How brand heritage affects consumers' brand attitudes: Evidence from Chinese time-honored brands

Brand heritage has emerged as a key driver for the revitalization of Chinese Time-honored Brands (CTHBs) amid the "Chinese Chic" trend, drawing growing attention to how it shapes consumer perceptions. Despite extensive academic exploration of brand heritage in Western contexts, existing research has largely overlooked context-specific analyses of CTHBs and failed to fully unpack the multidimensional mediating mechanisms (e.g., brand authenticity) and boundary conditions (e.g., generational differences) in the relationship between brand heritage and consumer brand attitudes. This study addresses these gaps by investigating the core factors influencing the impact of CTHBs’ brand heritage on consumers’ brand attitudes. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this research proceeded with two sequential studies: Study 1 utilized text mining of 200,000 e-commerce consumer reviews (secondary data) to test the direct relationship between brand heritage and brand attitudes; Study 2 then collected 584 valid questionnaire responses (primary data) and applied PLS-SEM to examine the mediating role of brand authenticity and the moderating effect of generations. The findings reveal three key results: 1) brand heritage of CTHBs significantly and positively impacts consumers’ brand attitudes; 2) brand authenticity—encompassing credibility, continuity, integrity, and symbolism—plays a mediating role in the aforementioned relationship; 3) generational differences moderate the effect of brand heritage on symbolism, with the positive impact weakening among younger consumers. Theoretically, this research pioneers an exploration of the interplay between brand heritage, multidimensional brand authenticity, brand attitudes, and generations in the Chinese context, extending the existing Western-centered literature. Practically, the findings provide actionable insights for CTHBs: enterprises should emphasize core brand heritage elements (e.g., longevity, core values, historical track records, symbolic use) in brand communication to enhance consumer acceptance, while tailoring strategies to cater to the differing needs of younger and older consumer groups.