 How believing in brand conspiracies shapes relationships with brandsRenaud Lunardo, Mathieu Alemany Oliver and Steven Shepherd Journal of Business Research, 2023, vol. 159, issue C Abstract: Given how widespread business-related conspiracy theories have become, this research examines how associating a brand with a conspiracy theory shapes the consumer’s relationship with that brand. Our three studies show that when consumers believe a brand is involved in a conspiracy, this belief leads them to perceive the brand as having a Machiavellian personality, which decreases their trust and purchase intentions. Furthermore, we show that when people have an external locus of control and believe their life is influenced by Powerful Others, their belief in a brand conspiracy leads them to exhibit lower purchase intentions toward that brand. Importantly, this decrease in purchase intentions among people with an external locus of control was not observed in the control condition, indicating that the moderating effect of Powerful Others occurs only when consumers believe in a conspiracy. Our findings add to the emerging marketing literature on dark brand personality. Keywords: Brand conspiracy theory; Brand Machiavellianism; Locus of control (LOC); Powerful Others; Dark brand personality (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:159:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323000875 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113729 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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