How country of origin, consumer ethnocentrism and consumer xenocentrism impact upon risk and involvement in the malaria medication decision making process in Tanzania
The aim of this study was to examine how Country of Origin, Consumer Ethnocentrism and Consumer Xenocentrism impact upon risk and involvement in the malaria medication decision making processes in Tanzania. An exploratory research design was adopted which helped to discover ideas and insights underlying consumers’ decisions on malaria medication. The inductive research approach was adopted which helped to get a deep understanding of the underlying factors that influenced consumers in decision making when seeking malaria medication in Tanzania. Non-probability sampling specifically purposive sampling was used to select the participants in this study; clinical officers, laboratory technician, traditional medical practitioners, Tanzania Food and Drug Authority (TFDA) key informants and consumers.The findings from the study revealed that consumers have good knowledge on the causes and treatment of malaria disease. However, consumers were shown to differ in making the decision on malaria medication based on availability, affordability, performance and quality of the malaria medication. Risk in the consumption of the anti-malarial remedies influenced some consumers to be highly involved in making the decision, especially when purchasing anti-malarial remedies. The level of involvement was determined by opinion leaders, self-decision making and past experiences. Country of Origin, Consumer Ethnocentrism, Consumer Xenocentrism and product knowledge were found to be the strategies used by consumers to evaluate anti-malarial remedies in order to reduce risk.The findings of this study are expected to provide health professional bodies with knowledge about the decision making process consumers’ use while purchasing anti-malarial remedies. This will help them to boost the standard of the different domestic medical products and hence increase ethnocentric tendencies among Tanzanian consumers. Also the findings are expected to provide useful knowledge to policy makers such as TFDA and government in general which will help them to have a productive conversation with traditional medical practitioners about how the traditional medicines are produced. Hence more research could be undertaken to find out the efficacy and standards of the traditional medicines. In addition, these findings are expected to educate Tanzanian consumers on the consequences of applying self-medication in treating malaria
