| President Xi Jinping clearly stated at the 2nd World Internet Conference that China is hoped to promote the growth of the world economy by developing cross-border ecommerce.The Chinese government has put forward the "Go globally" strategy in the thirteenth “Five-Year Plan” and the "Made in China 2025" plan to cultivate new advantages in the foreign economy with technology,standards,brand,quality and service as the core,and encourage all kinds of enterprises to go global at a faster pace.Branding is the core competitiveness of cross-border e-commerce development in the future.With the extension of the supply chain,product quality improvement and differentiation have been obvious,and intellectual property rights have been improved.The improvement of cross-border e-commerce brand reputation will increase the unit price of goods and consumer loyalty,and then improve the profitability and international competitiveness of cross-border e-commerce companies.In the process of economic globalization,as an open,free,inclusive,and universal trading platform,cross-border e-commerce closely connects enterprises and consumers around the world.On one hand,a large number of foreign brands are flooding into China,forming a new consumer-brand relationship which is different from the traditional domestic brands,and also bringing new challenges to domestic enterprises;On the other hand,the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has provided new opportunities for domestic brands to "go globally",the industry chain can be shortened by using the cross-border e-commerce model,Chinese products and brands information can be directly transmitted to consumers overseas,and thereby creating the international popularity for Chinese brands,building Chinese brands image,and improving China's status and role in the value chain globally.Beginning in 2017,the State Council set May 10 th as the "Chinese Brand Day" every year,reflecting that China has further emphasized the importance of brand building in the important period of economic transformation and upgrading,the role of brand leadership has been promoted to a national strategic height.In the cross-border e-commerce environment,the quality of UGC,that is,the quality of any form of text,pictures,audio,and video published by consumers on the Internet,has an important impact on the branding of products and services.Customers use cross-border e-commerce platforms to form product and service perception evaluations based on purchase experience and satisfaction.The quality of the generated content can promote or block the brand engagement of consumers or potential consumers,thus forming or weakening brand attachment,and affecting brand value and competitiveness of goods and services.The research idea of this article: firstly,the establishment path of the outcome variable-brand attachment is considered in the research process.Brand attachment is the highest level in the relationship between consumers and brands,it is discussed based on the emotional relationship between consumers and brands,fully considering the bottom-up establishment path of brand attachment,that is,the impact of UGC on it.Furthermore,this article considers the indirect path of the formation of brand attachment-brand engagement,which refers to the internal influence mechanism of the interaction between customers and brands on the formation of brand attachment.Secondly,the direct path of brand attachment is considered,and the indirect formation mechanism of brand integration is considered under the influence of the information quality and the interaction quality of UGC.Finally,considering the role of the independent self-construal in adjusting the relationship of UGC information quality and embodied cognition,as well as the relationship of UGC interaction quality and social presence.Therefore,in this research,the path and mechanism of establishing brand attachment between overseas brands of cross-border e-commerce platforms and domestic consumers are considered based on consumer orientation.Specifically,this paper systematically analyzes the impact of UGC quality on brand attachment from eight chapters of five parts.Part One: Theoretical basis.It mainly includes Chapter 1 introduction and Chapter 2 literature review.The introduction mainly introduces the research background,research problems,research significance,research content and methods,and research framework of this article.Chapter 2 includes the literature review of several concepts and relationships of cross-border e-commerce development,UGC quality,brand attachment,brand engagement,etc.,to pave the way for building a theoretical model.Firstly,it reviews the development of cross-border e-commerce and the quality of UGC.Secondly,the relationship between brand attachment and user-generated content is reviewed.Thirdly,it summarizes the brand engagement in e-commerce platforms.Finally,according to the research design,the connotation and dimension division of related variables are critically reviewed,which provides theoretical support for the theoretical hypothesis and empirical evidence in the following chapters.This paper summarizes the characteristics and shortcomings of the existing researches and concludes the necessity and feasibility of explaining the influence of cross-border e-commerce platform UGC quality on brand attachment from the perspective of customers.There are three main deficiencies in existing researches.First of all,regarding the establishment of brand attachment,existing researches mainly focus on the impact of marketing strategies on the establishment and maintenance from the perspective of the enterprise,lacking the bottom-up establishment of brand attachment from the perspective of customers.In addition,the research on the establishment mechanism of brand attachment is mainly from the perspective of the establishment of brand attachment between Chinese consumers and domestic brands in the traditional shopping environment.In the absence of a digital environment,the establishment of brand attachment between transnational consumers and overseas brands.Therefore,the establishment of brand attachment relationship between domestic consumers and overseas brands in the cross-border ecommerce environment is required to be explored.Secondly,the overall number of UGC quality studies on brand attachment is limited,which requires more evidence and perspective to explain the relationship between them.Furthermore,existing related researches only focus on the causal relationship between UGC quality and brand attachment,and rarely explored the internal mechanism and path established between them.The establishment of emotional relationship is a complicated process,so it is necessary to discuss the internal relationship in order to reveal the establishment of brand attachment activity trajectory.Thirdly,in existing researches which study the process of UGC quality affects