When luxury brand rejection causes brand dilution

Integrating the social rejection and brand dilution literatures, this study investigates consumer responses to luxury brand rejection. Across four studies, the findings elaborate that a threat to the luxury brand elicits negative affective responses among consumers with high self–brand connection, while consumers with low self–brand connection are not affected. The findings explain how consumer affective responses mediate behavioral responses to luxury brand rejection causing brand dilution and further elaborate the moderating role of self-construal and the rejection source (in-group vs. out-group) respectively. Specifically, luxury brand rejection by an in-group significantly causes brand dilution than rejection by an out-group for consumers with an interdependent self-construal, while consumers with an independent self-construal only decrease their behavioral intentions when rejection is initiated by an out-group. The findings offer substantive contributions to the social rejection, brand dilution, luxury branding and self-construal theory and provide important managerial insights.