Favoritism Toward Foreign and Domestic Brands: A Comparison of Different Theoretical Explanations

Abstract

Five theoretical approaches can predict favoritism toward domestic and foreign brands. This article applies a contrastive perspective to examine social identity, personal identity, cultural identity, system justification, and categorical cognition theories and their attendant constructs. The authors propose a set of main-effects hypotheses as well as hypotheses related to both product and country moderation effects on attitudes toward and loyalty to domestic and foreign brands. They test the hypotheses on a sample of Chinese consumers with respect to salient brands from 12 product categories. The results indicate that three of the theoretical approaches examined can explain only one side of favoritism-most commonly favoritism toward domestic brands-but not favoritism toward both domestic and foreign brands. Consumer xenocentrism, a concept rooted in system justification theory, seems to provide more consistent predictions for both domestic-and foreign-brand bias.

Consumer Behavior Towards Foreign Versus Local Products and Brands: Future Research Directions

“…Various theoretical explanations of predisposition towards foreign or local products and brands have been set forth. [14] argued that predisposition is primarily explained by five relevant theories: social identity theory, personal identity theory, cultural identity theory, system justification theory, and categorical cognition theory. A discussion of these individual theories is laid out below to facilitate the author's identification of the research questions of each.…”

“…Social identity theory provides that in-group favoritism emerges from the intrinsic need to maintain a positive social identity and positively differentiate the in-group from outgroups [14]. Consumer ethnocentrism (CET) is the predominant construct of this theory.…”

“…Social identity theory, in contrast, centers on groups and intergroup aspects of behavior. Personal identity theory explains that consumers align their behavior with their role (identity) to avoid incongruence between their identity and their perceptions at the hands of others [14]. Each desires a personal identity with which to build their status and establish their roles in life, and possessing or consuming certain products and brands is a means of developing such an identity.…”

“…Consumer cosmopolitanism is a consumer orientation governing the extent to which consumers are open-minded towards foreign countries and cultures [14]. Consumers with a strong orientation towards cosmopolitanism exhibit a greater willingness to buy foreign products and brands than domestic ones.…”

“…It explains how individuals identify themselves as local or global citizens. This theory can be situated between the above theories of personal and social identity as it involves both group and individual identities [14]. Consumer attitudes toward foreign vs local products and brands have received constant attention from international marketing researchers seeking to explain global vs local consumer cultures.…”