Urban adult Chinese consumers favour foreign products? An investigation of the effects of Country of Origin and Consumer Ethnocentrism on product preference and willingness to buy.

Since the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the „open door‟ policy, the Chinese economy has experienced rapid economic growth for over 30 years. It has now surpassed Japan as the world‟s second largest economy. (Bloomberg, 2010) Mainland China has fast developed into one of the world‟s largest consumer market. It had already proved its worth by becoming the second biggest luxury goods market, and is expected to become the largest in next five to seven years. (Boston Consulting Group, 2009) Further encouraged by Chinese central government‟s policy to stimulate domestic consumption, that is to shift from an export oriented economy into a more balanced development model, China presents a tremendous opportunity to both Chinese and foreign companies. This study is to investigate the impact of Country of Origin (COO) and Consumer Ethnocentrism (CE) on Urban Adult Chinese Consumers‟ (UACC) product preference and willingness to buy. To put it in plain terms, it will seek to clarify whether UACC prefer foreign products or Chinese products and investigate the rationale for such decision

How Offshore Outsourcing is Perceived: Why Do Some Consumers Feel More Threatened?

As globalization intensifies, multinational companies are not only compelled to expand their operations, but are also facing greater pressure to enhance productivity and concomitant return on investment (ROI). One way to achieve cost efficiencies is by offshoring selected business operations to overseas firms. Such offshoring, however, has generated public concern and, in some cases, outrage. Angst against offshoring is based on many perceptions, including perceived job losses and damage to domestic industries. In the wake of this threat, multinational firms in Europe and North America confront a public relations problem in justifying their offshoring activities. Yet, no systematic study has investigated why some consumers feel threatened by offshoring while others do not. Our study addresses this concern by using Americans as a sample. We show that economic threat and consumer ethnocentrism have a negative impact on offshoring attitudes while perceived quality of services delivered by offshore firms has a positive effect. Implications are discussed

Consumer Receptivity of Foreign Products: The Roles of Country-of-Origin Image, Consumer Ethnocentrism and Animosity

In business, the survival of a manufacturing firm is dependent upon the consumer\u27s acceptance and purchase of its products. Globalization and the accessibility of markets worldwide have expanded the potential customer base from purely domestic to include international customers. It is imperative for marketing managers to accurately assess consumer product perceptions to forecast foreign market entry acceptance and develop some form of competitive advantage that will be sustainable over the long run. Despite the apparent relevance and importance of analyzing consumer product perceptions, there is a lack of research in modeling the relationships between primary antecedents that influence consumers\u27 receptivity toward foreign products. The purpose of this dissertation is three-fold. The first objective is to carry out a thorough review of the extant literature by identifying, prioritizing and categorizing main determinants of consumer perceptions of and willingness to buy foreign products. The second goal is to develop and test a main effects model of these determinants This objective will serve as a replication of past research to provide additional validation of their findings and as an aggregate effort to test these constructs within a complex model. The third objective is to contribute to the understanding of moderated relationships among these determinants by investigating potential interactions that influence consumer perceptions and willingness to buy foreign products. Five main effects and ten interaction effects hypotheses are tested through the use of SEM measurement, path and multiple group analyses. A structural model of effects was developed to explain the consumer\u27s receptivity of foreign products and tested for goodness-of-fit. Upon its validation, the direct and moderated effects proposed by the study were tested within the model. This dissertation contributes to the marketing discipline by examining the nature of the relationships between key determinants affecting foreign product purchase and establishes order effects among these variables. It offers alternative perspectives toward the unique influences of three country-related variables, namely country-of-origin image, consumer ethnocentrism and international animosity. Instead of researching a single country of origin, this study expands the generalizability of its results by providing U.S. consumers\u27 perceptions toward products from three Asian countries that currently differ with regards to their levels of economic development

Construction of a purchase intention model based on utility theory: a study of foreign banks in Indonesia

The study develops a conceptual model of purchase intention for foreign banks operating within Indonesia based upon utility theory, to test the role and interplay of ethnocentrism, experience, animosity, country of origin, and trust upon purchase intentions. Findings demonstrate the conceptualized and modelled purchase intention for savings and credit card respectively, acknowledges utility theory; finds a new insight of experience; and, presents social class consciousness and self-consciousness contributions in the context of bank consumer choices

The Impact of Consumer Animosity and Consumer Ethnocentrism on Intention to Purchase Foreign Products: The Case of Chinese Branded Household Appliances in Vietnam Market

