The power of controversy: prestige and power perceptions for controvesial brands

• Autor(a) principal: Marchão, Rita Barros
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/138688
• topic: Consumer behavior; Controversial brands; Compensatory consumption; Prestige; Dominance; Personal power; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

This research assesses whether controversial brands are more risk-takers, powerful and leader-like than non-controversial. Moreover, it analyses whether controversy fuels perceptions of dominance or prestige, which in turn affect purchase intentions. Drawing from compensatory consumption theory, I predict that powerless consumers show higher (vs. lower) purchase intentions from prestigious (vs. dominant) controversial brands. Through an experimental study, where controversy was manipulated, I showed that a controversial (vs. control) brand is more risk-taker, powerful and that it signals both prestige and dominance. Even though I found significant positive effects of prestige on purchase intentions, these were not moderated by personal power.