关键词: 老字号企业, 跨界创新, 感知企业创新性, 品牌态度

Abstract:     Nowadays, Chinese consumers are more enthusiastic about "supporting domestic products" and more likely to buy products designed by China. This situation has created new opportunities for the development of China′s time-honored enterprises. Time-honored enterprises have been very brilliant in the past, but in recent years, they show the signs of brand weakening or brand aging. In order to create brilliant again, many time-honored enterprises have chosen the way of crossover innovation. Therefore, it is particularly important to clarify whether the way of crossover innovation is effective, and if so, what is the internal mechanism of crossover innovation affecting consumers′ brand attitudes from different perspectives. Only by clarifying these clearly can managers help time-honored enterprises enhance brand value, increase market recognition, achieve marketing upgrade, and finally revitalize the brand vitality. 
     Some scholars discussed the classification of crossover marketing, marketing innovation and product strategy from a strategic perspective, others analyzed the relationship between marketing innovation and firm performance from a financial perspective, and only a few scholars combined crossover marketing innovation and consumer behavior to explore how the enterprises crossover′ impact on consumers′ brand attitude. Although the research on brand crossover is booming, the literature lacks in-depth understanding of brand crossover mechanism. In addition, the "old" of cultural heritage of time-honored enterprises and the "new" of crossover way form a huge contrast, which has certain uniqueness. Therefore, this study investigates the psychological mechanism and situational effect of time-honored brands′ crossover innovation on consumers′ perception. Moreover, consumers′ perception of firm innovativeness is the mediating role, the type of enterprises and brand familiarity are the moderating roles.
    Based on the degree of innovation, this study divides crossover innovation into two types: incremental innovation and radical innovation. Incremental innovation continuously expands and upgrades on the basis of existing products and marketing models. It does not cause subversive changes in products and services, but is a progressive innovation process. Radical innovation is committed to breaking the existing pattern for new attempts and challenges, often accompanied by the birth of new products. Through three experiments, the results reach the following conclusions. First of all, compared with no crossover innovation, time-honored enterprises carry out incremental innovation and radical innovation can improve consumers′ brand attitude, and perceived enterprise innovativeness plays a completely mediating role in this process. Secondly, there is an interaction effect between crossover innovation mode and enterprises′ type. That is, when single brand enterprises adopt incremental innovation strategies, or multi-brand enterprises adopt radical innovation strategies, consumers′ perceived firm innovativeness and brand attitude are more positive. Thirdly, the enhancement of consumer brand familiarity will positively regulate this process.
    This study has significant theoretical contribution. Firstly, previous research lacks empirical studies on the combination of time-honored brands′ crossover strategy and consumer behavior. In view of this situation, this study introduces crossover innovation into the research category of time-honored innovation behavior, and constructs a micro-mechanism model of how time-honored enterprises′ crossover innovation modes affect consumers′ brand attitudes. Secondly, this study proposes and verifies the mediating role of consumers′ perception of firm innovativeness in the formation of brand attitude. Thus, consumers′ perception of product innovation is extended to their perception of firm innovativeness, which improves the theoretical framework of research on crossover innovation of time-honored enterprises. Thirdly, previous studies have noted that the difference of brand type will produce different crossover influences, and the important role of cultural fit in the crossover results. However, all the above studies analyzed from the level of product and brand, ignoring the influence of enterprise type on consumers′ perception and attitude. Therefore, this study verifies the moderating effect of enterprise type and brand familiarity, which reveal the boundary conditions of crossover innovation.
     The conclusions of this research have certain references for time-honored enterprises. Firstly, time-honored enterprises should carry out different forms of innovation practice on the basis of retaining the core culture. Specifically, time-honored enterprises should maintain cultural inheritance and excavate the cultural connotation of time-honored brands to meet the consumers′ trust in the domestic products, which makes it fit with the brand′s new value proposition organically. Secondly, time-honored enterprises should keep corporate image consistent with corporate behavior when carrying out crossover innovation. That is, single brand enterprises can carry out incremental innovation, focusing on conveying innovation intention and enhancing the image of product vitality. Multi-brand enterprises carry out radical innovation and enrich crossover product categories. Thirdly, time-honored enterprises should build a three-dimensional publicity matrix with the Internet habits of young consumers. Therefore, it is particularly important to spread brand stories through new media, such as WeChat, APP and online community to improve consumers′ brand familiarity.
    As the crossover innovation of time-honored enterprises is a newly emerging phenomenon, there is still much space for academic research′s improvement. On the one hand, this study classifies crossover innovation based on the degree of innovation. In the future, we can choose more appropriate classifying methods according to research situations, such as culture, product, corporate image and other factors, so as to build a comprehensive conceptual framework for crossover innovation. On the other hand, we should also take more account of consumers′ subjective initiative in the process of innovation perception and interaction, building a two-way research system of crossover innovation between consumers and enterprises.

Key words: time-honored enterprise, crossover innovation, perceived firm innovativeness, brand attitude