Vietnam-China bilateral relationship has sharply declined due to the recent conflicts on both economic and political affairs. On top of that, the current controversial incident regarding the East Sea issue has constantly deteriorated the connection. At this critical time when the effects of consumers’ attitude toward Chinese products could not be overlooked, the empirical study aims to investigate the impacts of Consumer Animosity and Consumer Ethnocentrism on Purchase Intention of Chinese branded merchandise with the mediating role of Consumer Judgment. Household appliance category is chosen because of the dominance of Chinese brands in Vietnam market. In addition to the assessment of Animosity effect on Purchase Intention, the research is designated to examine its antecedences, including Perceived Economic Hardship and Normative Influences as well as their influences on Animosity. Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to test the theoretical framework, analyzing the data from a sample of 349 consumers with diverse backgrounds. The results have demonstrated that only Perceived economic hardship manifest a significant impacts on Animosity. Meanwhile, Animosity and Ethnocentrism have negative relationships with both Chinese branded household appliances Judgment and Purchase Intention. Overall, the study provides specific discussion and recommendations for the Vietnam household appliances industry and at the same time points into various directions for further researches

The Influence of Religiously Motivated Consumer Boycotts on Brand Image, Loyalty and Product Judgment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to examine the in!uence of religiously motivated boycotts, such as the one conducted in Saudi Arabia against Danish companies, on corporate brand image, customer loyalty and product judgment. Despite a growing research interest in understanding the effects of different types of consumer animosities on companies’ performance, there appears to be a scarcity of studies addressing the speci"c effects of religious animosity. Religious animosity is considered as an additional type which may have more stable and longer-term impacts than other animosities on behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – The study was based on a two-stage design: an exploratory qualitative stage involving 11 in-depth interviews, followed by a more comprehensive quantitative stage designed to test a proposed theoretical model. Data was collected from Saudi customers of the Danish company Arla Foods in Saudi Arabia. Data was analysed using structural equation model (LISREL 8). Findings – The model con"rms that boycotting have strong negative impact on brand image and consumer loyalty but does not in!uence consumers’ product judgment. Practical implications – Religious boycotts have signi"cant consequences on both corporate pro"ts and brand image. The study provides clear steps for companies to combat the in!uence of religious boycotts especially in relation to brand image and customer loyalty. Originality/value – The study tested the in!uence of consumer religious boycotts on brand image and customer loyalty. Religious animosity was found to cause a more persistent boycott that negatively impacts brand image and weakens customer loyalty. However, by and large, boycotting was found not to have any signi"cant impact on product judgment

The Effects of Country of Origin, Consumer Ethnocentrism and Consumer Animosity on Product Preference and Willingness to Buy

This study’s primary aim is to explain Urban Adult Chinese Consumers’ preference between foreign and Chinese products. It examines how Country of Origin (COO), Consumer Ethnocentrism (CE) and Consumer Animosity (CA) influence Urban Adult Chinese Consumers’ product preference and willingness to buy. The existing knowledge is divided on this issue. By reviewing the relevant literature, it is clear that there are two completely different approaches of investigating the impact of COO on Chinese consumers. The researcher of this current study classified the two opposing methods as ‘the simplistic approach’ and ‘the cautious approach’. Studies follow ‘the simplistic approach’ firmly believe Chinese consumers overwhelmingly evaluate foreign products positively and they have a strong preference for foreign products. Research follows ‘the cautious approach’ argues that Chinese consumers’ complexity and internal differences cannot be ignored, some of them prefer Chinese products and they cannot be simply considered as in favour of foreign products. Past studies all concluded that Chinese consumers hold low to moderate level of CE beliefs. However, two investigations concluded Chinese consumers harbour strong animosity towards the Japanese. This study follows the philosophical understanding of pragmatism. The research questions are the most important factors that determine the research strategy and quantitative and qualitative methods can complement each other to address the research problem. This study employs a concurrent embedded mixed methods research strategy that consists of a street survey and semi-structured interviews. Due to the distribution pattern of the quantitative data, this study used non-parametric analysis methods including: Chi-Square Test for Independence, Spearman’s Rank Order Correlations, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis Test. The qualitative section of the investigation focuses on four issues: how Urban Adult Chinese Consumers (UACC) determine whether a product is foreign or Chinese, sources and background of animosity, the impact of domestic alternatives and areas for Chinese products to improve. This study discovered that UACC’s preference between foreign and Chinese products remain divided. They cannot be simply considered overwhelmingly in favour of foreign products or prefer Chinese products. For those UACC have a preference for foreign products, quality and design are the main two reasons. Desire to support China’s domestic industry and patriotism are the main driving forces behind some UACC’s preference of Chinese products. UACC holds low to moderate level of CE beliefs, which suggests they are worldminded consumers that capable of evaluate foreign products based on merits, without strong negative bias. UACC have strong animosity towards the Japanese, but antagonistic sentiments towards the Americans and French are relatively low. There are complex sources of animosity and this study identified a wide range of factors that contributed to UACC’s strong animosity towards the Japanese. The main area of original contribution of this study concentrates on Consumer Animosity. It discovered a wide range of sources of animosity towards the Japanese and constructed an enhanced animosity model