Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen and Visa Penttilä
The study examines the responsibilisation of an ethnocentric consumer in commercial, meta-organisational discourses. In addition to nationalistic and patriotic discourses, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the responsibilisation of an ethnocentric consumer in commercial, meta-organisational discourses. In addition to nationalistic and patriotic discourses, the focus is on wider conceptualisations of consumer responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses critical discourse analysis as a methodological approach to conduct an empirical case study on the texts of two producer-driven labelling campaigns.
Findings
The campaign texts create possibilities for ethnocentric consumption with positioning, argumentative and classificatory discourses. Patriotic responsibilisation is emphasised, together with rationales to take action on environmental concerns.
Practical implications
The study highlights the responsibility of marketers over their corporate responsibility communication, suggesting that ethnocentric promotions may have the power to alter how consumers take action on various responsibility concerns.
Social implications
The study surfaces the tensions that responsible consumption can entail for consumers. Indeed, nationalistic and patriotic discourses may alter our understanding of responsibility issues that may seem completely separate from the concepts of nationalism and patriotism.
Originality/value
The paper shows how different organisational texts are deployed to bring about the idea of ethnocentric consumption and how this relates to responsibility discourses, nationalism and patriotism.
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Wai Jin Lee, Ian Phau and Rajat Roy
The purpose of this paper is to determine if high versus low ethnocentric consumers differ in their attitudes toward buying domestic and foreign brands of underwear that are made…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine if high versus low ethnocentric consumers differ in their attitudes toward buying domestic and foreign brands of underwear that are made domestically or in foreign countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Australian residents recruited through a mall intercept participated in this study through a self‐completed questionnaire. Fishbein's Multi‐Attribute model was used as the measure, along with repeated‐measures ANOVA and t‐tests, to examine whether the groups differed in their attitudes toward buying underwear with “Made in Australia”, “Made in the USA”, and “Made in China” labels.
Findings
The findings generally indicated that there is no significant difference between high and low ethnocentric consumers in attitude towards underwear that are made in Australia and the USA. On the other hand, high ethnocentric consumers viewed domestically made and branded underwear as more durable, easier to care for, better priced, more colourful, more attractive, more fashionable, of stronger brand name, more appropriate for occasions, and more choices of styles. Domestically‐made but foreign‐branded underwear is viewed as easier to care for and better priced.
Practical implications
The study suggests that China should improve its country image as compared to such developed nations as Australia and the USA in terms of production and manufacturing standards. The study also purports that American underwear brands with strong presence in the global fashion world that have not already established operation in Australia can consider entering the market.
Originality/value
The paper fills the gap in the ethnocentrism literature by validating the study in Australia and focusing on the attitudes of high ethnocentric (and low ethnocentric) consumers. It also examines underwear, which is a common product category in apparels but inherently deficient in the literature.
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Mark S. Rosenbaum and IpKin Anthony Wong
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the return‐on‐marketing framework and its customer equity drivers (value, brand, and relationship) can be combined with service quality…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the return‐on‐marketing framework and its customer equity drivers (value, brand, and relationship) can be combined with service quality (SERVQUAL) measures to help managers develop strategies for high‐ and low‐ethnocentric Vietnamese customers.
Design/methodology/approach
The services literature is employed to propose a framework. The structure of the framework is evaluated from data obtained from self‐administered questionnaires, which are mailed to an automobile firm's customers. To explore the moderating affect of ethnocentrism, the model's proposed relationships and fit statistics are tested by employing multi‐group comparisons (high‐ and low‐ethnocentrism) through structural equation modeling.
Findings
Ethnocentrism encourages customers to express loyalty and to spread positive word of mouth about Company X, which is a local automobile manufacturer. High‐ethnocentric customers are also less reactive to Company X's value drivers, including product quality, price, and convenience, than low‐ethnocentric customers. However, high‐ethnocentric customers place greater importance on dealership SERVQUAL than low‐ethnocentric customers.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that Southeast Asian managers should consider consumer ethnocentrism a factor that influences marketing planning, as well as ways they can use the return‐on‐marketing and SERVQUAL frameworks for strategic planning. In addition, managers should understand that ethnocentric customers counterbalance their willingness to forgo product quality with augmented expectations of dealership SERVQUAL.
Originality/value
This paper combines the product‐focused return‐on‐marketing framework with the SERVQUAL‐focused SERVQUAL framework to show how these elements influence consumers' future behavioral intentions under the moderating influence of ethnocentrism.
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Mohammadali Zolfagharian, Roberto Saldivar and Qin Sun
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism pertain to first-generation immigrants, who often identify with two or more countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism pertain to first-generation immigrants, who often identify with two or more countries.
Design/methodology/approach
After a pretest to validate the modified consumer ethnocentrism scale, the main study used a series of scenario-based experiments and compiled data from 419 members of four distinct first-generation immigrant communities.
Findings
Non-ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of economically advanced countries. Ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of their home and host countries relative to foreign products, regardless of the economic standing of foreign countries. When home and host countries represent significantly different degrees of economic advancement, both ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of the more advanced country.