consumer cognition,emotion and behaviour ignore the role of condition.This article considers the impact of UGC quality on brand engagement under different self-construal conditions.Part Two: Development status and opportunities and challenges.Including Chapter 3,China's cross-border e-commerce development status and brand internationalization status.This part introduces the development status of cross-border e-commerce in China and brand internationalization,and the opportunities and challenges of cross-border ecommerce export to brand internationalization.Part Three: Research hypothesis and research design.It includes the theoretical basis and assumptions of Chapter 4;the empirical research design of Chapter 5,which is also the core chapter of this article.Based on the research purpose of this article,the sample part mainly introduces the design of the questionnaire,the preliminary survey,the selection of the sample,and the data collection process.It should be noted that the theoretical model constructed in this study is an intermediary model,and to avoid endogenous problems,the data in this study were collected in two time periods,and the time difference between the two before and after the collection was six months.Among them,the independent variable and the intermediate variable use the data of June 2019,because the role of the independent variable has a time lag,so the dependent variable uses the data of December 2019.The measurement section mainly introduces the measurement methods of the variables involved in the quantitative analysis of this study.This study uses Cronbach reliability to test the internal consistency of variables.Part Four: Empirical research results and discussion,including Chapter 6 empirical research results and Chapter 7 empirical research results discussion,which are also the core chapters of this article.The results of the empirical research validate the hypotheses proposed in this study through a three-part quantitative analysis.Among them,the first part mainly adopts stepwise regression method to hypothesis 1a,hypothesis 1b;hypothesis 2a,hypothesis 2b;hypothesis 3;hypothesis 4a,hypothesis 4b.The results show that these 7 hypotheses are verified.That is,the quality of user-generated content information has a positive effect on brand engagement,the quality of user-generated content interaction has a positive effect on brand engagement;the quality of user-generated content information has a positive effect on brand emotional attachment,and the quality of user-generated content interaction Positive impact on brand emotional attachment;brand engagement has a positive impact on brand attachment;brand engagement plays an intermediary role in the quality of user-generated content information and brand attachment relationships;brand engagement plays a role in the quality of user-generated content interactions and brand attachment relationships Intermediate role.The second part mainly tests hypotheses 5 to 9 using stepwise regression,and the results show that four of them are supported.That is,the quality of user-generated content information has a positive effect on embodied cognition;embodied cognition has a positive effect on consumer integration;embodied cognition plays an intermediary role in the quality of user-generated content information and brand engagement;Independent selfconstruction negatively regulates the effect of the quality of user-generated content information on embodied cognition;the quality of user-generated content information indirectly affects brand engagement through the cognition of intermediary effects.In the first stage,it is negatively regulated by independent self-construction(The intermediary model adjusted in the first stage),and the test results show that this hypothesis is not supported.That is,the quality of user-generated content information indirectly affects brand engagement through the cognition of intermediation.In the first stage,it is not negatively regulated by independent self-construction.The third part mainly uses the hierarchical regression test to test hypotheses 10 to 14 and the results show that all five hypotheses are supported.That is,the quality of user-generated content interaction has a positive effect on social presence;social presence has a positive effect on brand engagement;social presence plays an intermediary role in usergenerated content interaction quality and brand engagement;independence and selfconstruction Negatively regulate the effect of user-generated content interaction quality on social presence;the quality of user-generated content interaction indirectly affects brand engagement through social presence,and the mediating effect is negatively regulated by independent self-construction in the first stage(regulated in the first stage)Mediation model).The test results show that this hypothesis is supported.Secondly,in order to prove the stability of the research conclusions,the three empirical studies have performed a robustness test.By changing the test method and selecting Process for testing,the results of the robustness test show that the test results of all hypotheses are consistent with the results of the previous hypothesis test section.The research conclusions of this paper are supported.Therefore,the results of this study are reliable and non-random.The discussion of empirical research results combined with the existing empirical research,further discusses the empirical results obtained in Chapter 6,in order to further illustrate the reliability of the conclusions of this paper.Part Five: Conclusion.Including the conclusion of Chapter 8.This chapter mainly explains the research conclusions,research innovations,management implications,limitations and prospects of this article.The innovation of this article: firstly,it makes up for the lack of mechanisms in the existing research on brand attachment construction,and enriches the bottom-up path of multinational consumer brand attachment on cross-border e-commerce platforms.The existing research on the establishment of brand attachment in the digital world mainly considers the impact of marketing strategies on its establishment and maintenance from the perspective of the enterprise,and lacks a discussion of the "bottom-up" brand attachment establishment mechanism from the perspective of customers.This article is based on the cross-border e-commerce platform consumer's emotional relationship with the brand,that is,the impact of user-generated content quality on brand attachment,and explores its path and internal mechanism.Brand attachment is the most advanced relationship among consumer-brand relationships.As of now,there are fewer studies on the impact of user-generated content quality on brand attachment.This requires more perspectives and evidence to explain the relationship between the two;further The existing related research focuses more on the causal relationship between the