Arab Spring and Jordanian Consumers' Animosity Toward Foreign Products: What Managers Need to Know

The recent democratization movement across the region of Middle-East and North-Africa, popularly known as the “Arab Spring”, is likely to have far reaching consequences for business, economic and political environments of the Arab countries. Focusing on Jordan as a proxy for the Arab region and Britain for the West, this paper examines how Jordanian people view British products. Since granting independence to Jordan in 1946, Britain has maintained close diplomatic, political, and trade relationship with its former colony. Based on empirical data, this paper analyzes how different segments within the Jordanian society perceive Britain and its products. The findings indicate that Jordanians do harbor animosity toward Britain and its products, which consequently, result in their unwillingness to purchase British products. The findings further indicate that such animosity is affected by geographical location, educational level, and the extent of xenophobia that people harbor. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of the findings in the light of the Arab Spring and makes necessary recommendations for both practitioners and researchers

Arabia versus Persia: Is This What the Arab Spring Ended with?

The sectarian violence in the Middle East has changed the face of the Arab Uprisings and has extended violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims to a wider scale. The current investigation explores economic and social implications of the Sunni-Shiite Muslim tension and competition to control the Middle East. The study aims to examine the influence of demographic and socio-physiological variables on feelings of animosity Arabs express towards Iran and purchasing Iranian products. The research design is quantitative. Data were collected from 108 Arab Sunni Muslim Jordanians who live in the capital of Jordan, Amman and the northern Irbid city over a period of 4 weeks, June, 2014. The results showed that younger Jordanians and Jordanians who express high level of internationalism hold less feelings of animosity against Iran than their other counterparts. Also, it was found that Jordanians’ feelings of animosity towards Iran have been translated into unwillingness to purchase Iranian products. Limitations of this research overall are related to employing a convenience sample and the relatively small sample size. Feelings of animosity Arab express toward Iran are not alarmingly high, nonetheless, such negative feelings should not be ignored by neither Iranian global marketers nor by Arab local marketers. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is a death of studies that explored the social and business implications of the current Arab Spring events

Personality traits, consumer animosity, and foreign product avoidance: The moderating role of individual cultural characteristics

Although personality and cultural traits were found to be important predictors or moderators of consumer attitudes and behavior, their relationship to consumer animosity has not yet been studied. This article reports the findings of a study conducted among 606 Ukrainian consumers, aiming to identify personality drivers and behavioral outcomes of consumer animosity, as well as the moderating role of cultural characteristics. Structural equation modeling revealed that extraversion and conscientiousness have a negative effect on consumer animosity, while neuroticism and openness are positively associated with this feeling. However, no significant relationship was observed between animosity and agreeableness. In turn, consumer animosity was found to influence product avoidance, with this association becoming stronger in the case of consumers with higher levels of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, and masculinity. The study also showed that male and educated consumers are more likely to harbor animosity toward a hostility-evoking country, while age and income had no control effect on animosity. Several implications for theory and practice are derived from the study findings, and directions for future research are provided

An investigation into consumer ethnocentrism and product country images amongst young Jordanians

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