空间距离、内群体边界与近乡区域品牌偏好

Spatial Distance,In-Group Boundary,and Preference for the Place Brands from Hometown Adjacent Areas

在快速城镇化现代化推动人口大规模流动的今天,乡愁成为亿万人的情感共鸣。那么乡愁之“乡”到底有多大?何种情境会使得“乡”的边界扩大并影响消费者内群体偏好行为?基于社会认同理论和解释水平理论,本研究从家乡概念的动态视角,通过三个实验探究了消费者离家空间距离对其家乡内群体边界扩展和“近乡”区域品牌偏好的影响。结果发现,相对于离家空间距离近的消费者,离家空间距离远的消费者内群体边界扩展程度更高,即更倾向于把与家乡相邻的区域(简称“近乡”)纳入更广泛的家乡概念中,从而增加对近乡区域品牌的偏好程度;区域文化差异性会调节消费者离家空间距离与其内群体边界扩展的关系,即当消费者感知到近乡区域文化与其家乡文化存在显著差异时,离家空间距离对内群体边界扩展的促进作用会减弱,进而抑制消费者对近乡区域品牌偏好的距离效应。研究结论补充了有关家乡身份建构和群体身份延展性的研究,丰富了区域品牌和区域文化的消费行为研究,并且为区域品牌市场容量扩张和区域文化营销提供了重要的实践启示。

With large-scale population mobility driven by rapid urbanization and modernization,homesickness has become the emotional resonance of millions of people.Exiting research found that the attachment to home prompted people who are away from home to consume products and services related to their hometown.But little attention is paid to whether the influence of attachment to home would extend to the preference for the brands from adjacent areas of hometown.This is because previous cultural studies and identity studies mostly regarded hometown as a static and enduring concept,which is not exactly the truth.Some studies prompt that consumers driven by sufficient motivation were more likely to evaluate favorably and prefer brands associated with a related cultural group,what kind of other situations will make the boundary of“home”expand and affect the pro-in-group behavior of consumers?Based on the construal level theory,the current research holds that consumers spatial distance from home makes people construct different level mindset about home concept.Therefore,we propose that compared with consumers who are close to home,consumers who are far away from home are more likely to expand their in-group boundaries to include adjacent areas within a broader concept of home,which prompts consumers preference for the place brands from adjacent areas of hometown.In addition,we propose that regional cultural distinctiveness shrinks the distance effect of consumers in-group boundary expansion.In order to verify the hypothesis above,three experiments studies have been conducted in this research.Experimental study 1 is a single-factor experimental design of 2 groups(spatial distance from home:close to home vs.far away from home).Data analysis shows that participants who are far away from home had significantly higher willingness to purchase and recommend the place brand from the hometown adjacent area than participants who are close to home.Experimental study 2 is also a single-factor experimental design of 2 groups(spatial distance from home:close to home vs.far away from home).Data analysis shows that consumers spatial distance from home affect place brand evaluation through the mediator of the expansion of in-group boundaries.Participants who are further away from home show a higher degree of in-group boundary expansion by identifying a broader concept of home,and are more likely to evaluate favorably place brand from the hometown adjacent area rather than from the remote area.Experimental study 3 is a between group experimental design of 2(spatial distance from home:close to home vs.far away from home)×2(regional cultural distinctiveness:high vs.low).Data analysis shows that the effects of consumers spatial distance from home on consumers in-group boundary expansion and preference for place brand from hometown adjacent area are moderated by regional cultural distinctiveness.When adjacent regional culture is highly distinctive with participants original culture,the distance effect will be diluted.The above three experiments in this research measured place brand preference by using different variables(willingness to purchase,willingness to recommend and brand evaluation),identified“hometown”and“adjacent area of hometown”at different spatial scales(within and across provinces),which provided a robust support for the relationship between the spatial distance from home and consumers preference for the place brand of hometown adjacent areas.This research contributes to complementing the research on the construction of home identity and the malleability of group identity by exploring the effect of spatial distance from home on consumers in-group boundary expansion,enriching the research on the consumption behavior of place brands by focusing on consumers preference for the place brands from hometown adjacent areas,and expanding the marketing research of regional culture by indicating the moderating role of regional cultural distinctiveness.According to the research conclusions,this paper puts forward pertinent and practical suggestions.Firstly,companies that operate place brands could preferentially select distant regions as the target market to expand market capacity.In addition,if place brand managers were running the distinct marketing area,they should have positioned products origin at a higher level of spatial scale to activate the in-group identification of consumers who come from the adjacent areas of the products origin.Secondly,place brand managers should make full use of the“fellow-townsman”network community marketing channels.Finally,place brands should fully consider the geographical attributes of culture and shape the malleability of regional culture in the process of spreading regional culture.