Purpose
This study’s main objective is to analyse the role of the consumer’s ethnocentrism as a potential
segmentation basis and to detect product origin-sensitive groups. The relationship between the
consumer’s regional ethnocentrism, local and regional identity and corresponding valuation and
purchase of food products from a region is also examined.
Design/methodology/approach The responses of 358 consumers residing in two Spanish regions are analysed by means of a mediation analysis and a cluster analysis.
Findings
The results suggest the convenience of considering ethnocentric consumer tendencies, also at
the regional level, when studying attitudes, valuation, information search and effective purchase
of foods of diverse categories and origins.
Originality
The main contributions of this work derive from the assessment of consumer ethnocentrism at
a sub-national level (which is much less present in the literature) and the evidence of its
usefulness for segmenting the market and detecting groups of origin-sensitive consumers, which
can be useful to companies that produce and market food products in different regions.publishe