Buyer animosity in business to business markets: Evidence from the French nuclear tests Ron Edwards a, ⁎ , Anne-Marie Gut b,1 , Felix Mavondo b,2 a Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, PO Box 527, Frankston, 3199, Australia b Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, PO Box 527, Frankston, 3199, Australia Received 17 January 2005; received in revised form 26 August 2005; accepted 2 December 2005 Available online 28 February 2006 Abstract Academic studies of buyer reaction to unpopular political events in the country of origin of products have focused on consumer markets. This paper aims to extend Klein, Ettenson and Morris' [Klein, J., Ettenson, R., & Morris, M. (1998). The animosity model of foreign product purchase: An empirical test in the People's Republic of China. Journal of Marketing, 62(1), 89–101] concept of consumer animosity to industrial markets by comparing industrial and consumer buyer reaction to the nuclear tests conducted by France in the Pacific in the mid-1990s. It investigates whether firms in the B2B sector were affected more than those in B2C markets, whether entry mode was significant, and examines the way in which firms in the two market sectors responded. The results show that buyer animosity was less pronounced in industrial than in consumer markets. They also show that entry mode can influence the experience of animosity. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Buyer animosity; Buyer behavior; Nuclear tests; B2B markets; Entry mode 1. Introduction In June 1995, France announced that it would conduct a series of nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. Governments, opposition parties, trade unions, industry and community groups in Australia and New Zealand condemned the French Government and warned that French interests in the region would be harmed. There were calls to boycott French products. Many French businesses complained they were suffering a loss of custom and disruptions in their relationships with employees, suppliers and customers. Even locally owned businesses with French associations, such as French restaurants, or those that had adopted a French ambience in their image, such as lingerie boutiques, complained that they were being unfairly held accountable for the French Government's policy. The academic literature dealing with how the market is likely to react to such situations has been enhanced recently by the work of Klein, Ettenson, and Morris (1998) who have developed the notion of ‘consumer animosity’, based initially on research into Chinese animosity towards Japanese products stemming from mistreatment during the Second World War. Following a review of media reports, Ettenson and Klein (1998) describe a similar response applying to French goods in Australia fol- lowing France's nuclear tests. The objective of the current study is to examine this response in some detail, especially whether industrial buyers responded in the same way as consumers and whether market entry mode influenced the intensity of response. Specifically, the study contributes to our understanding of buyer animosity by extending it to industrial buyers, identifying the influence of entry mode on how it is manifested, and how firms, faced with animosity, seek to minimize the damage. Further, this research contributes to the animosity literature by examining the issue from the perspective of companies rather than consumers. 2. Literature review 2.1. Buyer animosity in B2B and B2C markets Buyer animosity towards providers based on their country of origin is a notion that has been almost exclusively studied in Industrial Marketing Management 36 (2007) 483 – 492 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 399044367. E-mail addresses: Ron.Edwards@BusEco.monash.edu.au (R. Edwards), Felix.Mavondo@BusEco.monash.edu.au (F. Mavondo). 1 Tel.: +61 399044367. 2 Tel.: +61 399059249. 0019-8501/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.12.008