing military, political, or economic events” (Klein, Ettenson, & Mor- ris, 1998). The literature supports the idea that animosity is associated with consumers’ aver- sion to products that originate from a country that is a target of animosity (Ettenson & Klein, 2005; Klein et al., 1998; Nes et al., 2011). Recent 74 Downloaded by [University of Qatar] at 17:03 15 July 2014