Rediscovering Australian brands : the roles of categorization theory and confirmation bias on country of ownership cues

The study examines the effect of country of ownership cues, economic nationalistic and consumer ethnocentric tendencies with regards to product judgments and purchase intentions of Australian wines with multi country affiliations. To test the research model, a specific scale to measure and conceptualise economic nationalistic tendencies (CENTSCALE) was developed and a new construct “consumer willingness to buy hybrid products” was created

Understanding consumer economic nationalism: construction and validation of the CENTSCALE

Economic nationalism has been identified as a critical component of nationalistic sentiment, influencing cognitions, attitudes, evaluation and purchase intentions. While a distinction is made between economic nationalism and other measures of national and international orientation (ie. consumer ethnocentrism), previous empirical studies explore the concept in a ?unified? form. This study bridges this gap by developing a scale specifically tailored to measure consumer economic nationalistic tendencies. Scale generation, purification, validation and confirmation are achieved through five studies

Scale development: consumer economic nationalistic tendencies (CENTSCALE)

Economic nationalism has been identified as a critical component of nationalistic sentiment, influencing cognitions, attitudes, evaluation and purchase intentions. This study develops a scale specifically tailored to measure consumer economic nationalistic tendencies. Scale generation, purification, validation and confirmation are achieved through four studies

Effects of "Owned By" versus "Made In" for Willingness to Buy Australian Brands

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the effects of economic nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism in the form of country of origin (COO) cues specifically “Made in…” and “Owned by…” on the product judgment of bi-national wine brands (brands with multiple country affiliations). Further, the role of consumer product knowledge is examined as a moderator of these xenophobia attitudes. Design/methodology/approach – A self-administered questionnaire was designed using established scales. A convenience sample was drawn from participants attending a major wine trade exhibition in Western Australia and university students. A variety of statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. Findings – High levels of economic nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment was so strong that respondents did not want products that had any association with a foreign country, regardless of whether the products are directly or indirectly related to a foreign origin. This suggests that Australian consumers are not any more receptive to bi-national brands; as such domestic affiliations have not diluted the economic nationalistic sentiment. Further, results confirm that Australian consumers use COO cues as part of wine evaluations. Consumers with low product knowledge are likely to rely on extrinsic country cues to reinforce their brand evaluation, whereas consumers who are more knowledgeable are found to base evaluations on intrinsic attributes rather than extrinsic cues. Research limitations/implications – Only respondents from Perth, Western Australia were chosen, thus limiting the representativeness of the sample. Other cultural contexts and product categories based on a larger sample size should be investigated in the future. Practical implications – This research provides useful consumer insights and new market entry implications in terms of advertising and branding strategies for international wine manufacturers and distributors who wish to expand globally. In addition, there are managerial implications for domestic market where local retailers, merchandisers, importers can avoid importing products originating from offending countries and take on opportunity to exploit and promote “buy domestic campaigns”. Originality/value – Conceptually, this study extends the existing COO literature by (1) introducing bi-national brands into the model, (2) expanding on country of ownership appeals in evaluating bi-national brands and (3) identifying the correlation between the economic nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism constructs. Further, this research can significantly help wine marketers to develop more effective positioning strategies. It will also help in the development of pricing and promotional decisions

Conceptualising consumer economic nationalistic tendencies: scale development and validation

Economic nationalism has been identified as a critical component of nationalistic sentiment, influencing cognitions, attitudes, evaluation and purchase intentions. While a distinction is made between economic nationalism and other measures of national and international orientation (i.e. consumer ethnocentrism), previous empirical studies explore the concept in a ‘unified’ form. This study bridges this gap by developing a scale specifically tailored to measure consumer economic nationalistic tendencies. Scale generation, purification, validation and confirmation are achieved through four studies

A confirmation bias approach to country of ownership cues

This paper examines the effect of country of ownership cues, economic nationalistic and consumer ethnocentric tendencies with regards to product judgments and purchase intentions of Australian wines with multi country affiliations. Structural equation modeling supports the model and shows that economic nationalistic bias against foreign affiliations resulted in the Australian consumer’s unwillingness to buy bi-national products

The roles of Categorization Theory and confirmation bias in Australian owned brands

The paper proposes a research framework to study the influence of country of origin cues, consumer economic nationalistic and consumer ethnocentric tendencies toward product judgement of and the willingness to buy Australian brands. Categorization theory, confirmation bias and schema congruity principles form the theoretical bases. Both consumer economic nationalistic and consumer ethnocentric tendencies are separate constructs however are correlated. Symbolic and functional brand concepts are anticipated to reflect consumer schematic tendencies. Consumer knowledge is proposed to moderate the relationship between these cues and consumer's willingness to buy Australian brands. The hypotheses will be tested with structural equation modeling. The main contributions of the proposed research are also delineated

Development and validation of Consumer Economic Nationalistic Tendencies Scale (CENTSCALE)

Economic nationalism has been identified as a critical component of nationalistic sentiment, influencing cognitions, attitudes, evaluation and purchase intentions. While a distinction is made between economic nationalism and other measures of national and international orientation (ie. consumer ethnocentrism), previous empirical studies explore the concept in a 'unified' form. This study bridges this gap by developing a scale specifically tailored to measure consumer economic nationalistic tendencies. Scale generation, purification, validation and confirmation are achieved through five studies

Incorporating the effects of country of ownership: a study of Australian brands

The paper proposes a research framework to study the influence of country of origin cues, consumer economic nationalistic and consumer ethnocentric tendencies toward product judgement of and the willingness to buy Australian brands. Categorization theory, confirmation bias and schema congruity principles form the theoretical bases. Both consumer economic nationalistic and consumer ethnocentric tendencies are separate constructs however are correlated. Symbolic and functional brand concepts are anticipated to reflect consumer schematic tendencies. Consumer knowledge is proposed to moderate the relationship between these cues and consumer?s willingness to buy Australian brands. The hypotheses will be tested with structural equation modelling. The main contributions of the proposed research are also delineated

Moderating role of religious beliefs on attitudes towards charities and motivation to donate

The study aims to examine the relationship between image of charitable organizations, attitudes towards charities and motivation to donate. In addition, the study will investigate the moderating effects of religious beliefs on attitudes towards charities and motivation to donate. Data is collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Trained interviewers employed a mall-intercept method in downtown Kuala Lumpur over both weekdays and weekends. The scales are adapted from established sources. It was found that religious beliefs moderates the relationship between attitudes towards charities and motivation to donate. In addition, image of charitable organizations has a positive influence on attitudes towards charities. It was also found that both image of charitable organizations and attitudes towards charities influence motivation to donate.The study is conducted within downtown Kuala Lumpur and is not generalizable across Malaysia and other countries. In addition, this study only looked at general religious beliefs, therefore findings are not specific to a religion. As a result, possible religious differences may be neglected. Lastly, the study only focused on donors and further studies need to be conducted on non-donors to further understand donation behaviour. The findings from the study provide valuable insights to charities, government bodies and policy makers as it highlights the linkages between image of charitable organizations, attitudes towards charities and the motivation to donate of past donors. Additionally, religious bodies can also use the findings to formulate communication strategies to benefit charities as well as the broader community. The study provides insights into the motivations of donors to donate to charities. More importantly, it also examines the influence of religious beliefs on donation behaviour, thus shedding insights on the opportunities for fundraising by charities