Research limitations/implications
Apart from the individual effects of country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism, the interplay between the two effects can yield important insights. There are other ways to operationalize multicultural identity beyond studying first-generation immigrants. Researchers should go beyond nationality and incorporate other forces of cultural diversity.
Practical implications
For both ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric immigrants, the product that benefits from both effects is the most preferred, and the product that benefits from neither of the two effects is the least preferred. Where the product benefits from one but not the other effect, the two effects hold roughly equal power for ethnocentric consumers, but COO dominates CE for non-ethnocentric consumers.
Originality/value
The paper presents a critical evaluation and extension of the respective literatures investigating familiar constructs in multicultural settings.
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George Chryssochoidis, Athanassios Krystallis and Panagiotis Perreas
The present study using the Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale (CET‐SCALE) aims to evaluate the level of consumer ethnocentrism (CE) and its implications on their evaluation…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study using the Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale (CET‐SCALE) aims to evaluate the level of consumer ethnocentrism (CE) and its implications on their evaluation of food products. Furthermore, it seeks to examine the level at which country of origin (COO) effect is activated (country, product or attribute) per consumer cluster of different level of CE in a food evaluation context.
Design/methodology/approach
For attaining the above aims, a questionnaire was developed and completed by 274 respondents. The set of countries of origin and products under consideration encompasses Greece, Italy and Holland and yellow cheese, ham and beer.
Findings
The use of the CET‐SCALE pinpointed that the sample can be characterised as marginally ethnocentric. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses justified the uni‐dimensionality of CE. Cluster analysis allocated the sample into two clusters, the ethnocentric and the non‐ethnocentric. The results showed that ethnocentrism affects not only consumer beliefs, but also the way perceived quality of domestic and foreign products are evaluated, culminating in the appearance of COO‐effect. In ethnocentric consumers, the COO effect is activated at the initiatory level of the country a food product originates in (country‐specific), except when the foreign country of origin is given, where the COO effect is activated at the level of the product type (product‐specific). In the non‐ethnocentric cluster, COO does not lead to an overall acceptance or rejection, but instead it affects the evaluation of specific product attributes (attribute‐specific).
Research limitations/implications
The survey suffers the limitation of focusing on the influence of ethnocentric beliefs in food products evaluation and not on their real impact on final purchasing behaviour. Consumer ethnocentrism and COO effect are linked together, but the stimulus that activates their link differs according to the strength of ethnocentric beliefs held by consumers; that given, different marketing strategies should be applied depending on the level of CE of the target‐group selected.
Originality/value
Internationally, the issue of COO‐effect is comprehensively examined, yet the literature has focused almost explicitly on hi‐tech or fashion products and services. This fact attaches particular importance to the present study, which is concerned exclusively with food products.
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Mehedi Hasan Khan and Jiafei Jin
This study advances ethnocentric behaviour research by exploring its impact on individuals' work disengagement in multicultural work settings. Ethnocentrism research focused…
Abstract
Purpose
This study advances ethnocentric behaviour research by exploring its impact on individuals' work disengagement in multicultural work settings. Ethnocentrism research focused mainly on consumer ethnocentric behaviour but did not consider the role of employees’ ethnocentric behaviour in the multicultural workplace. This study aims to address this gap by utilizing social identity theory. The authors propose that ethnocentric behaviour has an impact on employee work disengagement and also affects social undermining and workplace conflict as an outcome.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used cross-sectional data (N = 326) collected from employees working for Chinese multinational firms in Bangladesh. The authors used Likert-type scale to collect data. To check the hypothesis, the authors employed Hayes' PROCESS macro 4.0v.
Findings
The authors found that employee ethnocentric behaviour positively impacts workers' work disengagement. Ethnocentric behaviour positively affects social undermining and workplace conflict, whereas social undermining and workplace conflict partially mediate the indirect effects of ethnocentrism on work disengagement. The authors also found that core self-evaluation (CSE) weakens the indirect impact of ethnocentrism on work disengagement through social undermining and workplace conflict.
Practical implications
The authors recommend that organizations recruit employees with positive CSE and provide cultural sensitivity training to reduce ethnocentrism in the culturally diverse workplace.
Originality/value
This study is a unique effort to examine the influence of employees’ ethnocentric conduct by employing social identity theory in the emerging economy subsidiaries of multinational businesses operating in developing countries. This study also addressed the moderating effect of employees' CSE. This adds a unique dimension to ethnocentrism and employee work disengagement research. The authors have also discussed the future research avenue, theoretical and practical implications in detail.
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Alexander Josiassen, A. George Assaf and Ingo O. Karpen
The purpose of this paper is to clarify how demographic consumer characteristics influence and interact with consumer ethnocentrism on willingness to buy. The authors analyze the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify how demographic consumer characteristics influence and interact with consumer ethnocentrism on willingness to buy. The authors analyze the direct effects of selected characteristics on the tendency for consumer ethnocentrism. Further, the moderating effects of these consumer characteristics are investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from 361 consumers in Australia. Data analysis was conducted using regression analysis with interactions and post hoc slope analysis.