quality of user-generated content and brand attachment,and less on the internal mechanism established between them.The establishment of emotional relationships is a complex process,so it is necessary to explore its internal relationships to better reveal the trajectories of brand attachment.Secondly,it enriches the existing research on the formation mechanism of crossborder e-commerce platform brand integration.This article explores the mediating variable of brand attachment formation-brand integration,which refers to the internal influence mechanism of the experience and interaction between customers and brands on the formation of brand attachment relationships.In exploring this intermediary variable,we mainly consider the antecedent and formation mechanism of the variable,and consider the direct impact of the quality of user-generated content information and customer-generated content interaction quality on brand integration.Furthermore,the indirect influence mechanism of two paths of customer virtual experience(embodied cognitive perspective)and virtual interaction(social presence perspective)on brand integration is considered.The higher the quality of the content,the higher the level of consumer awareness and emotions about the brand during the interaction with the brand.Empirical evidence proves that consumers are affected by the quality of user-generated content information and the quality of user-generated content interactions,the degree of positive emotions towards the brand in the process of interacting with the brand,and the energy and time invested in the process of consumer-brand interaction.On this basis,emotional relationships will be established between consumers and brands.Park(2016)pointed out that only highly integrated customers will form interaction with the brand and continue to follow and share the brand's information.Therefore,it is very important for cross-border e-commerce platform companies to improve the degree of customer integration into the brand.This article uses a theoretical model to explore the internal mechanism of brand integration to help companies seek target consumers and strengthen the relationship between existing consumers,so as to obtain and enhance the degree of consumer integration and enhance the relationship between consumer and brand awareness,emotions and behaviors.Thirdly,it provides theoretical supplements to the differences in consumers' perception of information quality around different self-constructed types.Considering the heterogeneity of consumers,this paper explores the moderating effects of usergenerated content quality on physical cognition and social presence in an independent self-constructed context.The empirical test solves the following two problems: one is that the independent self-construction negatively regulates the relationship between the quality of user-generated content information and embodied cognition;the other is that the independent self-construction negatively regulates the quality of user-generated content interaction and social presence relationship.That is to say,this article considers the differences in consumer experience,knowledge,brand associations,and personality traits.After being affected by the quality of user-generated content,the degree of establishing a virtual social presence and virtual experience is different,and different recognition is given to the brand.Knowledge and emotion,and then the degree of consumer-product relationship established are different,which further enriches the research of self-construction theory.Finally,the choice of research objects and perspectives is innovative.Most of the existing researches explore the establishment of the attachment relationship between domestic consumers and domestic brands in the digital environment,and less systematic research on the situation in the cross-border e-commerce environment.In the cross-border e-commerce environment,the emergence of new transaction models has made consumers more contact and interaction with overseas brands,lower costs,and has become the object of choice for more and more consumers.As foreign brands,foreign brands In the process of brand selection,there are larger differences in their cognitive and emotional aspects than domestic brands.Therefore,the establishment of attachment relationships between domestic consumers and overseas brands is also quite different.This article systematically studies the establishment mechanism of domestic consumers' attachment to overseas brands,and provides a new perspective for studying the "going out" of Chinese brands through cross-border e-commerce platforms.The management enlightenment of this article: Firstly,the enlightenment for crossborder e-commerce export enterprises.1)companies should pay attention to the establishment of consumer brand emotional relationships and formulate emotional marketing strategies.2)in the process of cross-border e-commerce companies,they should focus on increasing the information on product or brand perception experience and setting a certain situation,which will cause consumers to interact with the brand,and then increase the virtual experience and virtuality of consumers' online shopping process.Presence to promote consumer brand engagement.3)cross-border ecommerce companies should pay attention to the use of consumer-brand interactions to enhance the establishment of their emotional relationships.Finally,corporate managers should do crisis public relations for low-quality user-generated content.Secondly,the implications for cross-border e-commerce website operators.First,cross-border e-commerce websites should develop strategies to improve the quality of user-generated content information and the quality of user-generated content interactions.Second,cross-border e-commerce operators should classify and manage user-generated content according to their quality.Finally,implications for policymakers: 1)in the process of “going out” of Chinese brands through cross-border e-commerce platforms,the government and relevant policy-making departments should pay attention to guiding the company's cross-border e-commerce export model to gradually change from B2 B to B2 C and B2B2 C,so that Chinese enterprise brand information can be directly Pass on to consumers and get timely feedback from overseas consumers to form a positive interactive relationship,which will help China's cross-border e-commerce export companies to change the traditional OEM model and build their own brands.2)China should introduce corresponding preferential policies.Encourage export cross-border e-commerce companies to build their own brands.3)China should encourage universities,research institutes,and enterprises to increase scientific research on brand strategy and provide theoretical support for Chinese brands to “Go globally” through cross-border ecommerce platforms. |
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