As motivated by Venkatesh et al. (2000), this dissertation first defines "a successful co-branding" as "the successful formation of a co-branding alliance" and relates the success to the shift-in preference, the preference change between the allying brands. Then, a top-down approach is applied to analyze the rationale of preference change on the attitude and belief levels. We develop a conceptual model to systematically illustrate attitudinal changes in co-branding, and adapt the Venkatesh et al. (2000) model to examine the influence of belief revision on the necessary condition of a successful co-branding (i.e., a sufficient amount of required expansion for the partnering brands). Finally, we provide a numerical experiment to investigate the existence of an ideal situation that can ensure the success.

We find that consumers' belief revisions of the allying brands may affect the allying brands (partnering firms)' intentions to cooperate with each other. Besides, we claim that - in order to achieve success - it is better for the allying brands to be equivalent in terms of their resource endowments, namely brand reputation, customer loyalty, and customer confusions. The present study has three distinct contributions to the field of co-branding. First, we advance existing knowledge by relating the success of co-branding partnerships to consumer evaluations. Secondly, to our knowledge we are the first to utilize the expectancy-value model to show that the reciprocal effect may exist on the belief level. Finally, we provide a detailed and chronological review on the findings regarding the success factors of co-branding.