Who are ethnocentric? Examining consumer ethnocentrism in Chinese societies

Abstract

This study examined consumer ethnocentrism in Chinese societies and further to reveal whether more ethnocentric consumers would have higher preferences of domestic products. Multi-item CETSCALE was applied in the study. Consumer surveys were administered in Taipei, Taiwan and in Shanghai, China, using stratified sampling method following the age and gender distributions of the populations between the ages of 15 and 64 in Taipei and in Shanghai. The differences in consumer ethnocentrism from respondents in Shanghai and in Taipei are that Shanghai respondents are more ethnocentric than Taipei respondents. Furthermore, ethnocentric consumers in Shanghai believe domestic brands of mobile phones are the best choices, while ethnocentric consumers in Taipei think domestic brands of mobile phones are the second best. Ethnocentrism has a strong influence on preferences of domestic brands. Ethnocentric consumers in both cities were relatively older, with lower educational levels, and had been travelling abroad fewer times in the past 3 years. Results of this study indicated that different patterns of consumer ethnocentrism existed in sub-cultural Chinese societies.

The Role of Ethnocentrism in Higher Students Behavior to Consume: The Study of Made in China Fashion Product in Bandung

“…The attitude above is conforming to the term of nationalism attitude that stated by some researchers, such as, Cleveland et al (2009), John and Bradly (2009), and Hsu and Nien (2008 who pointed out that consumers prefer domestic products rather than foreign products.…”

“…Thus becomes an interesting variable in consumer behavior since it is adopted from the field of sociology. There are many studies that investigate the role of ethnocentrism in the context of consumer behavior, including Cleveland et al (2009), John and Brady (2009), Horn (2009), Nien Hsu (2008), and Sihombing (2005. Cleveland et al (2009) revealed that the Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendency (CET) and materialism (MAT) are very suitable for predicting the behavior of a consumer.…”

“…Research of Nien Hsu (2008) on consumer behavior in Taipei and Shanghai revealed that ethnocentrism has a strong influence on the brand selection (preference) in the country. Ethnocentric consumers in Taipei and Shanghai are the people who are relatively older, educated, and those who have traveled abroad several times in the past three years, while the respondents from Shanghai are loyal to domestic brands.…”

“…Research of Cleveland et al (2009), John and Brady (2009), Horn (2009), Nien Hsu (2008, and Maheswaran (1994) above gave an idea that ethnocentrism has a strong influence on the selection (preference) of a product, so that it can be estimated that ethnocentrism will also affect consumer perceptions on product quality and price of China-made fashion products, such influence will be negative since the ethnocentrism is an oriented attitude towards their own culture or group. Therefore the third hypothesis (H3) and fourth (H4) of this research are:…”

When Does It Pay off to Link a Brand Name to a Country?

“…Other studies have shown that socio-psychological factors including patriotism and nationalism (Vida & Fairhurst, 1999;Yelkur, Chakrabarty & Bandyopadhyay, 2006;Javalgi et al, 2005) influence consumers' ethnocentric dispositions considerably. With respect to age, it has been shown that while older shoppers are more hardened in their brand loyalty and consequently more difficult to switch to other brands, including foreign brands (Auty & Elliot, 1998), younger consumers show a stronger inclination to buy foreign products (Sharma, Shimp & Shin, 1995;O'Cass & Lim, 2002;Wang, Siu, & Hui, 2004;Hsu & Nien, 2008). Levels of education also impact attitudes to foreign goods.…”