The Effects of International Brand-Partnership Integration on Customer Recall and Evaluation: Conceptualization and Experimental Evidence

It is widely accepted to believe that international brand partnerships enable firms to penetrate their target markets and to expand their current markets by enlarging the potential size. Nonetheless, it is not necessarily the case that these brand partnerships positively influence consumer behavior. Although academics and practitioners have paid attention to international brand partnerships, prior research does not satisfactorily address the outcomes of these partnerships in the view of consumer behavior. Therefore, it is important to examine whether customers’ recall and evaluation of the foreign brand vary with the types of international brand-partnerships. Building on the categorization theory and attribution theory, the current research aims to identify the effects of international brand-partnership integration on the outcomes of the foreign brand. The present research hypothesizes that the level of customers’ recall and evaluation of the foreign brand would vary according to the level of international brand-partnership integration. Both issues were addressed through two experimental studies. Some evidence was found to support the hypotheses. This manuscript offers important implications for theory and practice and concludes with the limitations of the current research and the directions for future research.