Developing and Validating AFFINITY: A New Scale to Measure Consumer Affinity toward Foreign Countries

Abstract

ABSTRACT Consumers do not look at attitudinal objects (products, nations) in terms of black and white. Because conflicting attitudes exist, it is important to understand how these translate into consumer buying behavior. Our objective is to build a parsimonious affinity scale (AFFINITY) by collecting data from Thai consumers concerning their affinity and animosity toward the U.S. and Singapore. We find that affinity and animosity form different constructs and relate to different stages in the purchase decision process.