Research On The Brand Globalization Frame Alignment Strategies From The Perspective Of Social Movement Theory:Componets And Mechanism

Globalization is a main stream of the development of the world economy.Brand communication strategy is an important way to broaden market shares for enterprises.Enterprises from emerging countries have done lots of efforts to enhance their competitive advantages in the global market.However,restricted by the "liability of foreignness" and negative stereotypes,enterprises,especially those from emerging countries face suspicions and obstacles in the process of globalization.What are the effective communication strategies for becoming an accepted brand in a crowded competitive foreign market?Research on social movements(Snow and Benford,1988)might be helpful to conceptualize the ways industries and firms compete for legitimacy and resonance through frame alignment strategies.What brand frame alignment strategies are present in host countries during the brand globalization process?How do consumers receive and use these frames?Do consumers actually enhance the evaluation towards foreign brands because of the brand frame alignment strategies?Based on the social movement theory,this thesis conducts a content analysis,an in-depth interview and three experiments,and finds out that:brand frame alignment strategies are composed of amplification strategy,extention strategy and bridging strategy;the effects of brand frame alignment strategies are mediated by the consumers' frame resonance,which leads to enhanced brand evaluations;and country typicality and consumer identity have impacts on brand frame alignment strategies effectiveness.This thesis is comprised of five parts,which are the introduction,literature review,qualitative studies,quantitative studies and conclusion.The introduction part clarifies the background and significance of this research as well as the research purpose.The literature review is the second chapter,in which we review and analyze the extant literature such as brand internalization theories,theory of liability of foreignness,stereotype theory and social movement theory.The third chapter and fourth chapter are the qualitative studies.The fifth chapter,the sixth chapter and the seventh chapter are the quantitative studies.The eighth chapter is the conclusion and discussion.Summary of each chapter is as follow:Chapter one points out the practical background and theoretical significance of the research,as well as clarifying the research topics and methods in the study.Chapter two reviews the important literature related to the research topics such as brand internalization theories,theory of liability of foreignness,stereotype theory and social movement theory.Chapter three is composed of five case analyses.The case analyses show that the brand frame alignment strategies have three types,which are amplification strategy,extension strategy and bridging strategy.Chapter four is an in-depth interview.It shows that the brand frame resonance have three dimensions which are credibility,consistency,and commensurability.Chapter five is a quantitative study.The result shows that brand frame alignment strategies can enhance the consumers' brand evaluations,and the effects of brand frame alignment strategies are mediated by the consumers' frame resonance.Chapter six tests the moderator of country typicality through experiments.Chapter seven tests the moderator of consumer identity through experiment.Chapter eight is about the theoretical and practical contribution of the thesis,and also discusses the study limitation and future research directions.