Findings
The empirical findings show that consumer tendencies for ethnocentrism are directly influenced by characteristics of the customer. The authors also find that the strength of the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and willingness to buy is influenced by customer characteristics. Specifically, age and gender are found to be important moderators of the consumer ethnocentrism‐willingness to buy relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the study should be interpreted in view of certain limitations. For theory‐testing purposes, the study tests hypotheses in a particular context: Australian consumers. Consequently, caution is necessary in extrapolating the results to other national contexts.
Practical implications
On the one hand, the results provide managers with a detailed understanding of which customer groups are the most consumer ethnocentric. On the other hand, the results provide an understanding of which customer groups have the strongest consumer ethnocentrism‐willingness to buy link. These findings can be used to allocate resources to marketing.
Originality/value
Marketing researchers show that consumers rely on different cues and make different decisions depending on their tendency for consumer ethnocentrism. Academic research has also discovered important differences in the cognitive processes and behavior depending on demographic characteristics. However, there are competing views in the literature as to how these fundamental consumer characteristics influence and interact with consumer ethnocentrism. This study further clarifies the role of demographic consumer characteristics.
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Rajasekhara Mouly Potluri, Sophia Johnson and Premila Koppalakrishnan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethnocentric tendencies of Emirati Gen Z consumers and to provide empirical evidence on how demographic variables (gender and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethnocentric tendencies of Emirati Gen Z consumers and to provide empirical evidence on how demographic variables (gender and education) influence ethnocentric tendencies. The study also attempts to know the impact of ethnocentrism on the buying behavior of the segment.
Design/methodology/approach
Researchers collected the opinions of 310 Emirati Gen Z consumers by using a modified CETSCALE. The data was reviewed and coded by applying software R Studio and Microsoft Excel. Cronbach’s α and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) tests were administered to check the internal consistency and validity of the 17-item CETSCALE. Then, the factor extraction method principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the data. The selected hypotheses were tested by using the Cronbach α and Kruskal–Wallis (K-W) hypothesis testing technique.
Findings
The findings suggest that Emirati Gen Z consumers substantially ethnocentric who prefer domestic products/services over foreign goods. No significant influence of gender and education on Emirati Gen Z consumers’ ethnocentric tendencies.
Research limitations/implications
The targeted subjects were selected only from Dubai and the Sharjah Emirates and not covered the remaining five emirates of the UAE. Consumers were asked to assess their ethnocentrism without reference to a specific product or service.
Originality/value
This type of meticulous study in the UAE has never been done before to explore the ethnocentric tendencies of Gen Z consumers.
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Zafar Ahmed, Rosdin Anang, Nor Othman and Murali Sambasivan
The main purpose of this research is to empirically test how animosity, religiosity, and ethnocentrism interact to affect judgment about US products and purchase action of…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this research is to empirically test how animosity, religiosity, and ethnocentrism interact to affect judgment about US products and purchase action of consumers in a progressive Islamic country like Malaysia. There are many studies that have been conducted in conservative Islamic countries such as Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Design/methodology/approach
The product chosen for this research is US fast food restaurants. A questionnaire was constructed and responses were obtained from 410 Malaysian consumers from different ethnic backgrounds. The authors tested the framework using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
Based on the test results, the authors conclude the following significant relationships: animosity on purchase action of consumers, ethnocentric tendencies on animosity of consumers, religiosity on ethnocentric tendencies of consumers, religiosity on animosity of consumers, ethnocentric tendencies of consumers on judgment of foreign product, foreign product judgment of consumers on purchase action, and animosity and ethnocentrism play mediating roles.
Originality/value
The current study adds significantly to the body of knowledge on consumer behavior, especially the roles of animosity, religiosity, and ethnocentrism. The findings can help marketing managers to formulate appropriate strategies when consumers decide to boycott US products.
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This study aims to investigate consumer ethnocentrism and determine its impact on actual purchasing behavior in relation to six product categories. It also examines the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate consumer ethnocentrism and determine its impact on actual purchasing behavior in relation to six product categories. It also examines the role of demographic variables as moderators in the relationship between ethnocentric tendencies and purchasing behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 467 completed questionnaires were obtained through convenience and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 and AMOS-23 software: SPSS to conduct the exploratory factor analysis and AMOS for the confirmatory factor analysis. Regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of ethnocentrism on purchasing behaviors; the SPSS process was used to test the moderating effects.
Findings
The consumer ethnocentric tendencies scale was collected in two dimensions: hard ethnocentrism, which influences actual purchasing behavior in five product categories; and soft ethnocentrism, which influences actual purchasing behavior in only two product categories. The results show that the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on purchasing behavior differs across product categories. Further, gender, marital status and personal income moderate this relationship.
Originality/value
Few studies investigate purchasing behavior across several product categories and the literature on consumer ethnocentrism does not address the impact of demographic variables as moderators in consumer behavior. This study contributes to the existing literature in four ways. First, it was conducted in Azerbaijan, a country with specific characteristics. Second, it examines the impact of ethnocentric tendencies on actual purchasing behavior. Third, it examines purchasing behavior in relation to six different product categories. Fourth, the moderating effect of demographic variables was tested.