The Chinese national dairy industry has experienced a series of scandals owing to dairy firms' aggressive pursuit of profits and neglect of product quality guarantees since the 2008 melamine case. This perceived violation of trust has affected consumer perceptions of and behaviours toward the national dairy brand, which may best be resolved by facing up to the issues, enhancing the brand and building consumer relationships to regain trust in brand quality. Therefore, understanding how brand and consumer relationships affect Chinese consumers' brand trust and further influence their beliefs and intentions following a violation of trust is a key consideration for Chinese dairy firms. Through the literature review, some gaps are addressed. Few empirical works in the literature have explored the antecedents of consumer trust in brand in the context of brand/consumer relationships. In particular, very few studies have tested the antecedents of two facets of consumer trust in brand - cognitive and affective - in a single study to establish which antecedents are more relevant to these two types of trust. Moreover, there is the lasting debate on whether or not violation of trust will lead to negative consequences. Using Fournier's (1998) brand relationship quality model (BRQ) and Fishbein and Ajzen's (1980) theory of reasoned action (TRA), this dissertation investigates the impact of the constructs of brand/consumer relationships on consumers' trust in brand, and how this trust influences consumer beliefs and repurchase intentions following a violation of trust. It seeks to fill the gaps in the literature by undertaking a large-scale, face-to-face survey (400 respondents) using a structured questionnaire to gather data from the Children park; hospital; kindergarten in the first-tier Chinese cities. The data are analysed using structural equation modelling techniques to investigate causal relationships between the different latent variables.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:654434 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Zhang, Shijie |
| Publisher | University of Essex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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