The power of triple contexts on customer-based brand performance—A comparative study of Baidu and Google from Chinese netizens’ perspective

Despite academic consensus on the concomitant power of triple contexts (country, industry and firm) for business, debates remain as to which context plays more salient a role to drive brand performance. This paper investigates how the triple contexts affect customers’ views of corporate brands and how such views impact on their assessment of brand performance (satisfaction, loyalty and perceived success). This is a comparative study of two search engines – Google and Baidu – from Chinese netizens’ perspective, based on the structural equation modeling of 2151 valid questionnaire responses. We found that the direct (firm) and indirect (country and industry) impact of triple contexts has explained 94% of the variations in netizens’ views. Comparatively, the leading local and foreign search engines have performed superbly, but significantly differently although the firm context has exerted equal impact on both firms. Rather than simultaneous impact, a chain relationship is evident toward brand performance. The findings can aid managers’ understanding of the triple-contextual relationships, their different degrees of influence on brand performance, and the comparative advantages and disadvantages of local and foreign brands in the international arena.