A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Young consumers’ brand distrust model: Understanding the antecedents of young consumers’ distrust of brands
Authors: Tuominen, Jesse; Sormanen, Niina; Hietajärvi, Lauri; Luoma-aho, Vilma; Wilska, Terhi-Anna
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publishing place: NEW YORK
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Journal of Business Research
Journal name in source: Journal of Business Research
Journal acronym: J BUS RES
Article number: 115250
Volume: 190
Number of pages: 13
ISSN: 0148-2963
eISSN: 1873-7978
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115250
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115250
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/491475663
Consumer research has shown that brands benefit from consumers' trust in them. However, although consumers' distrust of brands can accordingly have harmful effects on brands, the antecedents of young consumers' brand distrust are not entirely clear. This study proposes a model for young consumer's brand distrust antecedents based on the integration of our findings and prior research. Manual coding and latent Dirichlet allocation were utilized to analyze online research panel participants' open-ended responses on what makes them distrust brands on social media. Our examination revealed several antecedents of young consumers' brand distrust in the context of social media, such as reputation issues, advertising issues, impression management, and commercial collaboration. This study significantly contributes to consumer research by addressing the understudied topic of what makes young consumers distrust brands within the social media context.
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Funding information in the publication:
This work was supported by the [The Academy of Finland] under Grant [320370] and [The Strategic Research Council] under Grant [327237].
